Motorola was the first company to bring consumers the cellular phone, the flip phone and a really, really thin feature phone. Now we want to radically transform the mobile industry once again by making quality smartphones that can do great things available to practically everyone.

For a long time, touchless voice control was considered the holy grail of mobile devices. We knew it would make the experience on our phones irresistible—for our users driving in the car, cooking in the kitchen, glued to the TV watching that last episode of Breaking Bad—or whatever other reason you have for not wanting to pick up your phone.

Today we were very happy to welcome Mayor Rahm Emanuel and local community and business leaders as we publicly unveiled our new global headquarters in downtown Chicago, ushering in a new chapter in Motorola’s transformation.

This is a homecoming for us. Nearly 90 years ago, our story began as Galvin Manufacturing Corporation at 847 West Harrison Street in Chicago. We were downtown until 1976, when we moved our headquarters to the suburbs, where it stayed for nearly forty years.

Now our story has come full circle. We believe that there’s no better place to stay at the forefront of innovation than in a thriving global hub like Chicago -- a city that has become the epicenter of a technology renaissance.

Located inside the historic Merchandise Mart alongside the Chicago River, the new headquarters encompasses more than 600,000 square feet, including 75,000 square feet of dedicated lab space, making it one of the premiere R&D and prototyping facilities in the world. The office is home to nearly 2,000 Motorolans and is within a mile of 71 of the top 100 digital companies in Chicago. At the Mart, our neighbors include the tech startup incubator 1871, advertising and creative agencies and more, creating opportunities for chance encounters and collaboration.

The office pays homage to our Chicago roots while also reflecting a thoroughly modern approach to collaboration. In addition to the best-in-class engineering labs, the space also features nine microkitchens designed in different themes, shared workspaces, a game room for when a little recharging is needed, a rooftop plaza and more.

Our move to downtown Chicago has been more than a year in the making. It took a lot of work by a lot of people, and a great deal of patience and understanding from employees, many of whom have built lives and raised families in northern Illinois. I appreciate all the support.

As we look ahead to the future, we have a clear vision for our company and we’re proud to be back in sweet home Chicago. A truly global city for a global company.

Rick Osterloh


For images and b-roll click here.

Here’s a not-so-secret, early Easter egg for you: This week, we’re celebrating 50 app updates since we released Moto X!

We’re excited to announce that Rick Osterloh has been named as President and COO of Motorola Mobility. Rick will assume the role today, reporting to the Motorola Operating Board at Google until the Lenovo acquisition is complete.

Rick is a Silicon Valley veteran and a familiar face across Motorola, where he has been leading all product management and helping to define the ‘go forward’ strategy for the past two years. Rick first joined the company 7 years ago when Motorola acquired Good, and he started Motorola down the Android path while managing product and engineering teams. Between stints here, Rick joined Skype, where he oversaw design and product for more than 250 million monthly users until it was acquired by Microsoft.

Since his return, Rick’s had a key role in the company’s reinvigoration. He’s been a guiding visionary on the entire product front and a passionate advocate for our philosophy to focus everything we do on the consumer experience.

I believe that Rick’s appointment provides the focused leadership and business continuity needed to steer the organization into the future, and I look forward to continuing in my role as Google liaison and advisor to Motorola through the transition period supporting Rick.


Sincerely,
Jonathan Rosenberg

We strive to design beautiful products that people love. After all, consumers are our most important jury. But we appreciate it when that work is recognized within the design community as well. This year, Motorola received an unprecedented four ‘Red Dot’ Design Awards for several of our latest products, including Moto X and three of our Bluetooth-enabled devices, the Motorola Roadster Pro automotive speaker and the Motorola Whisper and Motorola Sliver II headsets.

Red Dot is an international design competition that’s been around since 1954. Each year, products are judged by a group of design experts and winners are selected based on their ability to exemplify the highest level of design in innovation and execution.

The Red Dot awards validate all the time and effort our Consumer Experience Design team puts into making sure our products look and feel great and are a pleasure to use. Design has always been central to Motorola, and we’re proud to have a tradition of iconic products that extend back through the RAZR flip phone, the StarTAC (the original “flip phone”) and all the way back to the DynaTAC. That same spirit is guiding the design of our current products, like the ones honored by Red Dot, and upcoming ones like Moto 360. It’s an honor for our design team to be recognized in such elite company.