technological "firsts" to its credit. Founded in Chicago,
Illinois as Galvin Manufacturing Corporation in 1928, the
first thing the company made were battery eliminators.
When it started making car radios in 1930, the name was
changed to a made-up word, coined by founders Paul and
Joseph Galvin as a combination of "motor" and "Victrola," a
type of early phonograph.
In 1930, when the company had started making car radios,
the name was changed. It was changed to Motorola, the name
was a made up by two men, Paul Galvin and Joseph Galvin.
Paul and Joseph were the founders and came up with the
Motorola name by combining the word "Motor" and a type of
early phonograph called "Victrola".
Indeed, many of the early products were radio related
products, from the battery eliminator to the first walkie
talkies (in 1940). The company went public (1942) and by
the 50's its main business was manufacturing and selling
radios and TV's. It opened its first international
subsidiary in 1952 in Toronto. A research and development
laboratory in 1955 in Phoenix, Arizona. And in 1958 began
work with NASA to supply radio equipment. 1960 was the
introduction to the 19-inch cordless TV and in 63' the
first ever rectangular color TV which quickly became an
industry standard.
However, in nineteen seventy four, the company sold its
quite profitable TV business, and simply left this portion
of the consumer electronics market. But nearly a decade
later, the company made history, yet again, by becoming the
first to gain an FCC approval for a commercial cell phone
device. In 1986, they made another contribution, inventing
the Sigma Six quality improvement process which became a
global standard in manufacturing and quality assurance.
Around this time the company became a leader in
semiconductor technology, supplying the central processing
units (also known as CPU's) for many of the top-selling
computer and videogame console brands of the day; its
microprocessors were found in various machines. They also
manufactured communications products, products like
satellite and digital cable systems hardware.
The world's first working digital cell phone system was
demonstrated using GSM in 1991. They followed that up with
the world's first commercial digital radio system in 94'
which combined paging, data, and voice dispatching in a
single radio handset and network. A year later the company
introduced the first ever pager which was two-way, this
allowed receiving text and e-mail to follow with a form
response. The year 2000 found the company in partnership
with another organization to supply the world's first
commercial GPRS cellular network, with the first GPRS
cellphone developed by them.
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Article by Paul Wise, who has done extensive research on
Motorola. Visit http://www.mbhwireless.com if you are
looking for Motorola Cell Phones or Accessories.
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