Motorola on Thursday officially unveiled the Moto X. This 4.7-inch smartphone is the company's first major release since it was acquired by Google, and the firm is hoping to make a big splash as it fights for market share against the likes of Samsung, Apple, and HTC.
After a presentation for the press in New York, PCMag sat down with Rick Osterloh, senior vice president of product at Motorola Mobility, to discuss the new smartphone, why it has a chance against current smartphone favorites, and whether Google has been truly hands off.
PCMag: Should we consider this to be the new Nexus phone? What's the difference between Moto X and Nexus?
Well it's different than Nexus. Nexus has always been about a focus on the next, latest release of Android, and the Android team has always tried to develop a new version of software with hardware to make sure that it's working properly. So Nexus has been about Android early adopters and development of the new system. For Moto X, we were really trying to go right at the majority market for smartphone buyers. So we wanted to have broad appeal. We wanted it to have very broad distribution, so that's what X is all about.
PCMag: There were a few questions during the presentation about the new Droid lineup vs. this new Moto X. Why would someone choose Moto X over the new Droids?
I think it's all just individual preference. Moto X has a nice hand feel and it's got a lot of very interesting customization options for users. And so, for people who that appeals to, I think they'll love Moto X.
PCMag: Can you tell me a little bit more about the Moto X's X8 chipset and how it differs from the standalone Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro?
Qualcomm has a great chipset and a great offering in general. And, we've enhanced that by adding a couple of special processors that do specific tasks. One is the natural language processor that makes things like touchless control possible and the other is our contextual computing processor that connects all the sensors in very low power and then creates interesting state information that can be used for applications like active display or the camera. And so it's those two that makes the overall computing system special. Just to clarify, it's not like one chip. It is, in fact, a system that consists of several chips. But it is something that we've designed and we think it's great for the end-user experience.
PCMag: You discussed the research you did to land at 4.7 inches for the Moto X. Did you consider phablets at all? Will we see a Moto phablet?
We do research about all different segments. We don't have anything to announce about it, but we certainly have been studying phablets and tablets both, so who knows? Stay tuned!
PCMag: The Moto X will likely be compared to the Galaxy S 4 and HTC One. Why would someone choose the Moto X over those devices?
I think clearly the customization options that Moto X offers is pretty great. Also, the size I think is something that will be very appealing to people. If you compare it to other phones with screen sizes approximately the same, Moto X is a very compact form factor that fits great in your hand, and that is definitely different from other phones at similar prices.
PCMag: Google has said repeatedly that Motorola is a totally separate company, though Motorola is now officially "a Google company." Were they truly hands off during the process?
Clearly, we're part of Google. No uncertainty there. But we are also very separate from the Android team, and we're just like any other OEM in our interactions with them. And fundamentally, we don't get things like early access to software or anything like that. And that's really important for the Android ecosystem. But you know, as part of Google there are a lot of benefits that come with that. There are approximately 70 employees who at one point were working at Google and have come over and taken leadership positions at Motorola. We interact a lot with Google leadership, so clearly there is benefits to being part of a company with great talent and great resources. You can see some of the things that we're doing here, part of our strategy is to be a great showcase with our hardware for enhancing Google services and the user experiences associated with them. And touchless control and how it works with Google Now is one example like that.
PCMag: You mentioned during your speech that innovation had stalled in the smartphone market and you set out to solve that with the Moto X. How so?
In particular, there's a common theme that innovation has stalled. Our point of view is that the reason that innovation has stalled is for a lack of imagination. People aren't envisioning user problems that are big ones, meaningful ones to go after and go solve. And there's actually quite a few of them; we mentioned a couple today – being able to operate your phone without picking it up and manually entering information and making it do something. Another example is having a phone you can customize and personalize to make it your own. But there's many others. And at this point, all the low-hanging fruit is gone, so you have to go solve crazy-hard problems, like making a phone that is customizable is not easy. We moved our whole supply chain and completely changed up how we made phones, installed new lines, hired new people, all to make a phone that can have a variety of different combinations. And so when it comes to things like making a phone that has insanely long battery life or something like that, that's going to require an enormous amount of engineering. And there are many problems like that at that amount of difficulty.
PCMag: Why launch customization only on AT&T to start?
Yeah, obviously doing this is very difficult and AT&T has been a great partner in helping develop this. Because it requires deep ownership to make it happen. So that's why we're working with them.
PCMag: Will customization expand to other carriers?
Nothing to announce, but definitely we see this having broad applicability.
For more, check out PCMag's hands on with the Moto X and the slideshow above, as well as our unboxing.
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