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Abandoned Motorola Headquarters (2020)

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Re: Abandoned Motorola Headquarters (2020)

#131

Post by Andrew_nenakhov »

chiph wrote: post #114
AlbertCory wrote: post #45

It's amazing that neither the article nor any of the comments so far mention that Google bought part of Motorola, for its 10,000 patents. Then sold it a few years later. I was in Google Patents and I interviewed people for the position of "acquirer of patents." This was a period when they actually thought the "throw weight" of your patent portfolio really mattered in cross-licensing deals. Most of those patents were…

Not just their patents, but also their cellphone division. My understanding was that the Motorola phones were going to be Google's flagship devices for Android. So I bought one, and I really liked it - I got regular OS updates (unlike many Android licensees), the phone had a gorgeous walnut veneer back, and it fit well in my hand. Nice.

Motorola phones are still the best Android phones. Way better that Samsungs / Xiaomi / Huawei phones with heavily tweaked (for the worse) devices.

Re: Abandoned Motorola Headquarters (2020)

#133

Post by bitwize »

laurent92 wrote: post #111
eecc wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Skimming your comment I read “ritual sadistic magic”. Funny how the mind wanders

“Ritual statistical magic” is even more genius: Future civilizations will look down on us for believing that statistics were part of science, not not seeing the hand of the cleric in making them up, just like we look down on middle ages for believing anything monks pretended to translate from the Bible, which in fact they made up.

Perhaps they will regard our current obsession with machine learning as a sort of Tower of Babel built out of made-up statistics. Or a castle in the sky.

Re: Abandoned Motorola Headquarters (2020)

#134

Post by nomad225 »

chiph wrote: post #114
AlbertCory wrote: post #45

It's amazing that neither the article nor any of the comments so far mention that Google bought part of Motorola, for its 10,000 patents. Then sold it a few years later. I was in Google Patents and I interviewed people for the position of "acquirer of patents." This was a period when they actually thought the "throw weight" of your patent portfolio really mattered in cross-licensing deals. Most of those patents were…

Not just their patents, but also their cellphone division. My understanding was that the Motorola phones were going to be Google's flagship devices for Android. So I bought one, and I really liked it - I got regular OS updates (unlike many Android licensees), the phone had a gorgeous walnut veneer back, and it fit well in my hand. Nice.

I had a Moto X (2014), and I had a very similar impression. The launcher was very minimal and AOSP-like. It was also one of the first Android devices that had always-on listening for a trigger word (Hello Moto X?). I always found that almost magically useful at setting alarms when I was already in bed.

Re: Abandoned Motorola Headquarters (2020)

#135

Post by arbuge »

BrandoElFollito wrote: post #79

Sorry for the expression but "holy shit!". I worked in Motorola for 10 years from the late 90's. I was based in Europe but travelled to Schaumburg every two months or so (or to Phoenix). It is really a shock to see this place abandoned - last time I was there (15 years ago) it was very much alive. It has been a long time since I had such a nostalgic squeeze of heart.

Similar reaction here. I was an intern there for a couple summers in the late 90s. At the time it was full of life and activity - all the hallmarks of a successful corporation. Never imagined seeing it in this state.

Re: Abandoned Motorola Headquarters (2020)

#136

Post by pfdietz »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #124
jameshart wrote: post #17

I love the tone of this, it’s like the musings of an explorer who discovered a jungle city abandoned by a mysterious civilization. “there were old wall slogans inside that must have been added to motivate and inspire the employees” … “ the tall building had several brick structures on the lower main level. He suspected that those structures probably had plants and ferns in them so that important business clients and…

I'm pretty sure that Motorola had a very high Dilbert Index.

This strip was a direct reference to some things in Motorola:

https://dilbert.com/strip/1995-03-02

Re: Abandoned Motorola Headquarters (2020)

#137

Post by dylan604 »

jameshart wrote: post #29
ipv6ipv4 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HR wall slogans are cringey when still drying on the wall. They are even cringier in a ruin.

Gives you another perspective on the hieroglyphs on walls in ancient Egypt though if you imagine them being put there by enthusiastic religious branding consultants, and inducing just as much eye rolling from the citizens of the day…

Of course they were. They state the human leaders were gods and immortals, yet why are they writing these things on their burial chambers?

Re: Abandoned Motorola Headquarters (2020)

#138

Post by BrandoElFollito »

arbuge wrote: post #135
BrandoElFollito wrote: post #79

Sorry for the expression but "holy shit!". I worked in Motorola for 10 years from the late 90's. I was based in Europe but travelled to Schaumburg every two months or so (or to Phoenix). It is really a shock to see this place abandoned - last time I was there (15 years ago) it was very much alive. It has been a long time since I had such a nostalgic squeeze of heart.

Similar reaction here. I was an intern there for a couple summers in the late 90s. At the time it was full of life and activity - all the hallmarks of a successful corporation. Never imagined seeing it in this state.

As a French, the company was vastly different to what I was used to. But not only that: when travelling to Schaumburg I was staying in the Embassy Suites on the other side of the road and I remember, jetlagged, waiting for 6 am for the breakfast to be served.

There was also a big mall a bit south (I forgot the name) , very much different from the ones we had at home (staring with the fact that you drove around the mall, and not walked inside.

Good memories.

Re: Abandoned Motorola Headquarters (2020)

#139

Post by pfdietz »

BrandoElFollito wrote: post #138
arbuge wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Similar reaction here. I was an intern there for a couple summers in the late 90s. At the time it was full of life and activity - all the hallmarks of a successful corporation. Never imagined seeing it in this state.

As a French, the company was vastly different to what I was used to. But not only that: when travelling to Schaumburg I was staying in the Embassy Suites on the other side of the road and I remember, jetlagged, waiting for 6 am for the breakfast to be served. There was also a big mall a bit south (I forgot the name) , very much different from the ones we had at home (staring with the fact that you drove around the ma…

Woodfield Mall

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodfield_Mall

Re: Abandoned Motorola Headquarters (2020)

#140

Post by ansible »

OldHand2018 wrote: post #115
ansible wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What happened with the network / base station side of the business? Moto was doing very well with that in the 1990's. It seemed like that business kind of evaporated, but I don't know why.

It lives on, as a Nokia/Siemens joint venture. Edit: apparently Nokia bought out Siemens years ago

Oh, I hadn't realized it also got sold off.

Let's see, what all was sold off:

computer division, analog ICs (Onsemi), digitial ICs (Freescale, NXP), base stations (as mentioned), mobile phones (Motorola Mobility, Google, Lenovo). What did I miss?

It is funny that the Motorola as we knew it is gone, but many of the pieces remain. And others were able to make money using those pieces.

To this day I still fail to understand the corporate strategy behind all that.

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