Deconstructing Product Design

RAZR V3 Phone

Motorola, 2004

1. A clear descendant of Motorola’s StarTAC, the RAZR reintroduced the clamshell design to a market dominated by candy bar form factors. The phone soon became as much fashion statement as communication device, and its unique design reestablished Motorola as a leader in the industry. The question, however, is whether the RAZR was a fluke, the result of an internal “skunk works” team that cannot be reproduced, or a signal that Motorola was becoming a company, like Apple, equally adept at engineering and design. Jim Wicks, director of Motorola’s Consumer Experience Design, comments: “A product by itself can’t change a company. But, a product and a success can change a company. A product can start the change and can ...