What is it with Motorola? They invent products and when the competition jumps into the water, they get out of the pool.

The name Motorola is the combination of the phrase "Motor Car" and the word "Victrola." They created the market for radios in automobiles. They OWNED THE MARKET. The competition jumps into the water, and the next thing you know Motorola climbs out of the swimming pool. Granted, the exit from the pool took many decades, but they still were wiping their corporate butts with the terrycloth pool towel.

When they started making TV sets, it didn't take too many decades before the Japanese forced them to crawl out of the shallow end of the community swimming pool. They made a great TV. I owned one of their Motorola Quasar "works in a drawer" TV sets. I had it for over twenty years. It only had to be repaired once.

In 1974, Motorola sold their TV manufacturing business to Matsushita. They were free to get into the new and exciting field of personal electronic communication devices, which cel phones were one example.

In other words, they once again jumped ship for a competition-free line of business.
 
In honor of the most recent pool evacuation (as of today, company officially splitting into two different companies , because of the decline of their cel phone manufacturing business) I have posted two Motorola magazine ads. and three TV commercials for Motorola Quasar TV sets. Ads that promote products that they dropped when they were faced with a tiny bit of competition .

The first two magazine ads are for Motorola portable radios. One of the ads was published in a June, 1951 Life magazine. The second magazine ad was also from the early 1950s.
















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