Android By Russell Holly Jan. 14, 2014 11:44 am
Motorola announced today that their flagship phone the Moto X will finally be gracing UK shelves for £380 ($624). While it is easy to see this as recovery from a stumble, it is important to remember that Motorola is not in the same race as everyone else.
There’s a big long list of things a lot of Day One smartphone users feel Motorola has done wrong with the Moto X. It’s small, underpowered on paper, and offers a lackluster display. In the smartphone geek world, this phone was a nonstarter from the minute Motorola took to the stage.
On top of this, their Moto Maker customization tool was AT&T exclusive for too long and they have only just released one of several wood back designs that were shown as concepts during the launch event. By all accounts, including sales compared to the competition, the Moto X was a disastrous failure in the eyes of the high end consumer.
But Motorola was never after the high end consumer.
The Moto X did not have the best screen, the fastest processor, the most RAM, or even above average audio quality. It was, as far as words on paper are concerned, a mediocre mid-range phone. Yet, despite itself, the Moto X is routinely referred to as one of the best smartphones on the market today.
It’s not the most popular, but it set an incredible precedent with features that no other manufacturer is even close to pulling off. Active Display, Voice Controls, Motorola Assist, and Bluetooth Trusted device profiles are just a few of the things you can’t get anywhere else. Even their parent company, Google, failed to deliver a comparable experience when it came to voice controls on the Nexus 5. What Motorola created was wholly unique, and now that experience is coming to the UK.
It’s cheaper than the high end flagship phones, while competing or destroying the competition in battery life and useful features. The camera has been updated several times since the initial stumble at launch, turning it into an adequate but still slightly lacking experience when compared to HTC and Samsung. Motorola made a phone based on what they thought the average user would be interested in, and filled it with experiences that can’t be replicated elsewhere.
It was never a phone for smartphone geeks, and while it is certainly true that taking five months to travel from the US to the UK lessened the initial buzz surrounding the handset, there’s still quite a lot of positivity towards the Moto X.
Motorola has repeatedly gone against what we expect from a high end flagship device and come out on top. All they need to do now is convert that into revenue and focus on selling their hardware, while continuing to keep the Moto X up-to-date and interesting.
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There’s a big long list of things a lot of Day One smartphone users feel Motorola has done wrong with the Moto X. It’s small, underpowered on paper, and offers a lackluster display. In the smartphone geek world, this phone was a nonstarter from the minute Motorola took to the stage.
On top of this, their Moto Maker customization tool was AT&T exclusive for too long and they have only just released one of several wood back designs that were shown as concepts during the launch event. By all accounts, including sales compared to the competition, the Moto X was a disastrous failure in the eyes of the high end consumer.
But Motorola was never after the high end consumer.
The Moto X did not have the best screen, the fastest processor, the most RAM, or even above average audio quality. It was, as far as words on paper are concerned, a mediocre mid-range phone. Yet, despite itself, the Moto X is routinely referred to as one of the best smartphones on the market today.
It’s not the most popular, but it set an incredible precedent with features that no other manufacturer is even close to pulling off. Active Display, Voice Controls, Motorola Assist, and Bluetooth Trusted device profiles are just a few of the things you can’t get anywhere else. Even their parent company, Google, failed to deliver a comparable experience when it came to voice controls on the Nexus 5. What Motorola created was wholly unique, and now that experience is coming to the UK.
It’s cheaper than the high end flagship phones, while competing or destroying the competition in battery life and useful features. The camera has been updated several times since the initial stumble at launch, turning it into an adequate but still slightly lacking experience when compared to HTC and Samsung. Motorola made a phone based on what they thought the average user would be interested in, and filled it with experiences that can’t be replicated elsewhere.
It was never a phone for smartphone geeks, and while it is certainly true that taking five months to travel from the US to the UK lessened the initial buzz surrounding the handset, there’s still quite a lot of positivity towards the Moto X.
Motorola has repeatedly gone against what we expect from a high end flagship device and come out on top. All they need to do now is convert that into revenue and focus on selling their hardware, while continuing to keep the Moto X up-to-date and interesting.
More...
