The Mobile Devices division is the largest division (based on revenue) of communications corporation Motorola. The division is headquartered in Libertyville, Illinois, a Chicago suburb. Motorola's networks division (called Personal Communication Section (PCS) prior to 2004) pioneered the flip phone with the StarTAC in the mid-1990s.

Motorola had a commanding lead in the analog cellphone market, but failed to jump on the digital bandwagon. This mistake combined with the lack of design innovation gave Finnish company Nokia the opportunity to leapfrog ahead of Motorola. Nokia today is the world's largest manufacturer of cellphones with a commanding 33% market share. Motorola is a strong number two with a 19% market share as of October, 2005.

StarTAC

In 1996, Motorola introduced the StarTAC, which was then the smallest and lightest phone in the world, weighing 3.1 ounces.

Nokia takes over

In the late 1990s, lack of design and a friendly user interface left a gaping hole in Motorola's product offerings. Nokia saw this, and introduced stylish cellphones with a friendly human interface with features like a big screen and an easy to navigate menu. This was marketed as "human technology". Nokia's rise coincided with the cellphone revolution in several emerging markets such as India. Nokia quickly became no. 1 in the world.

HelloMoto, Motorola fights back

In 2002-2003, Motorola's Mobile Devices department reinvented itself. Three areas of significant improvement were user friendliness, design and brand. Motorola started paying more attention to the user experience, and models such as the v300, v400 and v600 (called the triplets) were among the first to boast an easy user interface. Coupled with this improvement, Motorola stressed on design and brand image. The result of constant effort in this direction led to the RAZR V3.