Motorola

"One small step for man, one giant leap... frmankrflek," Neil Armstrong crackled into his Motorola radio as he struggled for reception on the moon in 1969. History missed out on his following two words -- "Hello Moto".

Motorola's founding company -- Galvin Manufacturing Corporation -- formed in 1928. It made battery replacement devices before moving into car radios, TVs, pagers and walkie talkies. It renamed as Motorola in 1947 and introduced a new logo, described as "two aspiring triangle peaks arching into an abstracted M, typifying the progressive leadership-minded outlook of the company" -- or put more simply, an "M".

Moto lays claim to the world's first commercial handheld cellular phone in 1983, the DynaTAC, and introduced us to flip phones with the MicroTAC in 1989. It demonstrated the first Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) in 1991.

Once the biggest mobile maker on the planet, it lost ground in the late 90s to Nokia before 2004's vowel-shy Razr revived its fortunes. Alas, Motorola fell behind the smart phone brigade and a long wait ensued until the Android-powered next-gen Razr signalled a return to form as one of the best phones of 2011.

Moto's shift to Google's Android OS flattered the search giant enough to acquire the Illinois-based business for $12.5bn in August 2011.