Moto X, the new flagship smartphone by Google-owned Motorola has been unveiled in New York City. The smartphone will mark the new era for Motorola as it’s the first smartphone to be released since the telecommunication company was acquired by Google.
The Moto X emphasises manual control, hardware buttons, and the touch screen in favour of always-on sensors built to respond to speech, gestures, and context. And customers will be able to customize many features of the device when they order it.
The new smartphone that is said to be “always listening” for user commands. Saying “OK Google now…” will prompt the Moto X’s Touchless Control system to listen for instructions.
The phone will be manufactured in the US, with customers given extensive customisation options. The device is the first to have been designed from scratch since Google’s $12.5bn (£7.9bn) takeover of Motorola last year.
Industry analysts said the release could prove disruptive to the Android market, as many other manufacturers using Google’s operating system are struggling to turn a profit.
The hardware will be manufactured in the US at a newly-built plant in Texas, making Motorola the latest in a growing number of firms keen to bathe in positive “Made in USA” public relations.
It also means customers can change their customisation options – with multiple colourings, and personalised engravings to be on offer.
The company said there were over 2,000 possible combinations for what could be created.
Gaining control
The Moto X is the first handset fully designed by the company since Google took it over in May last year.
While the company has released handsets since then, they had all been at least partly in development before the takeover.
It means the phone has been seen as the first real indicator of what Google itself thinks is possible on its own mobile platform.
Francisco Jeronimo, a mobile phones analyst at market intelligence firm IDC, said the company had targeted the basics – changing how a phone is controlled.
“The interaction with the phone, the way we speak, the way we activate the functions – it can be done in a different way,” he said.
The Moto X will be released in the US, Canada and Latin America starting in late August or early September, the company said. It will cost $199 (£130) when bought as part of a two-year contract deal.
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As reported by BBC News
