Taking a Risk-The Company Begins,1928-
The sounds of radio filled the air in the
1920s as the numbers of homes with radios
quadrupled.In 1928,when brothers Paul and
Joseph Galvin established the Galvin Manufacturing
Corporation,a few large firms dominated the
radio industry.The Galvins' earlier manufacturing
ventures failed.They lacked both capital
both capital and technical training.Despite
the odds,they retried space and hired a hundred
of workers to assemble radios and make battery
eliminators.They were determined to suceed.
The first practical and affordable auto radio
is produced by the Galvin Manufacturing Corporation.
Auto radios are not available from automobilemanufacturers,
so the Galvin auto radio is sold and installed
as an accessory by independent automotive
distributors and dealers. Paul Galvin coins
the name Motorola for the company's new products,
linking the ideas of motion-radio,and named
after Victorola was the famous brand of gramophone
Motorola develops the first hand-held two-way
radio for the U.S. Army Signal Corps. The
portable "Handie-Talkie" two-way
AM radio becomes a World War II symbol. Following
the outbreak of the war, 125,000 unsold auto
radios are converted for home use. Motorola
is otherwise fully committed to the war effort.
The company resumes the manufacture of electronics
for civilian use in 1945.After the WW¶,the
"Dispatcher" line of two-way FM
radio communications equipment takes advantage
of the expanded allocation of radio frequencies
for the rapidly increasing numbers of industrial
and commercial users. Aggressive marketing
and a reputation for reliable equipment earn
Motorola a leading role in theindustry.
When Motorola introduces its first receiver
in 1947,the television industry was highly
competetive.The Golden View television featured
a round 7-inch screen.The first set in the
industry priced under $200,the Golden View
table model quickly became a favoriate with
buyers.It's success launched Motorola in
the television business.At the peak,the amount
of the TV sets sales was about 70% of the
total sales of the company.
In the early 1950s,Motorola engineers patented
a process for plating a complete circuit
onto a laminated paper circuit board.The
PLAcir (short for plated circuitry) method
had two advantages.It transformed the manufacturing
process from hand production,and it created
a more reliable product by eliminating many
fragile solder joints.The savings in production
costs enabled Motorola to reduce the price
of its radios.
By the early 1970s,intensified competition
amoung domestic and foreign television and
home audio manufactures led Motorola to redirect
its efforts.The company's new focus was the
development and manufacture of advanced semiconductor
and radio telecommunications products and
technologies.The company retried most of
its consumer product lines in 1972.Its involvement
in the home electronics business ended in
1974,when the Matsushita Electric Industrial
Company,Ltd.,took over the remaining Quasar
television line.
Auto radios had shared the spotlight with
a diverse line of "under the hood"
electronic products at Motorola since the
1960s.When orders for its auto radios and
tape players began to shrink,Motorola turned
to manufacturing automotive products made
possible by the development of semiconductors.
An integrated circuit is a complete circuit
contained on a single silicon chip.Developed
by scientists at the Texas Instruments and
Fairchild semiconductor companies in the
late 1950s,integrated circuits were soon
being made by Motorola.Chips containing hundreds
of devices were commonplace by 1970.Integrated
circuits made computer equipment practical
for everyday use.Containing hundreds of chips
instead of millions of transistors,computers
became smaller,faster,made reliabile.
At first Motorola offered the IC to Swiss
watch makers,but they rejected,then made
a suggestion to Japanese watch makers if
they can adopt it.After Japanese watch makers
started to use IC,using IC for making watches became
popular in the world.
Motorola has been producing mobile telephone
equipment since the late 1940s.Early radiotelephone
system were able to serve only a limited
number of customers.Encouraged by a strong
demand for this service,Motorola invested
many years to develop technology that would
make mobile telephones widely available.Cellular
telecommunications,pionerred by Motorola
in the 1970s,by the culmination of these
efforts.The system produced feasibility of
wide-area mobile telephone network and became
the model for cellular systems now in place
throughout the world.
