TIMELINE: Motorola banks on Google phones for comeback

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Motorola Inc, seeking to regain market share, unveiled a cellphone on Thursday based on Google Inc's Android mobile software, in what is viewed as the handset maker's most important product launch in years.

Here is a look at Motorola's highs and lows over the years.

* 1928: Galvin family establishes Galvin Manufacturing. Its first product was a power converter.

* 1930: Changes name to Motorola. Three generations of Galvins lead Motorola until Christopher Galvin's 2004 ouster.

* 1943: First public offering of Motorola stock for $8.50.

* 1973: Motorola's Martin Cooper makes the first mobile phone call on a prototype of DynaTAC.

* 1984: DynaTAC becomes commercially available. It is later known as the "brick" when surpassed by lighter, smaller phones.

* 1989: Launches its first flip-phone, MicroTAC, which has a plastic cover that flips open to reveal its keypad.

* 1994: Motorola dominates cell market with a 32.5 percent share, versus Nokia's 21 percent, according to Gartner.

* Mid-1990s: The first digital wireless networks are built in Europe, but Motorola is slow to discard analog for digital.

* 1996: Launch of StarTAC, first of Motorola's clamshells with a lid that hinges open to reveal screen and keypad. It is popular, but Motorola's market share still slips that year.

* 2000: Motorola's market share is now 13 percent versus Nokia's 31 percent, according to Gartner. Motorola's market share hovers in mid-teen range for next few years.

* 2004: Late in the year Motorola launches Razr, an ultra-thin phone that quickly becomes a design icon. It is promoted by Cingular, now part of AT&T Inc.

* 2006: In July, Motorola says it has sold 50 million Razr phones and CEO Ed Zander promises sales of 500 million. But by late 2006, carriers are heavily discounting Razr. Some give it away to attract new subscribers. Motorola results start to disappoint and its market share peaks around 23 percent.

* 2007: Motorola shocks with a big first-quarter loss and its market share drops to 17 percent. Activist investor Carl Icahn begins pushing for the company to split up, buy back shares and fire its CEO. By July, the clamor for Zander's ouster increases after Motorola posts its second quarterly loss in a row and Apple Inc ups the ante with the launch of the iPhone. Motorola ends 2007 with 9 percent market share.

* January 2008: Greg Brown replaces Zander as CEO. Motorola posts a loss for three out of four quarters of that year.

* February 2008: Motorola says to spin off phone unit. Plan has since been postponed to "beyond 2009" amid continuing losses in its cellphone unit.

* April 2008: Motorola ends Icahn proxy battle.

* August 2008: Sanjay Jha becomes Brown's Co-CEO and head of mobile devices. Analysts, investors applaud the choice.

* October 2008: Jha reveals plan for Android phones, thousands of job cuts and refocusing Motorola on fewer operating systems. Motorola ends the year with less than 7 percent market share.

* December 2008: Jha, Brown promise to cut their own salaries by 25 percent.

* 2009: Motorola investors flee after a first-quarter loss, but the stock rallies again on a second-quarter profit. Jha's progress reports help push Motorola shares up more than 150 percent to a close of $7.85 on Wednesday, September 9, from a March low of $3.10.

* August 2009: Motorola flags September 10 Android announcement. Shares jump 11 percent in a single day ahead of the news.

* September 10: Motorola unveils Android phone. (Reporting by Sinead Carew, editing by Gerald E. McCormick)