Motorola has a new device coming out, which it thinks will change the game. In a discussion at the D11 Conference, Motorola Mobility CEO Dennis Woodside said the new mobile phone, called the Moto X, will be built in the United States in a factory outside Fort Worth. The facility that the new Moto X will be built in was once used to build Nokia phones.
The new Moto phone, which is expected to have strong battery life, will also have a number of sensors and such that will provide the phone with new ways of interacting with users, such as telling them if they’re traveling faster than 60 miles an hour. A hypothetical application for the sensors, Woodside said, could be preventing you from texting while driving.
While Motorola has a long history of mobile innovation, Woodside acknowledged that the company has a way to go to bring the company back to its former glory. And so it’s looking to hire a number of new employees from other major manufacturers to build a new generation of mobile phones.
“We like to be the challenger,” Woodside said. “So we’re filling the company with people who want to transform the company into a winner.”
Motorola Mobility is owned by Google, but Woodside said that the company has no preferential treatment from its parent corp. When employees move over from Google to Motorola, they get new badges and are no longer part of the mothership. And while Woodside said Google CEO Larry Page has seen the upcoming Moto X device, he’s also seen new devices from many of Motorola Mobility’s competitors.