Fort Worth: Motorola flags Moto X smartphone

FORT WORTH – Cellphone pioneer Motorola has opened its first U.S.-assembled smartphone plant on Hwy. 377 near Alliance Airport. The opening of the factory will create 2,500 jobs and produce its new flagship device, Moto X.

Flextronics leased a 481,000-sf factory that was originally built by cellphone maker Nokia in the 1990s, but was closed in 2007.

Flextronics Ltd., a Singapore-based international contract electronics manufacturer, will run the plant at 5650 Alliance Gateway.

"A single consumer can go on MotoMaker and order the phone, we’ll customize that manufacturing right here in the site, build it and ship it directly to their door," said Gregg Locher of Motorola.

Workers at the factory have a starting pay of $10 to $50 per hour.

The building along the Alliance Corridor in far north Fort Worth sat empty until this spring.

Although assembly accounts for relatively little of the cost of a smartphone, Motorola says moving assembly to the U.S. will boast efficiency because it means being closer to the product’s main end-users — American phone buyers.