These Phone Companies Aren't What You Think

[THESE PHONE COMPANIES AREN’T WHAT YOU THINK]

Who are you really buying your phone from? Does that Motorola logo really mean what you think it does? BlackBerry hasn’t made a phone in eight years, and for Nokia it’s been even longer – so why do so many people think they do? Today on MrMobile, we’re re-visiting the world of licensing to understand just what a tech brand name is (and isn’t).

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[ABOUT THIS VIDEO]

MrMobile does not accept compensation from the manufacturers of the products he reviews in exchange for producing content. No payment was provided and no manufacturer or carrier was afforded a preview, editorial input or copy approval rights concerning this review. The lone sponsor of this video is DeleteMe.

[MUSIC]

“Night Moves” by Ivy Bakes [Soundstripe]:

"Erm, Yeah" by P.A.M. [Soundstripe]:

"Smart Ideas" by Julian Bell [Premium Beat]:

“Silk” by Common Kid [Soundstripe]:

“Pop Rocks” by Neon Beach [Soundstripe]:

[CHAPTERS]

00:00 BlackBerry hasn’t been “BlackBerry” for years

01:00 Licensing review

02:19 Who actually builds the “CAT” phone?

03:00 Motorola? Is that you?

04:37 Back to BlackBerry

07:10 “No”kia

[SOCIALIZE]

[DISCLOSURES]

[arnold_m_xavier]

Everybody forgot about LG and Prada. A beautiful partnership lasted for 3 iterations

[chitrangdamehra]

I remember watching a video few days back about the history of Nokia and how it started off as a wood pulp mill and later strengthened its presence in other industrial domains by manufacturing rubber, tyres, cables, wires, TVs etc. It’s interesting to see that how companies like Nokia and Blackberry have built such a great reputation for themselves that despite having minimum to no presence in the production of mobile phones at present, one can always put their trust in the operations of its other subsidiaries as well… (at least I do!)

[evefavretto]

The Motorola Rugged phones story is even weirder: they are build by Bullit (as you said), but they seem to be based on Motorola Mobility designs. The 2021 Defy had a XT2083-9 model number, similar to the Moto G9 Play it's clearly based (XT1083-1).

[Shetty]

When you're so early that the video is only available in 360p

[Leornianæfre]

Such a brilliant and extremely informative video Michael. I completely agree with you. As someone who worked in retail for a long time, I made it my mission to help customers by trying to provide this kind of information. Customers need to be aware of what they are buying. Myself personally, I spend days if not weeks and months researching before I buy anything. Where a product is made, who it’s made by etc…

[Poita]

Also like Sony and Ericsson. After the "merger" on mobile phones and we got SE devices way back, Erickson is a network hardware company that builds our mobile networks.

[mezion]

0:21 seeing that BlackBerry priv made my heart ache because it had so much potential to be a truly awesome phone

[sndestroy]

It is worth pointing out that, just like the Nokia brand story, the same happened with Motorola: the one renamed Solutions after the split IS the original parent company (and a big one at that). Mobility was just one of various branches, which was sold to Google then landed at Lenovo.

Another similarity: Nokia made home network stuff (like home routers and modems), at least until the dawn of the ADSL era. Motorola did too under its Home division and lasted longer, until 2012 when Arris bought it all. So if you have one of those very popular cable modems, chances are its just a rebranded/evolved Big M device.

[cba]

Still have a Nokia E71 (not being used). When you remove the battery there is a label that says "Made in Finland". It's built like a tank.

[matthewsjardine]

Thank you for making this video. It needed to be made, and you did an excellent job, as usual.

[xerxesYt]

As someone who is part of the newer generation, this is a well informative video, astounding and confusing that these stuff exists, What if the device we are currently using now is another one of these licensing stuff. Damn, so much to learn. If only these were the questions in an exam or test. Haha.

[kunalgandhi]

Wow! That Motorola segment required it's own video altogether. Such an eye opening video. Thanks MrMobile!

[matin_lunaire]

Some budget Sony Ericsson phones (the W395, for example), were actually produced by Siemens. Those were often, if not always, further crippled in software, e.g. lacking support for custom themes. As such, SE has licensed their own hardware platforms to other manufacturers at some point too.

[homercastillo]

Almost 3 years ago, I bought a low-end android phone branded sa Hyundai, in the box the label obviously marked as licensed from Hyundai Korea and I think it was licensed to unknown Chinese electronic company.

[cathomas]

Impressive story you put together on this subject but what was more impressive is your expert use of pomade in the hair! BRAVO! 👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿

[captainmorgan]

Thanks for the video! Ah, I have to dig out some of my old Blackberries for the Blackberry movie next week.

[freshvintage]

Miss my Nokia 5185i from yesteryear! I had that activated on PagePlus Cellular as recently as 5 years ago too (they would still activate them as they picked up the Verizon 1x service) 💯

[_gelon]

The weirdest branding ever was probably the Escobar Fold, which was just a pirate rebranded Royole FlexPai. The first foldable phone ever. And FlexPai at the same time was probably just a re-engineer phone from other company, since Royole wasn't a phone company at all, just an startup to develop flexible screens (and hinges). Crazy story. I still love the FlexPai, it has a much better aspect ratio than any other foldable. Unfortunately it is as fragile as it gets.

[mlb]

This is kind of a confusing topic, so I appreciate this video, it definitely does a good job explaining how it all works. Thanks Mr. Mobile!

[monkeybarmonkeyman]

10:20 The reason why I've been sub'd to your channel for years now. Thanks MrMobile.