Sol Republic, makers of a wide variety of speakers and headphones, announced in August 2013—alongside the announcement of the Moto X—that it would be partnering with Motorola “to redefine the music experience,” and “change the way music fans experience and share music.” 9to5Google has learned, however, this partnership may not have worked out so well. According to people familiar with the partnership, Motorola will soon be dropping its affiliation and contract with Sol Republic.
About a year has passed since the unveiling of the original Moto X, and Motorola has since moved from being owned by Google and is now in transition to Lenovo. Interestingly, Motorola has released the second generation Moto X (as well as the Moto G and Moto 360) and has partnered with Google to release the Nexus 6. We aren’t certain why Motorola has decided that Sol Republic is no longer a worthy partner, but our sources say that Motorola intends to move resources elsewhere in the wake of these other changes.
Motorola and Sol Republic’s joint products including TRACKS AIR headphones which retail for $199 are still available on Motorola’s website at the time of writing. Part of why this partnership is ending could be that these headphones, as well as the DECK portable speaker, aren’t selling as well as both companies would have hoped due to competition from the brand—and now Apple backing of—Beats.
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