Tag: motorola
Motorola Puts Smartwatch On Sale, Upgrades Phones

Motorola Puts Smartwatch On Sale, Upgrades Phones

Washington (AFP) — Motorola kicked off sales of its new smartwatch Friday, in a series of product launches which could be the last before the Google-owned electronics firm is sold to China’s Lenovo.

The company said its Moto 360 watch, which uses the Android Wear platform from Google for wearable technology, was going on sale starting at $249 for U.S. customers.

Motorola also unveiled upgraded versions of its flagship Moto X smartphone and lower-priced Moto G.

The Moto 360, which features a round face design similar to a classic wristwatch, “keeps you on time and up to date without taking you out of the moment or distracting you, telling you what you need to know before you know you need it through subtle alerts and notifications,” the company said in a statement.

“Moto 360 also responds to your voice. Just say ‘Ok Google’ to ask questions like who won the Stanford vs. New Mexico game or what time your flight leaves, or to get stuff done like scheduling an appointment, sending a text, setting an alarm or taking a note.”

The device will sell for $499 off-contract and as low as $99 through some carriers with a two-year contract. It will be offered later this month in North America, Asia, Europe and Latin America,

The Moto G, which also gets a boost in size, will be sold starting at $179 starting Friday in the U.S., Britain, India, France, Brazil, Spain and Germany.

By end of year, the upgraded Moto G will be available in “more than a dozen countries and through several carrier partners around the world,” Motorola said.

The launch comes just days ahead of a highly anticipated event by Apple, which is expected to unveil larger versions of its iconic iPhone, and possibly its own smartwatch.

Google announced earlier this year it signed a deal to sell the struggling smartphone maker to Chinese tech giant Lenovo for $2.91 billion. It is not known when the deal will be finalized.

Motorola has failed to gain traction in a rapidly evolving smartphone market now dominated by South Korea’s Samsung and U.S.-based Apple.

AFP Photo/Daniel Boczarski

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House Democrats Seek Probe Of Motorola’s Radio Contracts

House Democrats Seek Probe Of Motorola’s Radio Contracts

By Greg Gordon, McClatchy Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — Three senior House Democrats on Tuesday asked the Department of Homeland Security’s internal watchdog to investigate allegations, raised in a McClatchy series, that Motorola’s contracting tactics have led state and local governments to squander millions of dollars on the company’s pricey two-way emergency radio systems.

“If the allegations in the McClatchy articles are true, millions of federal tax dollars may have been wasted, and millions more are at risk,” Reps. Henry Waxman and Anna Eshoo of California and Diana DeGette of Colorado wrote Inspector General John Roth.

“We therefore ask that you initiate an investigation to determine whether the abuses described in the McClatchy articles occurred and if so, whether (Homeland Security) grants were involved,” they wrote.

The three members of the House of Representatives urged Roth to propose changes “to prevent a recurrence of these abuses” if the department’s grants are found to have helped finance any of the contracts in question.

Waxman is the ranking Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, while Eshoo and DeGette are the ranking minority members on the committee’s communications and technology subcommittee and the oversight and investigations subcommittee, respectively.

Motorola’s public safety arm, known as Motorola Solutions Inc. since the Illinois-based company split in two in 2011, has for years controlled an estimated 80 percent or more of the market for emergency communications equipment.

In seven stories published in March, McClatchy described how the company has used close relationships with state and local contracting officials, police and fire chiefs and county sheriffs, as well as an array of marketing strategies, to effectively lock in business in all but a smattering of public safety agencies in the nation’s 20 biggest cities. For many years, Motorola froze out rivals by embedding proprietary software in its equipment so it wouldn’t interact with other brands.

Motorola Solutions said in a statement that it “complied with applicable laws and regulations, and competes fairly for our customers’ business by offering them superior products and solutions.”

“We offer solutions and products that achieve cost savings for the taxpayer, improve safety for communities and enable quick implementation for local agencies,” the company said.

Motorola said that it has served public safety around the globe for more than 85 years, that it sells products that “enable seamless communications,” and that it is the company’s state-of-the-art technology “that has allowed us to maintain our customers’ loyalty.”

Photo via WikiCommons

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Motorola Defends Contracting Practices, Dismisses McClatchy Stories As Containing ‘Innuendo’

Motorola Defends Contracting Practices, Dismisses McClatchy Stories As Containing ‘Innuendo’

By Greg Gordon, McClatchy Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — Motorola Solutions Inc. is rejecting as “innuendo” a series of stories in which McClatchy examined the company’s decadeslong dominance of the nation’s emergency communications market.

Published on March 30, the stories described multiple ways in which city, county and state officials have favored Motorola with noncompetitive contracts, including from at least nine of the nation’s 20 largest cities. The firm has reaped billions of dollars in annual revenues amid a nationwide push to avoid a repeat of the radio failures of Sept. 11, 2001.

In a statement, the company called it “very disturbing that a news organization would cast suspicion of any Motorola contract with a government entity that did not fit a generic, competitive-bid model, and at the same time cast aspersions on the integrity of the government entities with which we do business.”

Motorola issued the statement and sent a letter to The Sacramento Bee, a McClatchy newspaper, which published an editorial Sunday challenging policymakers to ask hard questions about how the firm has preserved an estimated 80 percent share of the public safety radio market.

Motorola said that various “legally available” contract vehicles that forgo competitive bids enable governments to “procure in a manner that can achieve cost savings for taxpayers, and enable faster implementation, which can be an important consideration for equipment that can serve as a lifeline for first responders.”

The company did not address concerns about its radio prices — as much as $7,500 apiece.

McClatchy also reported that foundations for the firm and its former parent donated more than $25 million over a recent six-year period to nonprofits with law enforcement- and firefighting-related missions, aiding a constituency that has backed its products.

The company called it “very disturbing that a news organization would question a law-abiding company’s community citizenship.”

“Motorola’s employees and shareholders are deeply proud of the investments our Foundation makes to better the communities where we operate,” it said, adding that the donations “further the invaluable partnership we have with the public safety community.”

In addition, the company defended former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, who responded to radio outages from Hurricane Katrina by spearheading a push for a new statewide radio system and a separate high-speed broadband data-delivery network for first responders.

Motorola won both contracts, which could generate $300 million. Months after leaving office, Barbour registered as a Motorola lobbyist, McClatchy reported.

Barbour, a Republican, showed “tremendous leadership … throughout the rebuilding of the devastated areas of Mississippi,” the company said.

“Leaders like Governor Barbour personally understand how the public safety community relies on survivable, interoperable communications during disasters and crises,” the company said. “That kind of leadership and experience is invaluable to us and the first responders Motorola Solutions serves every day across the country. We are proud to have Governor Barbour on our team.”

Photo: JonJon2k8 via Flickr