Gadgetory

Chicago the town where Al Capone and Michael Jordan left their indelible marks on history also happens to be the home of Motorola Mobility this lakeside town of over two and a half million may not be known for technology or design as much as it's known for Pete's and the Cubs but if Motorola has its say that's about to change in fact it kind of did change this week halfway through an ownership switch from Google to Lenovo Motorola pulled some of the world's top technology press yours included to its new headquarters for the biggest product event it's held in a long time but this isn't just about a phone launch it's about making a statement about two and a half two years ago we had a complete reset for our product portfolio and how we approach product and how we build products and how we approach consumers we put ourselves back to the forefront in the minds of consumers because they really these products really meant some needs that people had and the results have been very good in the first quarter year over year we grew sixty percent in the second quarter year-over-year we grew a hundred and thirty percent we started out with Moto X and the proposition was simple and compelling but Moto X was a part of a much bigger vision and arc we always knew that the world would have different types of screen sizes either in your pocket on your wrist and other places and other types of wearable device the second opportunity we saw that even something as core and basic as smart phones weren't being offered to consumers in a proper way especially in developing markets last year's motox set the stage for an all new design language across Motorola's entire lineup and this year's models the GNX alike take it to a new level these are birds of a feather and that's important sure that's is cool but the lower-cost G is the breadwinner the last generation G almost single-handedly gave moto credibility in Brazil in India and keeping that up means making the cheap phones look just as good as the expensive ones we don't want to create a design language that is kind of too polarizing we want to create something that represents what we think is important to brand which is kind of a you know personal approachable comfortable from a physical perspective there's signature aspects of it you'll see you know on you know all the Moto series is the familiar kind of curve on the top here that we always kind of have there there's there's functional reasons for it and there's also visual reasons for it the curve is often talked about I mean it's packed with you know NMC antennas batteries curved battery stack batteries originally and the use of the very kind of thin edge here right the whole idea is to kind of as we've said is to fill the hand and create kind of physical comfort but when you look at it to create something that is really light and kind of feels like more of a natural form rather than something that's been in a totally manufacturers we initially come up with 2d renderings of how the product needs to look based on the insights we have our vision on where we want to take the product and what are the different technology vectors that we have then we take these 2d renderings and then we convert those 2d renderings into actually 3d databases and these 3d databases are actually made of hearts that are actually inside the device I think so much of great product development is almost like weaving right it's there's no it's not a silver bullet thing it's about it's about all the different pieces that come together and how you weave them together that balance which I think you know differentiates products what maybe to some of us in industry might seem like a minor thing because we're so absorbed in it from the person who's touching and seeing I mean that's those things mean a lot you know I mean you talk to somebody who goes to buy a pair of shoes or a bag a lot of different reason they're making taking one bag versus the other isn't because it's the bag is more functional it's because the quality of the materials the workmanship the the brand itself and what it stands for and I think that's where this industry is heading and I and I think that's why we're pursuing moto 360 the way we're pursuing it the way we're pursuing hint that way and the way we also are pursuing you know Moto X is a system or instead of a product that need to be high in style icing on the cake the object that suggests that this Motorola has real technology and design shops is of course the Moto 360 it's not perfect by any stretch but if nothing else it's an engineering marvel we've done round before but the challenge was how to make a wrong product without having all the circuitry for example in our that see see at the bottom of the device we have a display technology team that went to war and did an incredible job in building then after we figured out how to take hundreds of lives and actual ICS that go around the display how to make them disappear what we did was we built an entirely round stainless steel structure and and essentially the challenge was how do you put antennas on this thing so this thing has a bluetooth and Wi-Fi antenna the whole structure itself is antenna and there's a unique way where the entire structure is connected if you see there's a the back housing and on the board where all the RF connectors are supposed to go where it's all in Z dimension and so there's nothing that takes up space I think people just assume everything can be done now in many ways it can be it's a matter of choosing right things to do and for us right now we really believe that you know people are expecting these things to look and behave like many of the other products that they have in their their lives whether it's shirts clothing or her or other objects and that's why we've made a considered effort like over the last year or two to really kind of bring in those very difficult things to do honestly walk down the street and hear it turned my turn in your hint and then look at a little little turn by turn on your watch I mean that's the stuff that people I mean that's when people love doing it they don't want to actually give their phone out of their pocket right if they don't have to reason that our company and our groups made 360s there's so many people that were really passionate about you know how can the smartphone deconstruct right and kind of many ways dreaming a lot about this and inventing around this it'll last you know three or four years and I think a lot of stuffs coming together that allows us to do it and I think a way that that we think is truly kind of differentiated and the most compelling way to do it for people for all the drama Motorola's been through over the past half decade CEO changes a split to acquisitions in the long shadow of the razor I just couldn't see any of it this week here's a company that has cool genuinely interesting products excited people and an actual plan for setting itself apart from the Samsungs and half I don't know if they're going to win this isn't an easy or cheap market to plan but even if they don't I get the sense that they're gonna go down swinging so our design teams have always had a real clear point of view and I personally have had like okay I believe it should be this it should be this it should be this but a certain point it's like what the hell I'm not here to design for me right I'm here designed for you so as a designer when we first started looking at moto acts and the approach to moto maker there was a degree of like okay we got a step back here you know and let some things go and instead focus on a design that allows us to curate something that gives people set it up so that people can make great choices but allow them to be part of the process and so we've decided to embrace it there's a certain cathartic thing that happens when you kind of like do that at first you like you know and then you realize that the person who chose mint last year even though it maybe was 1.5 percent of the people absolutely loves a mint you know and so we did something that allowed that person had exactly what they wanted and that's more important than me getting what I want and so I don't know I think it's just a it's a mindset change but design is design in it it's about designing for somebody else I'm not a painter my parents were artists I'm not gonna force my tastes on you know everybody what we wanting to do is express our brand through design and the definition of a product and kind of create something that we think is really compelling on its own then allow you to take it the rest of the way whether it's the functionality the software or what we do in design and to me that's that's a inclusive design process that we think is important to pursue right now you