Motorola's new "Moto X" mobile phone will be the first smartphone manufactured in the United States of America, according to the company's CEO, Dennis Woodside at the All Things Digital Conference.
A Fort Worth, Texas, factory will produce the Moto X, yet the production facility is still owned by a Singapore contract manufacturer, Flextronics International. 2,000 people will work at the new Motorola factory.
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Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple computers, said that he too wants to find a way to manufacture his products in the United States, telling an All Things Digital host that components, such as the Corning glass for iPhones, are indeed made in America.
For many, it is hard to find a product they use, wear and sometimes eat that is made in America. Computers are made anywhere from Japan to Indonesia. Few clothing companies make their products domestically. McDonalds said on their website that they strive to use as much American beef as possible, however the Illinois company said they import a "small percentage" of beef from Australia and New Zealand.
American pride is not the only reason for Motorola to begin United States production of one of its products: "Actually assembling the phone close to home will allow us to fix things faster [and] innovate faster," Woodside said.
Scott Paul, president of the Alliance for American Manufacturing praised the effort by Motorola, remarking that "five years ago, this would have been impossible," saying that the gradual return to domestic manufacturing "could be part of a larger trend".
Governor Rick Perry, R-Texas, welcomed Motorola to the Lone Star State. The conservative leader cited the state's "strong, healthy economy, built on a foundation of low taxes, smart regulation, fair legal system a skilled workforce" as reasons that the Moto X would be successfully produced there.
Actor John Ratzenberger, known best as postman Cliff Clavin on "Cheers", once hosted a Travel Channel program in the early 2000s centered around the "pride" that American workers take in their ability to make things here at home. Ratzenberger toured numerous domestic facilities, from Pyrex to Barbasol.
In Philadelphia, faded markers of the former "Garment Square" at Broad and Lehigh Avenues denote the population of shuttered and abandoned production facilities. A short trip north, Martin Tower, the home of the former Bethlehem Steel, and the namesake city's lone skyscraper sits abandoned along Eighth Avenue, as much of the steel used today is made elsewhere and the company has long gone extinct.
The final exit on Interstate 695 on the Essex side of Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge is still noted as "Bethlehem Boulevard", though the massive manufacturing facility in that area is now instead owned by Severstal, a Russian outfit.
The same is true for much of the industrial northeastern United States and throughout the entire country, as many American manufacturing jobs have moved overseas, yet Americans still use many of the same products they did decades ago.
Motorola's senior Vice President of Supply Chain and Operations commented on this discrepancy, "[The] fact remains that more than 130 million people in the US are using smartphones, but until Moto X, none of those smartphones have been built in the USA," Mark Randall said.
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