Motorola Mobility unveiled its new smartphone, the Moto X, last night, marking the first product developed from scratch since Google acquired this well-known company for $12.4 billion in May of last year.
The Moto X represents Motorola’s attempt to make a grand return to a market dominated by Samsung and Apple, as evidenced by the device itself, which with a 4.7-inch screen clearly targets iPhone and Galaxy S series users. Priced at $199 (with a contract signed with one of the major U.S. telecom companies), the new phone is expected to hit the market by the end of this month or early next month.
As the first device developed in-house after the acquisition, the Moto X is predictably based on Google’s Android technology. The acquisition of Motorola represents a direct confrontation with competitors for Google – although many of them, like the large Samsung, use Google’s software technology, Google has not directly manufactured smartphones until now, having collaborated with partners, as in the case of the Nexus 4.
Last year’s Google acquisition came at a time when Motorola had practically become irrelevant in the smartphone market, and thus the Moto X is eagerly anticipated – it is essentially a relaunch of the entire company on entirely new footing. With a range of technical specifications, the Moto X demonstrates how it can compete with rivals, particularly highlighted by the fact that the device is entirely manufactured in the USA. At a time when most smartphones come from Asian factories, the new Moto X will be assembled in Flextronics’ facilities in Texas.
