When the Moto X was launched by Motorola last year, it was appreciated for the fact that it was a smartphone made in a Texas plant in the USA. That isn’t supposed to last for long, now that Motorola is all set to shut down its sole manufacturing facility on US soil, located in Texas.
The arrival of this news has raised a number of questions, with the prime one concerning the fate of the Moto Maker program. Those in the country who are in love with this customization platform can breathe a sigh of relief even as Motorola has made it clear to Engadget that it won’t be affected by the closure of the Texas facility.
This means, everything will now go back to as it was prior to the Moto X, with manufacturing and assembly both being handled by plants in other countries like China. It’s the high cost of having a factory in the US that is being seen as the reason for this shutdown. Nonetheless, Motorola deserves points for trying something new, we think.
All this came to light when The Wall Street Journal reported about the upcoming closure of this plant, also pointing out that the number of its employees has decreased from nearly 4,000 to about 700. All its operations will however remain unaffected by this, and Motorola has also made it clear that its transition of ownership from Google to Lenovo has nothing to do with this move.
Meanwhile, we’re hearing more and more details about the Moto X successor, the X+1. It could also be possible that this sale of the Texas plant is affecting the launch of this upcoming device.