motorola mobility

Google's Motorola Mobility unit has signed a deal to sell its Chinese manufacturing operations to Flextronics, which has agreed to run its Brazil facility as well.

Under the deal, announced yesterday, employees and assets will transfer to Flextronics once the deal closes, expected in the first half of 2013. The deal also calls for a manufacturing and services agreement for Android and other mobile devices between the two companies. Financial terms weren't disclosed.

The deal allows Motorola to run more efficiently under Google, which has continued to absorb the unit's losses since taking over the business earlier … Read more

Motorola Mobility will close "most" of its South Korean operations by 2013, according to a leaked internal memo.

According to the memo (in Korean), the move is part of a continued global restructuring effort by parent company Google, which bought the smartphone maker earlier this year for $12.5 billion. Since then, however, restructuring costs have bumped the overall price close to $13 billion.

The deal was proposed by Google to acquire more than 17,000 patents from Motorola, but the hefty price tag will soon be challenged in court, where the search giant may discover that … Read more

Motorola Mobility's market in Germany may be shrinking even further.

The company continues to offer few devices via its German Web site as it battles Microsoft over patent issues, according to Foss Patents' Florian Mueller. Mueller has been employed as a paid consultant by Microsoft and Oracle.

A check of Motorola's German Web pages by blog site Areamobile found only three smartphones currently up for sale -- the Razr, the Razr i, and the Gleam HD +.

A search by Mueller turned up the same results, with no other phones or tablets available online for German customers. A link … Read more

Motorola Mobility's Webtop concept, which enabled its phones to act as the brains of a laptop or television entertainment hub, has quietly been killed off, the company confirmed to CNET today.

Webtop was software that allowed a Motorola smartphone, such as the Atrix 4G for AT&T, to be docked into a special laptop accessory and run with some computer functionality such as the browser. When it was unveiled, many had called it the future of mobile computing.

Unfortunately, the execution wasn't so smooth and sales were disappointing. Motorola, a unit of Google, said today that adoption … Read more

The rumors have been confirmed, Google's Motorola Mobility is indeed acquiring the facial recognition technology company Viewdle.

"Motorola Mobility today announced that it has acquired Viewdle, a leading imaging & gesture recognition company," a Motorola spokesperson told CNET today. "Motorola and Viewdle have an existing commercial agreement and have been collaborating for some time. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed."

CNET reported on Monday that Google was about to close a deal to buy Viewdle, which is a Ukrainian maker of facial recognition technology that automatically tags photos. Apparently the acquisition had been in … Read more

Everyone knows that Apple is dealing with a firestorm of criticism over problems with its new iOS 6 Maps feature, but a new ad for Google-owned Motorola Mobility's Droid Razr may have crossed the line.

The ad, which appeared on September 21 on Motorola's Google+ site, shows a Razr alongside an iPhone 5, and reads, "Looking for 315 E 15th in Manhattan? Google Maps on Droid Razr M will get you there & not #iLost in Brooklyn."

The post shows the Razr displaying the proper address in the middle of a grid of Manhattan streets, while … Read more

After years of talk, Intel is finally making some headway into the smartphone business.

Motorola Mobility is the latest company to unveil a smartphone, the Razr i, to be powered by an Intel processor. The Razr i is essentially the recently announced Droid Razr M for Verizon Wireless, only with the different processor. It will be available in Europe and Latin America.

The Razr i is one of a handful of smartphones now running on an Intel Atom processor, further evidence that Intel is establishing a beachhead -- albeit a small one -- in the mobile arena. Intel has shrugged … Read more

As it usually does, Apple got the tech world excited this week when it introduced its new iPhone 5.

The magically, magnificent device will be an experience like no other and will provide consumers a 4-inch display and 4G LTE connectivity. In other words, stuff that Android phones have enjoyed for the better part of two years. That is, of course, unless you get a Sprint or Verizon iPhone 5 and want to use simultaneous voice and data.

In all seriousness, though, the new iPhone will be a good step forward for Apple as it does improve upon the existing … Read more

Google appears itching to get rid of the television set-top box business it inherited from the acquisition of Motorola Mobility.

The Internet search giant has hired Barclays to help it find buyers, according to Bloomberg, which cited anonymous sources and said the home business unit might fetch $2 billion.

That Google wants to sell Motorola's set-top box business and focus on smartphones isn't surprising; speculation of its desire to shed the business has popped up on numerous occasions. Google instead wants to mine Motorola's patent portfolio for a more potent legal weapon against Apple, as well as … Read more