Not All phones are the Same.

   What do you get when you add a chips delivered by a San Diego based company, that has outsourced it to a company out by the government of Abu Dhabi, a touch screen sensor made in Korea and an assembly line in Fort Wort, TX? You get the Moto X. Motorola new flagship phone although might say assembled in America, its guts however say a totally different story. About a year and a half ago, the Google subsidiary decided it would start assembly some of its phones here in the US. However, that story is incomplete, although the versatile customizable outer shell is assembled in the US, the guts, the parts that actually give the phone function as anything but American. What the production of the Motorola Moto X does do is shift the assembly of a specially marked product here to the US where customization, a first in the smartphone industry is American by nature. This newly innovative plan allows what has traditionally been reserved to the computer industry make its way to the US. Although internally, most if not all of the phones will be identical while the outside will allow consumers to customize the color and material of the outer shell. Motorola in my opinion took to big risks in the creation of this phone.

1.    It shifted assembly to the US which would raise the cost of the phone

2.    Its betting that this customization feature will be a big hit among consumers.

Personally, I would love the opportunity to customize my phone, just not the outside. The inside where all the gear and clockwork that makes a phone tick would be my preference. Don’t get me wrong, the outside aesthetics are a huge part of the phone, but I am definitely on the side of the fence that would sacrifice aesthetics for better processors. I did actually try to create one of this Moto X and I was disappointed in the limited colors and materials one could choose and pick from. With phone companies today using a variety of materials to create their products, I was disappointed in the fact that you could pick between a cheap wood based finish and plastic. However this is not a diatribe about the pros and cons of the phone, but rather Motorola big gamble to shift assembly to the US. This action definitely affects the production of cell phones around the world. If Motorola can successfully compete with other companies with this new phone in the largest smartphone market, we might start to see a shift in the assembly of cellphones around the world.