Motorola's brand history reaches back to 1928, when the business that became Motorola began in Chicago. The modern smartphone company, however, should be described more precisely as Motorola Mobility LLC. Motorola's mobile-device business was separated from the older Motorola corporate structure, acquired by Google in 2012 and then acquired from Google by Lenovo in a transaction completed on 30 October 2014. Lenovo's acquisition announcement states that Motorola Mobility would operate as a wholly owned Lenovo subsidiary while retaining its Chicago headquarters and the Motorola brand and smartphone portfolio; Google retained ownership of much of the patent portfolio while Lenovo received a license and a substantial set of patents and trademarks.
Today Motorola markets smartphones and related mobile products under the Motorola and moto brands, with product availability, software-support periods, accessories and carrier variants differing by market and model. A professional profile should not imply that every product sold under the historic Motorola name belongs to the same present-day company: Motorola Solutions is a separate public company focused on communications and public-safety technology, while consumer mobile phones are handled by Motorola Mobility under Lenovo. The official U.S. contact page identifies Motorola Mobility LLC at 222 W.
Merchandise Mart Plaza, Suite 1800, Chicago, Illinois 60654 and publishes 1-800-734-5870 for general and product support, with separate technical-support and online-order routes. Other countries maintain local entities and numbers, so U.S. details should be labeled accordingly. Customers should keep the IMEI or serial number, model, purchase receipt, carrier, software version and warranty status available when seeking support. A phone purchased from a carrier or retailer can have return or financing conditions controlled by that seller even when Motorola handles manufacturer warranty service. Software updates are also model-, region- and carrier-dependent, and a general Motorola update announcement does not guarantee the same timing for every device variant.
Repair, accidental-damage protection and extended-warranty products have their own terms. Motorola's official site emphasizes brand heritage since 1928, but that historical date should not be used to imply that Motorola Mobility LLC itself has existed unchanged since then.
