Over the last six months, our MAKEwithMOTO team took Sticky, a truck wrapped entirely in velcro and filled with rooted, hackable Motorola smartphones and high-end 3D printing equipment, across the country for a series of make-a-thons. On that trip we saw the first signs of a new, open hardware ecosystem made possible by advances in additive manufacturing and access to the powerful computational capabilities of modern smartphones. These included new devices and applications that we could never have imagined from inside our own labs. Open fuels innovation. See some examples here, here, and here.

After the trip, we asked ourselves, how do we bring the benefits of an open hardware ecosystem to 6 billion people?

Meet Ara.

Led by Motorola’s Advanced Technology and Projects group, Project Ara is developing a free, open hardware platform for creating highly modular smartphones. We want to do for hardware what the Android platform has done for software: create a vibrant third-party developer ecosystem, lower the barriers to entry, increase the pace of innovation, and substantially compress development timelines.

Our goal is to drive a more thoughtful, expressive, and open relationship between users, developers, and their phones. To give you the power to decide what your phone does, how it looks, where and what it’s made of, how much it costs, and how long you’ll keep it.

Here’s a sneak peek at early designs for Project Ara:

The design for Project Ara consists of what we call an endoskeleton (endo) and modules.  The endo is the structural frame that holds all the modules in place. A module can be anything, from a new application processor to a new display or keyboard, an extra battery, a pulse oximeter--or something not yet thought of!

We’ve been working on Project Ara for over a year. Recently, we met Dave Hakkens, the creator of Phonebloks. Turns out we share a common vision: to develop a phone platform that is modular, open, customizable, and made for the entire world. We’ve done deep technical work. Dave created a community. The power of open requires both.  So we will be working on Project Ara in the open, engaging with the Phonebloks community throughout our development process, as well as asking questions to our Project Ara research scouts (volunteers interested in helping us learn about how people make choices). In a few months, we will also send an invitation to developers to start creating modules for the Ara platform (to spice it up a bit, there might be prizes!). We anticipate an alpha release of the Module Developer’s Kit (MDK) sometime this winter.

So stay tuned. There will be a lot more coming from us in the next few months.

--Paul Eremenko, and the Motorola Advanced Technology and Projects group, Project Ara Team

At Motorola, the kinds of things we obsess over are answering real people’s needs and unlocking the power of personal, customized interactions.

Then we got to thinking: Why should we stop at device experiences?

So we’re rolling out a new social experiment to take customer support to a completely new level: the Moto Tweet Fleet. It’s a roving troupe of Motorola ambassadors that leverages public hyper-local data on Twitter to rush to your rescue in real time when you need help.

We’ve all been there: Your battery is dead. You’re lost and frustrated. You’re hungry and cranky. Whatever it is, the friendly fleet is ready to come give a hand. While you’re with the fleet, you can even meet our new Moto X and customize your own using the Moto Maker online studio.

Oh, and did we mention swag? We’ve partnered with smart USA to deck out the fleet with stylish smart cars, from which ambassadors hand out Sol Republic headphones and other Motorola accessories to lucky passersby. What could be better to pair with a fully customizable Moto X and accessories than a customizable smart car?

We’re starting with a beta program in neighborhoods throughout New York City and hope to expand to Chicago next. If you’re in New York, all you have to do is tweet at @MotoTweetFleet between 11 a.m. ET and 7 p.m. ET daily. See you out there.

There are 150 million smartphones in the USA. Until Moto X, not one of them was made here.

When we set out to make Moto X, we asked ourselves, why?

Conventional wisdom said it wasn’t possible. Experts said that costs are too high in the US; that the US has lost its manufacturing capability; and that the US labor force is too inflexible. And it’s true that most manufacturing in the consumer electronics industry moved offshore over a decade ago.

One year ago, we chose to believe differently. We chose to be optimistic about the future of manufacturing in America. Not because making our flagship product here in the US is the easy thing to do, but because it’s the right thing to do.

People called us crazy. But we quickly realized that it's not economics that prevents consumer electronics companies from making things locally. It's lack of imagination and vision.

First, the economics have changed. It’s not that much more expensive to make a phone here than in Asia.

Second, innovation is an iterative process of redesigning and refining. That process becomes much easier when the people designing the products are near to the people building them.

Third, consumers have changed. Some want to participate in the design of their device so they can reflect their personal style, and that’s much harder if your manufacturing is overseas. Others want a locally built product and want to know they are supporting local jobs.

But there is a larger reason that ultimately motivated us to assemble Moto X here in the US.

Producing Moto X locally helps bring innovation back home, which is essential to the economic health of the US. It provides jobs and helps maintain technical skills that would otherwise be lost. It’s also true to our nature. We’re makers, and we should continue to be makers.

So, today we’re celebrating the official launch of the manufacturing facility in Fort Worth, Texas, that builds every Moto X sold in the US. Some said it couldn’t be done, but the factory we just opened and the people working there are proof that it could. We’ve created more than 2,000 jobs in Fort Worth in less than four months, and we’re still hiring.

I couldn’t be more proud of the work our team has done.

We think people will be proud to carry a phone that’s built in the US. And now they have that choice.

--Dennis Woodside, CEO, Motorola





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Moto X: New Ads, New Availability and Moto Match

Does this look familiar?


See more Lazy Phone ads for Active Display and Quick Capture.

Moto Maker, our Moto X design studio, is now officially open for online orders for AT&T customers! For the first time ever, you’re in the driver’s seat when it comes to designing your own phone in just a few clicks. When you’re finished we ship it directly to you, ready to go.

You want options? We’ve got options. You pick the colors, and decide on the all details: the front, back, accents, memory, wallpapers, accessories -- you can even include your Google ID and we’ll load all of your account information for you in advance. Then, every custom phone is made to order in Ft. Worth, Texas and shipped to you for free.

Learn more about Moto X, design your own and share your masterpiece with family and friends at Motorola.com/motomaker.

It’s been quite a journey, but we’re finally here. Starting tomorrow, August 23, your Moto X is available for purchase at all AT&T stores.

Moto X responds to your voice so you can check the weather, get directions, or do just about anything without lifting a finger. Two quick twists of your wrist and Moto X’s camera is ready to go, so you won’t miss a shot. With the best of Google services baked right in, Moto X helps you get everyday tasks done quickly and easily. And every Moto X sold in the USA is assembled right here in the USA.

Moto X is also the first smartphone designed by you. You can go into an AT&T store and choose from woven black or woven white models to take home right away, or select the customization option and create a phone that’s uniquely yours. Then just log onto Moto Maker to design your phone and complete your order online.

Very soon, you’ll be able to order Moto X directly online through Moto Maker. To see what’s possible, Moto Maker will open tomorrow for everyone to explore options and get inspiration.

Customizing your Moto X is simple and fun -- there are thousands of potential combinations to choose from. We’ll build it to order in Fort Worth, Texas, and ship it right to you. And for a limited time, we’ll be including Motorola Skip for free in all orders of the customized Moto X. Skip is a thin, thumb-sized clip that pairs with your Moto X and unlocks it with a simple tap.

We’ll be working hard to get your customized Moto X to you as quickly as possible. We expect that because of high demand, initial shipping times may vary. But we will get that down to 4 days or less as soon as we possibly can. We’ll also be adding digital printing in the future, so you can include a personal message on the back of your Moto X.

Please check with our partner AT&T for pricing and store locations. Moto X will be available through other carrier partners very soon.