Singapore Based Electronic Firm to Use Cheap American Labor to Assemble Smartphones

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Texas plant to make first US-assembled smartphones

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Cellphone pioneer Motorola announced Wednesday that it's opening a Texas manufacturing facility that will create 2,000 jobs and produce its new flagship device, Moto X, the first smartphone ever assembled in the U.S.

The formal announcement came at AllThingsD's D11 Conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif., from Motorola CEO Dennis Woodside.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry's office administers a pair of special state incentive funds meant to help attract job-creating businesses to the state, but Moss said the Republican governor did not distribute any money to close this deal.

The factory will be owned and run by Flextronics International Ltd., a Singapore-based contract electronics manufacturer that has had a long relationship with Motorola.

Assembly accounts for relatively little of the cost of a smartphone. The cost largely lies in the chips, battery and display, most of which come from Asian factories. For instance, research firm iSuppli estimates that the components of Samsung's latest flagship phone, the Galaxy S4, cost $229, while the assembly costs $8.

http://xfinity.comcast.net/articles/news-technology/20130530/US-Smartphone-Plant/

Edited May 30, 2013 by The Patriot

[spookyturtle 9,466]

Kudos to Motorola. Time to bring some jobs back home.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Kudos to Motorola. Time to bring some jobs back home.

I would not be surprised if these will largely be temp jobs that they fill on a rotating basis. No benefits, of course. Slowly but surely, we're winning the race to the bottom. Yay!

[spookyturtle 9,466]

I would not be surprised if these will largely be temp jobs that they fill on a rotating basis. No benefits, of course. Slowly but surely, we're winning the race to the bottom. Yay!

2000 jobs is better than 0.

[Darnell 8,479]

I like Flextronics. One of their plants was 3 blocks up the road from me, and most of their executive crew would come to my hdb area for the great curry laksa at the hawkers market. was interesting, these fellas , all the exec crew, were french (that year).

I wonder if Moto is gonna use one of it's existing campuses in Austin or is taking advantage of the cheap commercial real estate in South Austin ?