Today we shall discuss Motorola, one of the most prominent names in mobile communications. Motorola is a recognized name worldwide and in recent years has become established here in Georgia. Many people associate it with mobile phones, others with pagers, but we would like to acquaint you with its new aspect: Motorola as a Magti GSM partner.
We would like to begin with Motorola’s history, which dates back to
the 1920s and reflects the many changes taking place in the electronic
industry.
Everything began in 1928, when the Galvin brothers purchased a small
factory near Chicago and set up Galvin Manufacturing Corporation. The factory
had a staff total of 5 men and several hundred dollars in assets. They
initially began producing home radio power supply equipment, but within
a few years the company launched a new product, generating its first real
profit. It was a car radio set. Car manufacturers did not produce or supply
such sets, and so car dealers bought them from Galvin Manufacturing Corporation.
It was then that the name Motorola appeared, engraved on radio sets and
uniting the concepts of Motion and Radio. The business, began in 1930,
turned profitable for the company. Within a few years Motorola became
the leading manufacturer in America and received a commission from the
police to produce radio transmitters. At the same time Galvin became involved
in the production of home radio sets. Soon, the first advertisements appeared
promoting Motorola car radios. By 1940 the Company employed approximately
one thousand people, and its sales reached 10 million dollars. In the 1940s
it was already clear to the company that communications would become the
main area of its development. The post of Development Director was assigned
to Daniel Noble, who was, at the time, an expert and leader in the field
of semiconductor communications. During the 1940s the company business
underwent rapid development, and Motorola began to issue its shares, offering
them to the employees at $8.50. The popularity of Motorola increased day
by day, and its trademark became so popular, that in 1947, it was decided
to rename Galvin Manufacturing Corporation and call it Motorola Inc. The
company began to publish a monthly paper called ‘Voice of Motorola’, distributing
it amongst the employees. In 1948 Motorola expanded into the TV industry
and for the first time in the market, offered TV sets at a price of less
than $200. Golden View, marked at a price of $179, soon became very popular
and during its first year of sales over 100,000 sets were sold. That
year, Motorola was ranked 4th in TV set manufacturing. Meanwhile, the company
continued to produce car radios, supplying a number of prominent car manufacturers
such as Ford, Chrysler and General Motors.
In the 1950s Motorola’s sales continued to grow. By the early 1960s, the sales reached almost 300 million dollars, an increase of more than 50% when compared with the figures in 1950. The number of employees now totalled 15,000, and the headquarters of the corporation moved to Illinois.
In 1962 a satellite was launched to Venus and Motorola supplied the equipment used to receive the data that was being collected and transmitted by the satellite. Motorola equipment was also used in 1969, when Neil Armstrong’s first words on the surface of the moon were broadcast live back to earth.
The most crucial development in the Company during the next decade was the production of the microprocessors 6800 and 68000. The latter being the first 16-bit microprocessor manufactured by Motorola and able to conduct approximately 2 million operations per second.
The 1980s was the decade of the boom of wireless communication and again Motorola was amongst the leaders. In 1983 the Company completed an order from Japanese Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) for 43,000 pagers, they became so popular that within two years the numbers sold reached the 200,000 mark. 1983 was also the year that the first cellular car-phone appeared, followed one year later by DynaTAC 8000X™, the first portable mobile phone in the world, weighing 850 grams. In 1989 Motorola manufactured a mobile phone called the ‘Motorola Micro-TAC™’, the smallest and lightest mobile of the time, weighing only 303 grams. In 1991 several new phones were added to the existing models, such as Micro TAC™ of Alpha line and a 218-gram Micro TAC™ Lite. The weight of Micro TAC™ Elite, produced 3 years later, was reduced even further to 113 grams. On 3 January 1996 the Company made an official statement about the production of a new type of phone, the smallest and lightest of the period. Motorola Star TAC™ weighed no more than 90 grams, its dimensions establishing new standards for mobile phones. As was mentioned by the executive vice-president of the Company during the presentation of the new phone, "Motorola has taken what was never thought possible and made it a reality". Soon Star TAC won popularity due to its original design and small size. A year later after the launching of Star TAC the Company gave one more surprise to its subscribers: the first dual-band GSM phone. By 1999 the first three-band phone operating at 900, 1800 and 1900 frequency bands was launched which, until the middle of this year, remained the only phone operating simultaneously on the European and American continents.
Today Motorola is a giant of modern business with a huge annual turnover and hundreds of thousands of employees. The Company is divided into several sectors with representative offices and laboratories in many countries of the world.
Personal Communications Sector (PCS)
Develops voice and data transfer equipment. During 1999 the turnover of the sector ammounted $3.5 billion, and gave the Company net profit of $243 million, which is an increase of nearly 5 times compared to the profit posted last year.
Network Systems Sector (NSS)
Provides cellular communications companies with the equipment for network infrastructure. Last year the turnover of the sector reached $1.7 billion, making $245 million of profit. One of the achievements of the sector is Ivisix, a new Motorola and Cisco project working on developing the mobile internet. One of the crucial developments in 1999 was GPRS, a new generation technology in mobile communications, the testing and commercial trials of which were conducted by Motorola. BT Cellnet (England) became the first company, which, with the help of Motorola, made the first call using this technology.
Semiconductor Products Sector (SPS)
This sector is a well-known provider of built-in processors, offering lots of solutions under the name of DigitalDNA. Its customers include a number of companies involved in various manufacturing fields, such as the production of consumer goods, transport and computing.
The SPS completed the year of 1998 with a $102 million loss, which was why the success of 1999 was of so much importance: the turnover of $1,9 billion giving a profit of $81 million.
The total turnover of Motorola in 1999, combining the Electronics System Sector, State and Industrial Systems Sector and Satellite Communications Sector together with those already mentioned above, was recorded at $30.9 billion. Every year, thousands of Motorola customers worldwide sign contracts for hundreds of million dollars. One example would be the Chinese mobile company Unicom with a $228-million contract for the expansion of a GSM network. Another example would be the Turkish company Telsim with a $100-million contract for the development of the new generation technology GPRS. As a result of this, the company started commercial operation of the new technology network on 1 August 2000, becoming the first Turkish company with GPRS.
MagtiCom’s cooperation with Motorola started from the very first days of MagtiCom activities. The equipment for network construction was supplied upon the advice given by Motorola experts. Motorola was actively involved in the training of local specialists, constantly monitoring and improving their skills. Motorola mobile phones sold by MagtiCom have acquainted thousands of subscribers with the name and quality of products supplied by the American company. The MagtiCom network is fully equipped by Motorola base stations (whose number passed the one hundred mark long ago), securing its high reliability and environmental stability. Base Station Controllers (BSC) and the software for their control are produced by Motorola. Motorola employees often visit Tbilisi to supervise the development of the network and if necessary, provide assistance for 24 hours. The Company also has a permanent representative at the MagtiCom office to settle any urgent issues, if and when they arise. On its part, MagtiCom often attends Motorola business meetings and working seminars dedicated to new technologies of the Company. Indeed Motorola has much to show in that aspect.
After three-years of intensive and fruitful cooperation, the relationship between our companies has become much more than just a provider-customer project. Motorola does its best to assist MagtiCom to remain the leader in the Georgian mobile communications market. We can assure our subscribers that with such a partner, MagtiCom will always remain in the vanguard of modern technologies.
Levan Buchukuri
Director of Marketing,
Customer Care and Strategic Planning
MAGTICOM