Motorola’s newest flagship smartphone, under Google’s Control, the Moto X, is proud to carry the title of “Made in the U.S.A”.
This is the first ever smartphone to be manufactured in the US, and personally I find that to be one of the greatest things about this new phone. Being manufactured at Fort Worth, Texas, Motorola is actually able to save money compared with having it be built over seas.
Most of us Americans may think that the manufacturing costs would be quite the opposite, as here in America we require reasonable pay, insurance, and other essentials. However, according to research from the IHS, Motorola is able to save money by not having to pay heavy shipping costs, or having to deal with any offshore manufacturers.
The IHS’s findings estimate that US assembly costs Motorola $12 per phone, bringing the Moto X production costs to $226. By comparison, a Samsung Galaxy S4 and iPhone 5, both of which are manufactured in China, cost $237 and $207 respectively.
Andrew Rasswelier, senior director of cost benchmarking at the IHS, had this to say:
“With the Moto X, Motorola is reaping the public-relations and customization upsides of producing a smartphone in the United States, while maintaining competitive hardware costs.”
Here’s the downside though, Motorola may be claiming that the phone is manufactured in America, but when taken apart analysis can easily find that a large amount of electronic components is coming from overseas. Those items are actually manufactured by Flextronics, which works for most of the major PC market, producing PC components for HP, Dell, Apple, Microsoft, Corsair and more.
To gain the “Made in the USA” title the item produced must have more than 70% of its components made in America. Motorola may be avoiding the fact that the phone’s insides are from overseas but it’s key to remember that the assembly costs of the phone stay in America.
Hopefully, with this action by Google, other cellphone manufactures, like Samsung and Apple, will reconsider where they are spending their money and manufacturing their phones. Being built here in the US, buyers can know that the quality of the phone is brought to a higher standard and won’t fall apart on them, plus that their payments for the phone stay here in the American economy.
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