Motorola was one of the world’s leading companies for mobile technology. Cell phones are probably the most well-known product to the wide public. However, Motorola was a multinational telecommunications company and as such was working on many projects such as product lines, software, systems, networks, devices, accessories, and services.

A not so popular fact is that the product because of which the company was named Motorola is a car radio. The whole thing started back in the 1920’s when the company was called Galvin Manufacturing Corporation. As one can expect, the boring corporative name was named after the founder Howard Galvin – a bit boring, right?



However, the naming origin of Motorola is a bit different. In 1928 two guys from Zenith approached him on business terms and showed their new product – a battery eliminator. Until then, no radios were successfully adapted for usage in the car, so this was a really fresh idea. Eventually, in 1930 the company started producing the car radios. Still they needed a name for this brand new product. At the time there was a trend in naming brands and it was to put the suffix –ola at the end, e.g. Moviola, Pianola, Victrola, Crayola. Since the radio was interesting for its usage in the car, they went for the word motor. This led to the new brand name Motorola – a name that was so successful that Howard Galvin made it the new company name. Sadly, times change and new companies grow bigger and bigger and outshine older ones. But the name Motorola is carved deep on the wall of best mobile technology companies.