When Google bought Motorola, no one expected them to start making Motorola phones in the United States, but that’s exactly what they announced with the Moto X. When you order a custom Moto X, a team in Texas builds that phone and then ships it to your house. Today, Google has announced that that they’ve put the insides of that Motorola factory on Google street view, for those of you who are curious to see what the inside of a smartphone plant looks like.
In related news, the CEO of Motorola, Dennis Woodside, told Reuters that the Texas factory is spitting out 100,000 units per week. Considering that the Moto X went on sale on AT&T in late August, that means less than half a million units have shipped so far.
Does that mean the Moto X isn’t a success? No one really knows what Google’s internal benchmark is for “success”, so it’s really hard to say. As someone who doesn’t live in the United States, I’m a bit upset that I can’t go out and buy this phone, but I think Google took that into account when planning the Moto X.
Start small, then get bigger.