Motorola’s Moto X Is an Affordable Smart Phone

Motorola’s Moto X is an affordable smart phone. The company has announced the new smart phone scheduled to ship in either August or September 2014. For a suggested retail price of $199.99, the Moto X is a low cost Android type of phone. Meant for developing markets around the world, the low priced smart phone is meant to turn around the company’s losses in four to six quarters.

Motorola has already established its brand name in developed markets, something its new owner Lenovo lacked. The new phone is not for app developers. Instead, Motorola and Google engineers developed the phone before Google sold off the company to Lenovo. The target markets are users who want the performance of a high end phone without the cost.

The Moto X uses the same type of software currently found in Droids. It is powered by the X8 computing system based on a duel core 1.7 gigahertz Snapdragon S Pro 4 chip. Quad 4 Arduino graphics support the window interface. The Motorola Moto X uses two gigabytes of RAM, has a natural language processor, and a processor for texts.

Motorola’s Moto X is an affordable smart phone that has a touchless control and can be adopted to recognize the user’s voice. Give the command, “Okay, Google now” and the phone activates. Through a search tool, the user can perform a number of tasks such as looking up facts, navigational directions, making appointments, setting reminders, or initiating calls.

Another feature that makes the smart phone desirable is its active display that pulsates when a new alert arrives. Touching the icons in the middle of the screen shows more details. Dragging a finger up the display brings up the text or email.

Motorola’s Moto X is an affordable smart phone that it is well crafted and able to be easily held by the user. It comes in two colors: black or white. There will be a Moto maker website to personally customize other color sleeves that can fit over the phone. The customized sleeve can also be stamped with personalize engravings. Compact, yet trim enough to fit into most pants pockets or tight spaces, Moto X has the same dimensions as the LG Nexus 4. The smart phone has a larger color screen that can be viewed at an angle.

On the top right corner of the front of the phone is a two megapixel camera. There is a main ten megapixel camera on the back with an LED flash. The senior is not as sharp as other smart phones, but the Moto X phone allows in 75 percent more light than similar cameras. Shaking the phone twice with the wrist activates the camera app from any application or when the device is asleep. Touch anywhere on the screen to snap a picture. A long press takes multiple photographs. Sliding a finger up and down activates the zoom in or out feature. Swiping right to left opens the gallery.

The new smart phone is designed for people not able to afford an iPhone or Android with similar features. The suggested retail price of $199.99 makes the phone affordable to customer wanting enhanced smart phone features. Motorola’s Moto X is an affordable smart phone for it customer bases in developing markets.

Source from: http://guardianlv.com

Google's Motorola seeks comeback with low-cost smartphone

1 of 3. Motorola Mobility Chief Executive Dennis Woodside talks during the worldwide presentation of the Moto G mobile phone in Sao Paulo November 13, 2013. The new Motorola phone, which is being aimed at consumers in developing markets like Brazil and India as well as budget-buyers in Western countries, is the second major new product that Motorola has developed since its acquisition by Internet company Google in 2012.

Credit: Reuters/Nacho Doce

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(Reuters) - Motorola is betting that low-cost smartphones can provide the spark to rekindle its struggling business, even as the company's ownership by Google Inc will force it to sit out of China, the world's largest smartphone market.

The company's new Moto G phone, unveiled on Wednesday morning, will be available for $179 without a wireless service contract, about one third of the price of Apple Inc's new iPhone 5C.

The new Motorola phone, which is being aimed at consumers in developing markets like Brazil and India as well as budget-buyers in Western countries, is the second major new product that Motorola has developed since its acquisition by Internet company Google in 2012.

Motorola, which reported a $248 million operating loss in the third quarter, is trying to break back into the top ranks of a fiercely competitive mobile phone market currently dominated by Apple and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd.

There are about 500 million people looking to purchase a smartphone with the Moto G's price tag, said Motorola Chief Executive Dennis Woodside in an interview with Reuters last week. "You don't have to get a lot to have some substantial change in trajectory for the top line and for the unit sales," he said, describing Motorola's business opportunity with the Moto G.

The Moto G will be available in Brazil and parts of Europe on Wednesday, with availability across Latin America, Europe and Canada in the coming weeks, and in the United States, India, Southeast Asia and the Middle East in the first quarter.

But the Moto G will not be available in China, the world's largest smartphone market by volume. The smartphone market in China is currently larger than the United States and Western Europe combined, according to research firm Strategy Analytics.

Woodside said that because the phone featured Google search, Gmail email and other Google Web services, the device could not be sold in China given the "current regulatory situation." Google relocated its search engine from mainland China to Hong Kong in 2010, in order to offer uncensored search results.

Phone makers that offer handsets in China which are based on Google's Android mobile operating system typically replace Google apps like search and email with alternative services, he said.

"Given where Motorola is today we're going to cover plenty of ground with this device, and maybe down the road things will change in China," Woodside said.

The Moto G lacks some of the high-end components found in the $549 unlocked version of the iPhone 5C or the roughly $600 Samsung Galaxy S4. But the Moto G's 4.5 inch touchscreen and 1.2 Gigahertz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor are leagues above what's available in other low-cost smartphones, which are often based on older technology, said Woodside.

Motorola is not the only company looking for success by making an affordable smartphone. Mozilla, the maker of the popular Firefox Web browser, has partnered with handset makers to offer Firefox phones in places like Mexico, Greece and Brazil. Nokia's Lumia 521 phone, which is based on Microsoft Windows software, is available for $99 without a wireless service contract.

Motorola's new phone comes a few months after it released its Moto X smartphone, which sought to stand out from the pack by offering consumers the ability to personalize the device with different colors and with its always-on voice recognition technology.

According to Strategy Analytics, there were 500,000 Moto X shipments worldwide in the third quarter -- though the Moto X's August release date meant that it was not available for the entire quarter. Still, the shipments are well short of the 33.8 million iPhones that Apple said it shipped during the third quarter.

 

 

Source from:  http://www.reuters.com

Motorola to cut 4,000 jobs in Google restructure

Aliling handset maker says it could face severance costs of up to $275m as it begins reorganisation under new owner



Google has begun the process of reshaping itself into a handset manufacturer capable of taking on Apple by announcing that 4,000 jobs – a fifth of the workforce – will be cut at Motorola Mobility, the formerly dominant and now ailing mobile handset maker it acquired a year ago.

Two-thirds of the job losses will be from outside the US, and a third of Motorola's 94 worldwide offices will be closed. In a regulatory filing, Google said the severance costs could be up to $275m (£175m) in the two quarters to the end of the year and that there will also be "significant" other restructuring costs as it tries to restore the phone business to profitability.

Unveiling his plans for Motorola, Google's former Americas boss, Dennis Woodside, who was placed in charge of the hardware company in March, promised to cut the number of devices from the 27 released last year to just a few. He said the new phones would have batteries that last for days, sharper cameras and the ability to recognise who is in a room by their voice.

They are being developed by a team of metal scientists, acoustics engineers and artificial intelligence experts implanted like a Silicon Valley startup into the body of what was once the largest company of its kind. It was assembled by former Pentagon research boss Regina Dugan, whose arrival was announced in March.

"We're excited about the smartphone business," Woodside told the New York Times. "The Google business is built on a wired model, and as the world moves to a pretty much completely wireless model over time, it's really going to be important for Google to understand everything about the mobile consumer."

The moves are the first signs of a complete reorganisation under the ownership of the search giant Google, which completed its $12.5bn (£8bn) acquisition of Motorola in May, and appointed Woodside to replace its former chief executive Sanjay Jha, who had run the group since August 2008.
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There was speculation last summer that Google was merely interested in Motorola for its rich portfolio of patents, which it could use to defend its Android operating system against lawsuits from rivals. Monday's announcement confirms Google is looking to emulate Apple's success by creating a company that controls both the software and hardware components of smartphones, which are rapidly evolving into the personal computers of the future.

Motorola once dominated the phone business, but the arrival of smartphones, and particularly the iPhone, hit its business. Although it tried to recover by adopting Google's Android software for its smartphones early on, it has not been able to break Apple's grip on key parts of the US smartphone market. Its handset division has lost money in 14 of the last 16 quarters, while its share of both the smartphone and feature phone markets has shrunk.

The company is retrenching to the US. It will stop competing in unprofitable markets and cease offering low-end phones, to concentrate instead on a few phones rather than the 27 it presently markets, Woodside told the New York Times.

Meanwhile, Google is buying Frommer's Travel Guides in its latest move to boost its content, following its acquisition of Zagat guidebooks last year.Google and Wiley & Sons did not announce financial terms for the Frommer's deal.

"The Frommer's team and the quality and scope of their content will be a great addition to the Zagat team. We can't wait to start working with them on our goal to provide a review for every relevant place in the world," Google said in a statement.

Google maintains that it will not give Motorola any special treatment over other companies building Android handsets. But some rivals such as Sony, HTC and LG, which are struggling in the smartphone market, are concerned that Google's hardware business may get "most favoured nation" status in funding and management, and access to the newest technology.

Woodside has embarked on a top-down shakeup in which 40% of Motorola's former vice-presidents have been let go. Motorola is also tightening its supply chain, building fewer models and using half as many components under the direction of former Amazon Kindle supply chain manager Mark Randall.

Google's venture into hardware could prove a costly gamble. It faces the same problems that other handset companies do: that Apple and Samsung together have locked up around half of the entire smartphone business, and about 90% of its profits, leaving others fighting for the remaining 10%. In the past quarter RIM, Nokia, LG and Sony have all lost money in the handset business, with only HTC and some Chinese companies competing at the low end making profits.

 

Source from:  http://www.theguardian.com

Purported picture of Motorola X phone appears online in new leak

A new picture of what is claimed to be the much talked about Motorola X phone has surfaced online.

Mobile focused site PhoneArena claims to have received a picture of a prototype of Motorola XT1056 device which is being tested on US carrier Sprint's 4G LTE network. It also mentions that the phone sports a 4.5-inch or 4.6-inch display, has 16GB internal storage and runs Android 4.2.2  Jelly Bean. The phone is said to have a removable battery. The picture suggests an almost rectangular device running stock Android (at least going by the home screen) and featuring soft navigation buttons.

The site also claims that this is the same phone that appeared on the FCC website in May, and is a variant of the XFON that is said to arrive on the AT&T network.

A few days back, serial phone leaker @evleaks had revealed the specifications of the much awaited Moto X smartphone through a tweet. As per the tweet, the phone is expected to come with a 1.7GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro MSM8960 processor alongside 2GB of RAM. It is expected to come with a 720p resolution display and 16GB of internal storage. The leak also specified a 10-megapixel rear shooter and a 2-megapixel front facing camera. Just like the new report, even the tweet suggested that the phone will run Android 4.2.2.

The phone was recently confirmed by Motorola after it announced the opening of a new manufacturing facility in the United States. As per the company, the facility will produce the first smartphone assembled in the US, which will be Motorola's new flagship device, Moto X. The announcement also came with the information that Moto X will go on sale this summer.

Going by specifications suggested in the leaks, the device seems more like a mid-range smartphone rather than a high-end flagship.

Source from:  http://gadgets.ndtv.com

Motorola T805 (and T815)

T805 is Motorola’s new phone-based navigation system featuring MOTONAV. If we’re not mistaken T805 is nothing but a regular bluetooth GPS receiver with a fancy name and a Motorola logo on it. The press release says with the purchase of a T805 you’ll get a 12 month free subscription to the MOTONAV service which gives you access to up-to-date online maps.

The Motorola T805 uses MOTONAV to send you from Point A to Point B with easy to follow, turn-by-turn directions. The map on the phone screen reorients, zooms, and moves to show exact location, direction, and next turn. Each direction is spoken to you through the phone’s speaker,, so you’ll never need to take your eyes off the road. You’ll stay on route and on time with GPS accuracy and satellite-based positioning for precise location. Missed a turn? The Motorola T805 will immediately recalculate your trajectory and get you back on track. Hungry? Search for local points of interest as your end destination or throughout your route.

We have no info on what kind of bluetooth phones can support this MOTONAV service they speak of or how much it will cost. I guess we’ll have more info coming as we get closer to the “Q2 2007″ release date.

In addition Motorola also released T815 which looks identical to the T805 but instead of being phone based, the T815 is called “Smartphone-Based Navigation System”. Again we have no list of phones that can work with T815 but from the press release it sounds like the T815 has more functionality when used with the MOTONAV service.

 

Source from:  http://www.navigadget.com

Motorola CLIQ – MOTOBLUR – Android iphone theme

Motorola Introduces CLIQ with MOTOBLUR: The First Phone with Social Skills – New MOTOBLUR solution automatically syncs and streams communications, contacts and content throughout new Motorola devices powered by Android™ beginning in the fourth quarter.

According to foreign media reports, Motorola introduced the first Thursday a new generation of smart phones, the company wants to use the phone to help them to reverse the decline in handset sales situation.

Motorola’s new phone, called Cliq, obsessed social network aimed at young users. With the traditional menu, the new mobile home page is a constantly changing browser interface, contains the e-mail, tweets and information updates. Motorola Co-CEO Sanjay K. Jha (Sanjay Jha), said, “It’s very dynamic. It is like a cartoon in the world of the text bubbles, always want you to provide the latest information.”

Motorola said that the first phone based on Android operating system later this fall Cliq will be listed in the U.S., the phone will also be the first to use “MOTOBLUR” solutions, mobile phones, exclusively from T-Mobile operator. Motorola did not disclose the market price of the phone, but analysts expect that the mobile phone operator subsidy in the price of 100 U.S. dollars. Mobile phone has a 3.1-inch touch screen and slide-out QWERTY keyboard. Motorola expects the company will launch the second paragraph in the next few weeks based on the Android operating system, mobile phone, but phone prices to be more expensive, by the exclusive operator Verizon.

Solution using MOTOBLUR

Motorola said that, despite the Christmas holiday shopping season this year, when there will be more than a dozen models available in the market to other manufacturers to use the Android operating system, mobile phone, but Motorola’s new phones will work with these two mobile phones which have essentially the difference. Motorola said that using Android mobile operating system can download and use the application for the Android system, but the look and feel of Motorola phones, as well as the use of methods, all with the other mobile phone manufacturers have a big difference.

Sanjay K. Jha, said: “With ‘MOTOBLUR’ solution Cliq mobile experience to consumers will not only be able to automatically sy

nchronize a dialogue, contacts and content of the smart phone, but also provide a natural, socialization and intelligent solutions. “Jha said,” Cliq is just a product, but Motorola has changed the mode of operation. ”



MOTOBLUR can use the server for all of your contacts, login information, the main screen, custom settings, email and social networking sites to back up the message. Right is lost or stolen mobile phone, you can through the user’s online portal and the phone’s built-in A-GPS feature to find cell phone location, or even completely remove the phone data. When the user in the next one to support MOTOBLUR enabled smart phones, enter your user name and password, all data and user information can be restored.

Competition situation improved for

Market research firm MKM Partners analyst(Tero Kuittinen), said most of the smart phone maker is also developing integrated information on different service functions, the first phone to launch this feature is the Palm Pre. Te Lining, said, “Information integration is not so Palm Pre appeal to audiences in the market, even though Palm Pre is the only ownership of the function of a cell phone.”

Te Lining that will be in the smart phone market, Motorola is facing fierce competition, smart phone makers will launch in the coming months, dozens of new models. At present, the high-end smart phone market has been dominated by RIM and Apple, Motorola only in the more competitive low-end market Bosha. Te Lining, “said Motorola’s current challenge is to win in the last two years if the loss of that group of users.

 

Source from:  http://mobile-cell-phone.org

Motorola announces Ara, a new modular phone concept

We have seen the ambitions Phonebloks concept in the past. But while the idea was definitely amazing, it was hard not to get cynical about its success, considering it was just guy with an idea trying to get the attention of companies around the world to make it a reality.

But what if one of those companies decided to take the idea and do something about it? Presenting the Motorola Ara, a modular phone concept that might actually become real one day.



Just like with Phonebloks, the Ara will have removable modules that will let you replace or upgrade specific parts of the device. This makes repair and upgrading easy but also lets you customize the phone to your exact needs. You can choose only those modules that are important to you and skimp out on the others.



The Motorola Ara project has been in development for a year now, so it's not something Motorola put together when they saw the Phonebloks video. Motorola will also be working with the creator of the Phonebloks concept Dave Hakkens on the Ara project.

Motorola will soon be sending invites to developers to start working on modules for the Ara and an alpha version of a Module Developer's Kit will be released in winter.

 

Source from:  http://www.gsmarena.com