Skip to main content
Sister Publication Links
  • Sustainable Plastics
  • Rubber News
Subscribe
  • Login
  • Register
  • Subscribe
  • News
    • Processor News
    • Suppliers
    • More News
    • Digital Edition
    • End Markets
    • Special Reports
    • Newsletters
    • Resin pricing news
    • Videos
    • Injection Molding
    • Blow Molding
    • Film & Sheet
    • Pipe/Profile/Tubing
    • Rotomolding
    • Thermoforming
    • Recycling
    • Machinery
    • Materials
    • Molds/Tooling
    • Product news
    • Design
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Sustainability
    • Public Policy
    • Material Insights Videos
    • Numbers that Matter
    • Automotive
    • Packaging
    • Medical
    • Consumer Products
    • Construction
    • CEO Issue
    • Diversity
    • Best Places to Work
      • 2022 winners
    • Processor of the Year
    • Rising Stars
    • Women Breaking the Mold
  • Opinion
    • The Plastics Blog
    • Kickstart
    • One Good Resin
    • BRICS and Plastics
    • All Things Data
    • Viewpoint
    • From Pillar to Post
    • Perspective
    • Mailbag
    • Fake Plastic Trees
  • Shop Floor
    • Blending
    • Compounding
    • Drying
    • Injection Molding
    • Purging
    • Robotics
    • Size Reduction
    • Structural Foam
    • Tooling
    • Training
  • Events
    • K Show Livestream
    • Plastics News Events
    • Industry Events
    • Injection Molding & Design Expo
    • Livestreams/Webinars
    • Editorial Livestreams
    • Ask the Expert
    • Plastics News Events Library
    • Processor of the Year submissions
    • Plastics News Executive Forum
    • Injection Molding & Design Expo
    • Plastics News Caps & Closures
    • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum
    • Plastics in Automotive
    • Reuters Responsible Business Europe 2022
    • Reifenhäuser Technologies Livestreams
    • Polymer Points Live
    • Numbers that Matter Live
    • Plastics in Politics Live
    • Sustainable Plastics Live
    • Plastics Caps & Closures Library
    • Plastics in Healthcare Library
    • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum Library
  • Resin Prices
    • All Resins
    • Commodity TPs
    • High Temp TPs
    • ETPs
    • Thermosets
    • Recycled Plastics
    • Historic Commodity Thermoplastics
    • Historic High Temp Thermoplastics
    • Historic Engineering Thermoplastics
    • Historic Thermosets
    • Historic Recycled Plastics
  • Rankings & Data
    • Injection Molders
    • Blow Molders
    • Film Sheet
    • Thermoformers
    • Pipe Profile Tubing
    • Rotomolders
    • Mold/Toolmakers
    • LSR Processors
    • Recyclers
    • Compounders - List
    • Association - List
    • Plastic Lumber - List
    • All
  • Directory
  • Custom
    • Sponsored Content
    • LS Mtron Sponsored Content
    • Conair Sponsored Content
    • KraussMaffei Sponsored Content
    • ENGEL Sponsored Content
    • White Papers
    • Classifieds
    • Place an Ad
    • Sign up for Early Classified
MENU
Breadcrumb
  1. Home
  2. News
News
January 02, 2020 10:43 AM

Flexible screen breathes new life into the Razr flip phone

John Pletz
Crain's Chicago Business
  • Tweet
  • Share
  • Share
  • Email
  • More
    Print
    Motorola
    Motorola’s Razr flip phone is poised to make a comeback, with a flexible, foldable plastic screen making it all possible.

    Motorola's Razr flip phone is poised to make a comeback, with a flexible, foldable plastic screen making it all possible.

    Chicago-based Motorola expected to begin taking pre-orders Dec. 26 — priced at an expected $1,500 — but delayed the launch because of what it says was high demand.

    The Chicago connection is deeper than the name. Motorola is the company that developed the first cellphone, making the first commercial call from Soldier Field.

    "Ninety percent of the work was done in Chicago, which includes labs and in-house design," Motorola spokeswoman Sarah Cooney says of the new phone.

    In its heyday, Motorola's phone unit employed tens of thousands in Chicago and had a supply base for plastics molding and mold making that were key parts of a manufacturing hub in the region. Now it has just a few hundred employees (parent Lenovo won't disclose the exact number), including the engineering team that worked on the latest Razr.

    The R&D involved dates back to 2012 and a skunkworks project in Libertyville, Ill., where Moto's mobile unit was based before it was bought by Google, which later sold it to Lenovo.

    "Everyone knew that 5G would be coming, which would enable things like videoconferencing, gaming, [augmented reality] and [virtual reality]," said Iqbal Arshad, who was head of engineering and global product development until 2016. "We knew the future of computing was mobile."

    But that meant an even bigger screen.

    "The practicality of the glass screen is limited — there's a limit on the size of what's pocketable," says Arshad, who is a visiting scholar at Northwestern University's Institute for Bioelectronics and an industry consultant.

    Motorola
    Motorola will debut a flexable, foldable flip phone modeled after it's Razr line.

    A foldable screen would solve that problem, except glass doesn't bend well. Plastic bends, but it also scratches. How the company solved the challenge goes back 10 years to the Droid, the line of smartphones that was then-CEO Sanjay Jha's Hail Mary pass to get Moto back in the game after it got lapped by the iPhone.

    Six years later, Moto brought out a version of the Droid called the Turbo 2, which featured something the company called ShatterShield, or an unbreakable plastic screen.

    In the meantime, a new technology called OLED allowed for thinner screens (and higher contrast) than earlier LCDs. Moto decided to push the envelope.

    "It was a huge gamble," Arshad says.

    Moto spent millions developing the ShatterShield, he says. But a foldable phone screen was still a few years away.

    "The only thing missing was the manufacturing technology to give you the right bend radius of the screen," Arshad said. So the team kept toiling away. "We even hired an expert from Argonne [national laboratory] to help with the materials design. There were so many manufacturing challenges."

    Among them: A flexible display that was plastic, flexible printed circuit boards, custom battery architecture, cameras and other components, and flexible circuitry.

    "The biggest hurdle was in the supply chain," Arshad says.

    Ultimately, they developed multiple prototypes. It wasn't until 2015 that Lenovo decided to move ahead with what became the newest incarnation of the Razr, Moto's iconic flip phone.

    Unlike rivals Samsung and Huawei, Moto is folding its screen vertically rather than horizontally, like a book.

    "The intention was not to bring back the Razr V3, but after exploring all possible iterations of flexible display technology, it became apparent that the clamshell form factor was the best solution for the consumer pain points in today's smartphones," spokeswoman Cooney says.

    RECOMMENDED FOR YOU
    Numbers That Matter Live
    Letter
    to the
    Editor

    Do you have an opinion about this story? Do you have some thoughts you'd like to share with our readers? Plastics News would love to hear from you. Email your letter to Editor at [email protected]

    Most Popular
    1
    Eastman Chemical looking to build another major plastics recycling facility
    2
    One killed, two injured in shooting at WeatherTech facility
    3
    Lawmakers face deadline on California plastics referendum
    4
    Advantek has new majority owner
    5
    For injection molding, ‘little' isn't the same as ‘not big'
    SIGN UP FOR TO RECEIVE THESE EMAILS AND ENEWSLETTERS
    EMAIL ADDRESS

    Please enter a valid email address.

    Please enter your email address.

    Please verify captcha.

    Please select at least one newsletter to subscribe.

    Get our newsletters

    Staying current is easy with Plastics News delivered straight to your inbox, free of charge.

    Subscribe today

    Subscribe to Plastics News

    Subscribe now
    Connect with Us
    • LinkedIn
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Instagram

    Plastics News covers the business of the global plastics industry. We report news, gather data and deliver timely information that provides our readers with a competitive advantage.

    Contact Us

    1155 Gratiot Avenue
    Detroit MI 48207-2997

    Customer Service:
    877-320-1723

    Resources
    • About
    • Staff
    • Editorial Calendar
    • Media Kit
    • Data Store
    • Digital Edition
    • Custom Content
    • People
    • Contact
    • Careers
    • Sitemap
    Related Crain Publications
    • Sustainable Plastics
    • Rubber News
    • Urethanes Technology
    • European Rubber Journal
    • Tire Business
    Legal
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    • Privacy Request
    Copyright © 1996-2022. Crain Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
    • News
      • Processor News
        • Injection Molding
        • Blow Molding
        • Film & Sheet
        • Pipe/Profile/Tubing
        • Rotomolding
        • Thermoforming
        • Recycling
      • Suppliers
        • Machinery
        • Materials
        • Molds/Tooling
        • Product news
        • Design
      • More News
        • Mergers & Acquisitions
        • Sustainability
        • Public Policy
        • Material Insights Videos
        • Numbers that Matter
      • Digital Edition
      • End Markets
        • Automotive
        • Packaging
        • Medical
        • Consumer Products
        • Construction
      • Special Reports
        • CEO Issue
        • Diversity
        • Best Places to Work
          • 2022 winners
        • Processor of the Year
        • Rising Stars
        • Women Breaking the Mold
      • Newsletters
      • Resin pricing news
      • Videos
    • Opinion
      • The Plastics Blog
      • Kickstart
      • One Good Resin
      • BRICS and Plastics
      • All Things Data
      • Viewpoint
      • From Pillar to Post
      • Perspective
      • Mailbag
      • Fake Plastic Trees
    • Shop Floor
      • Blending
      • Compounding
      • Drying
      • Injection Molding
      • Purging
      • Robotics
      • Size Reduction
      • Structural Foam
      • Tooling
      • Training
    • Events
      • K Show Livestream
      • Plastics News Events
        • Plastics News Executive Forum
        • Injection Molding & Design Expo
        • Plastics News Caps & Closures
        • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum
        • Plastics in Automotive
      • Industry Events
      • Injection Molding & Design Expo
      • Livestreams/Webinars
        • Reuters Responsible Business Europe 2022
        • Reifenhäuser Technologies Livestreams
      • Editorial Livestreams
        • Polymer Points Live
        • Numbers that Matter Live
        • Plastics in Politics Live
        • Sustainable Plastics Live
      • Ask the Expert
      • Plastics News Events Library
        • Plastics Caps & Closures Library
        • Plastics in Healthcare Library
        • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum Library
      • Processor of the Year submissions
    • Resin Prices
      • All Resins
      • Commodity TPs
        • Historic Commodity Thermoplastics
      • High Temp TPs
        • Historic High Temp Thermoplastics
      • ETPs
        • Historic Engineering Thermoplastics
      • Thermosets
        • Historic Thermosets
      • Recycled Plastics
        • Historic Recycled Plastics
    • Rankings & Data
      • Injection Molders
      • Blow Molders
      • Film Sheet
      • Thermoformers
      • Pipe Profile Tubing
      • Rotomolders
      • Mold/Toolmakers
      • LSR Processors
      • Recyclers
      • Compounders - List
      • Association - List
      • Plastic Lumber - List
      • All
    • Directory
    • Custom
      • Sponsored Content
      • LS Mtron Sponsored Content
      • Conair Sponsored Content
      • KraussMaffei Sponsored Content
      • ENGEL Sponsored Content
      • White Papers
      • Classifieds
        • Place an Ad
        • Sign up for Early Classified