This would become the first serious market for Motorola microprocessors. In 1981, Motorola introduced its "Six Sigma Total Quality Program- for which the company is now recognized worldwide (www.motorola.com). In 1983 Motorola begins operation of its first cellular phone network, which has required over 200 million dollars to develop (www.businessweek.com).
The 1990's however, saw Motorola's golden age beginning to come to an end. Some propose that the new C.E.O. George Fisher may have helped guide the firm in a different direction than his Galvin counterparts. An error in decision making in research and development at Motorola has led the company to the problems it still faces today. Motorola had been researching TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access) cellular technology, and they were far ahead of most of the competition. However, they were forced to abandon all of their work in favor of the CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) alternative, which had tremendous advantages and became the standard for the industry at the time (www. Businessweek.com). By focusing exclusively on TDMA, Motorola suffered in the market as CDMA became the new standard, and Motorola no longer possessed technology sufficient enough to maintain a competitive market share (www.businessweek.com). There will be more discussion of CDMA vs. TDMA to follow. .
Motorola's decreasing capabilities and technological setbacks lost them several profitable contracts during the 1990's. In addition, the company's lack of concern for small upstart firms competing in the industry proved to be detrimental. .
In 1996, Motorola developed a product that consumers could never imagine. After spending millions of dollars and designing this product for two years, Motorola introduced the smallest cell phone ever developed, with a flip feature and a vibrating ringer. The phone was named the StarTAC. The designer of this phone was Robert Weisshappel.