He tried building smartphones in the US over a decade ago. He has advice for companies trying it today

[Allan]

Motorola's experience of trying to assemble and market a 'Made in America' smartphone in Texas is an example of the challenges companies face in meeting Trump’s goal for reshoring factories.

Simply put the expertise, supply chains and most importantly the workforce no longer exist in the US.

In 2013, Motorola tried to claw its way into a bigger share of a smartphone market dominated by Apple and Samsung with four words: Made in the USA.

“There was a segment of customers that said, ‘Hey, if you produce products in the United States, I’m more likely to consider them,” Dennis Woodside, the former CEO of Motorola and current CEO of enterprise software service provider Freshworks, told CNN.

But those efforts were short lived.

Rest of the article...

https://www.cnn.com/2025/08/04/tech/smartphones-made-in-the-us-motorola-tariffs

Tim Cook explains the advantages China has when it comes to sophisticated manufacturing...

 

[ttwtt78640]

Cook points out that the ‘root cause’ of the problem of moving his manufacturing to the US is the US educational system. Of course, it makes little sense to gain expertise (education/training) in ‘tooling’ for manufacturing jobs which don’t (currently) exist.

 

[Allan]

Cook points out that the ‘root cause’ of the problem of moving his manufacturing to the US is the US educational system. Of course, it makes little sense to gain expertise (education/training) in ‘tooling’ for manufacturing jobs which don’t (currently) exist.

America still leads the world in high tech innovation in so many fields from computing to medicine.

That's the advantage you don't ever want to cede. To retain that leadership requires two elements: recognizing that there's no going back to 1950's factory economy and preparing America's workforce for the higher paying innovation careers.

 

[dmpi]

Manufacturing in the US is just a side show compared to the other problems Motorola had. Mainly the market for cell phones was oversaturated.

 

[Irredentist]

Manufacturing in the US is just a side show compared to the other problems Motorola had. Mainly the market for cell phones was oversaturated.

It's going to be very hard for the US to build any kind of manufacturing economy without an appropriately trained workforce.

 

[ttwtt78640]

America still leads the world in high tech innovation in so many fields from computing to medicine.

That's the advantage you don't ever want to cede. To retain that leadership requires two elements: recognizing that there's no going back to 1950's factory economy and preparing America's workforce for the higher paying innovation careers.

The solution seems to be for US employers to invest in the education/training of their employees, rather than move production to other nations.

 

[Grand Mal]

Manufacturing in the US is just a side show compared to the other problems Motorola had. Mainly the market for cell phones was oversaturated.

Gee, you ought to tell that to the ex-CEO of Motorola. He says. "Proximity to crucial suppliers and lower labor costs are only part of the problem; it’s the gap in necessary skills and the difficulty in filling factory jobs that makes it so challenging to bring smartphone production stateside."
Also, since then India has been able to make a go of it...
"India – now the world’s top exporter of smartphones to the US – will grapple with tariffs of 25% when the new rates kick in on August 7."
Market 'oversaturation'? I guess that Motorola CEO made a big blunder then, did he? Completely misread the cell phone market. Watta boob!

 

[Allan]

The solution seems to be for US employers to invest in the education/training of their employees, rather than move production to other nations.

No young person in the west dreaming of a rewarding career thinks "I want to work in a factory doing a repetitive low paying task for 30+ years".

High end manufacturing maybe like at Boeing or Ford. But not assembling smartphones.

 

[Individual]

My first mobile phone was a Motorola, and my first job involved working on Motorola police radios.

 

[Airyaman]

Lol, poor Apple.

 

[Checkerboard Strangler]

The solution seems to be for US employers to invest in the education/training of their employees, rather than move production to other nations.

But you guys keep screaming about how that's socialism.

 

[ASHES]

I am sure I have heard of at least one more failure since then as well to building a phone here.

 

[ASHES]

My first mobile phone was a Motorola, and my first job involved working on Motorola police radios.

In my mobile world upbringing, Motorola is what you got if you had money, Nokia is what you got on a budget. I got neither until later in the flipphone market and it was a Samsung. Affordable quality. I did also enjoy the rugged quality of the Motorola radios we used in community theater. Battery technology sucked though. NiMH everywhere.

 

[Allan]

In my mobile world upbringing, Motorola is what you got if you had money, Nokia is what you got on a budget. I got neither until later in the flipphone market and it was a Samsung. Affordable quality. I did also enjoy the rugged quality of the Motorola radios we used in community theater. Battery technology sucked though. NiMH everywhere.

I was resistant to smart phones, preferring a flip phone. The last one I owned was a Motorola. Indestructible.

 

[The Brad Dad]

You cannot manufacture smartphones in the United States. It will never happen. Cost and scale make it prohibitive. Foxconn is a city, not just a manufacturing plant.

 

[ASHES]

It's difficult so don't try. That's not an attitude for winning.

 

[Allan]

It's difficult so don't try. That's not an attitude for winning.

Why would they even try? The current setup is working great.

 

[ASHES]

Why would they even try? The current setup is working great.

Till it isn't. At least having practice is helpful.

 

[Allan]

At least having practice is helpful.

No.

CEOs and the boards they report to have a fiduciary obligation to not **** up the business 'practicing'.

By the time they'd build a factory (in an environment without the skilled labour or supply chains) Trump's tariffs will have timed out, a victim of term limit or a stroke, whichever comes first.

 

[ASHES]

No.

CEOs and the boards they report to have a fiduciary obligation to not **** up the business 'practicing'.

By the time they'd build a factory (in an environment without the skilled labour or supply chains) Trump's tariffs will have timed out, a victim of term limit or a stroke, whichever comes first.

The number of company retreats and seminars and meetings etc betray that falsehood. I'm not limiting my thought in Trump years, if that helps.

 

[Allan]

The number of company retreats and seminars and meetings etc betray that falsehood

Culturally acceptable.

Billion dollar misadventures are not culturally acceptable.

 

[ASHES]

Culturally acceptable.

Billion dollar misadventures are not culturally acceptable.

Yet they happen all the time. Sometimes necessity is the mother of invention. Someone just has to believe they need it (fabs to build chips at acceptable prices in the US I suppose in this case), and they will figure out a way while everyone else is saying it can't or doesn't need to be and not trying. Sometimes those people have the resources of a company willing to innovate. Which is risky, and not secretly.

 

[Allan]

Yet they happen all the time. Sometimes necessity is the mother of invention. Someone just has to believe they need it (fabs to build chips at acceptable prices in the US I suppose in this case), and they will figure out a way while everyone else is saying it can't or doesn't need to be and not trying. Sometimes those people have the resources of a company willing to innovate. Which is risky, and not secretly.

The current state is not broken. There is absolutely no corporate incentive to break it.

 

[ASHES]

The current state is not broken.

Some people don't see it as very stable or sustainable.

 

[Allan]

Some people don't see it as very stable or sustainable.

China and India have a reliable workforce and stable, manufacturing friendly governments.

It's America where we see the most instability.