Gadgetory

many observers present company included would argue that Motorola's beautiful moto 360 smartwatch is the most exciting tech product to be announced in years in fact I'd take it a step further as the opportunity to be the most transformational product in the most transformational product category since the smartphone that's not an overstatement every company from Apple to Google has its brightest minds trying to dream up the device that's going to finally push wearables from nerdy gadgets to must-have accessories this isn't just a hobby some kind of fad or corporate sideshow that'll pass in a year or two wearables are here to stay and whoever gets to market with the first no-compromise SmartWatch stands to reap the spoils but at this point the 360 is just being dangled at us from afar with precious few details apart from the promise of a summer launch come on just do something everybody here wants to see your watch do something I know why did you bring it then the job of turning it into a real thing that URI can buy now falls to some of the nearly 2000 Motorola Mobility employees who to put it lightly have other things on their minds earlier this year Google rather suddenly announced that it was selling Motorola which it had acquired just a year and a half earlier to Chinese computing giant lenovo meanwhile moto is in the final stages of a long planned move of its corporate headquarters from a jury campus north of Chicago to the heart of the city where it got its start over 80 years ago the tumultuous process of engineering the kinks out of the 360 a complex and absolutely critical product for Motorola is stressful enough but when you tack on the drama of a high-profile corporate divorce coupled with a relocation an event aimed important enough to bring out Chicago's unfiltered Mayor Rahm Emanuel well that's just a lot to deal with well we're used to change as you know oh in that last three or four years there's been a lot of change and this is you know another another phase of it but you know if change is good in so many ways it gets you out of your comfort zone that's a challenge some things you typically wouldn't so you know the change actually is turning out to be really quite good for us and what are your first priorities in the new facility or your first product priorities what are you working on that you to just kind of hit the ground running in a brand new building not everything right you know you don't skip a beat you can't skip a beat as you know in our industry right so we're continuing to you know Drive them what we're doing in terms of old moto franchise of products with the X's and the GS and the follow-ons for those products of course and the droids and then Moto 360 and you know the whole wearable set of products that I think are gonna be really interesting over the next couple years like Motorola Motorola's new home is an octogenarian to the enormous Merchandise Mart on the north bank of the Chicago River one of the most imposing and spectacular structures in the city opened just two years after Motorola was founded in 1928 the company has been renovating it for months transforming it into a ridiculously hip space that centralizes practically all R&D operations into the top few floors of the building what might come as a surprise is that it's dotted with all the spoils of a well-funded Valley startup mini kitchens that are stocked to the ceiling with snacks and caffeine an enormous game room and an open rooftop that commands one of the best views in the entire city feels a little shall we say googly but this isn't a Google company anymore this Lenovo is turned to try making Motorola into the global force it once was and with the Moto X in the rear view it's all on the 360 the expectation I'm assuming is that anyone who wears a watcher might wear a watch is a potential customer for this versus someone you just want to get it on the wrist right yeah we think it actually broadens the appeal and it does what you know one of the one of the people in the watch industry are talking you know to said it was the first device that really broke the fashion barrier and we think we've done that so people will consider it as a watch that also does all these amazing things right so you definitely have your watch face which is gonna be cool and iconic because that's a central part of a watch but what we're doing with Android wear and how contextually relevant the information is that's gonna be delivered I think it's gonna really going to be a reinvention of the modern-day timepiece both from the services and what it does in terms of maybe rethinking what I'm telling and time is to the form factor itself