“Google
is the first to commercialize the self-driving car,” says Woodside. “This is
the first self-driving phone.”
Motorola
Mobility CEO Dennis Woodside in an interview with Forbes Magazine, Thursday August
1st 2013
Motorola
Mobility, which is owned by Google, has done it yet again. Not in the IPTV
Streaming World as was hoped in my Geezam
article entitled “Google Acquires
Motorola Mobility – Weapon of Choice in the IP and Set Top Box Wars” but
rather in the smartphones arena!
On
Thursday August 1st 2013, which happens to also be my birthday
(Happy Birthday Yah me!) Motorola Mobility ended months of speculation and launched
the Motorola Moto X
Smartphone as stated in the article “Motorola's
flagship phone, the Moto X, has arrived”, published August 1, 2013 12:02 PM
PDT by Marguerite Reardon, CNET News. Check
the Official
Motorola Moto X Website for details and alerts on the phone, which is
available on Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile USA, Sprint, and U.S. Cellular in the
US of A.
So
brushing aside the sill retro name, it’ now clear that Google isn’t gonna use
Motorola Mobility to make set top boxes; they’re REALLY gonna make smartphones,
fulfilling the fears of the other Smartphone makers. Then again, Google Chrome
OS is used by PC Makers to make Chromebooks as stated in my blog article
entitled “Lenovo
and HP now making Chromebooks - Google Chrome OS is being Built from the Cloud
Up as Microsoft experiences the Side Effects” since January 2013.
So
not really a surprise here albeit it’s a lot to take in after having just
launched the 4G LTE (Long Term Evolution) update of the 7” Google Nexus 7 Tablet and
the revolutionary US$35 Google
Chromecast HDMI Streaming Stick a week ago on Tuesday July 24th
2013 as stated in my blog article
entitled “Google
launches a 4G LTE Google Nexus 7 and Google Chromecast Streaming Device -
Uninspired Tablet upgrades but US$35 Google Chromecast is the Streaming World's
Blue Jasmine”.
Straight
to the main Specs for the Motorola Moto X:
Hardware
1. Operating
System: Android OS, 4.2.2 (Jelly Bean)
2. CPU:
Dual-core 1.7 GHz 8 Core Qualcomm MSM8960Pro Snapdragon codenamed Krait
3. GPU:
Adreno 320
4. Storage:
16GB and 32GB
5. Memory:
2 GB RAM
6. Dimensions:
129.3 x 65.3 x 10.4 mm (5.09 x 2.57 x 0.41 in)
7. Weight:
130 g (4.59 oz)
8. Screen:
4.7 inches 720 x 1280 pixels HD (~312 ppi pixel density)
9. Display:
AMOLED capacitive touch screen with Corning Gorilla Glass at 16M colors
Features
1. SIM:
Nano-SIM
2. Connectivity:
Bluetooth 4.0
3. NFC:
NFC (Near Field Communication)
4. USB:
MicroUSB 2.0
5. HSDPA,
42.2 Mbps
6. Wi-Fi
802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
7. Rear
facing Camera: 10 MP 1080p video at 30fps
8. Front
Facing Camera: 2 MP at 1080p
Telecoms Networks
1. 2G
Network GSM 850/900/1800/1900 and CDMA 800/1900
2. 3G
Network HSDPA and CDMA2000 1xEV-DO
3. 4G
Network 4G LTE
Battery
1. Li-Ion
2200 mAh battery
2. Stand-by
- 576 h
3. Talk
time - 13 h
Motorola X is an Apple
iPhone Clone – Attack of the Un-Apple iPhone
Interestingly,
this looks a lot like an Apple iPhone 5, down to even the Nano-SIM (Subscriber
Identification Module), a feature many Jamaicans have to getting used to as per
my Geezam article entitled “How
to make your own Micro-SIM or Nano-SIM Card”.
It
comes in 2 versions, a 16GB version and a 32GB version with no options for memory
Expandability, again a very Apple, like Trait as argued in “Moto
X: The first true anti-iPhone”, August 1, 2013 12:06 PM PDT by Roger Cheng,
CNET News.
So
it’s just another Android Smartphone, this time made by a Google owned Company,
Motorola Mobility and sporting some Apple Stylings but with an un-Apple like philosophy.
The Motorola Moto X
will be available on Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile USA, Sprint, and U.S. Cellular
in the US of A for US$200 for the 16GB version on a 2 year Contract and US$50
extra for the 32GB version, very un-Apple. The Octo-Core Motorola Moto X is
coming in U.S., Canada, and Latin America by September 2013, just in time for
School.
What
unique about this phone, however, is not the specs but rather the Customer
Service option of customization which is very un-Apple as well. On visiting the
Official
Motorola Moto X Website, once you’re an AT&T customer, you can customize
the smartphones color from a range of eighteen (18) colours using a service
called Moto Maker.
And
yes, like the new Apple Mac Computer, the Motorola Moto X is made
here in the US of A at a plant in Fort Worth, Texas making the customization
realistically possible as stated in the article “Motorola
CEO: Moto X Brings Us Back To Our Root In Innovation”, 8/01/2013 @ 3:05PM,
by Parmy Olson, Forbes Staff, Forbes Magazine.
Google
and Motorola Mobility have also indicates that customer may also be able to
customize even the material for the back with materials such as wood and
bamboo. The wallpapers also customizable, albeit this you can do when you have
the phone in your hand. Still, this is a very thoughtful gesture. Even better,
this customization option will expand to other Telecom Providers, making this
phone, despite its lackluster specs, a stand out in a field of smartphones that
are really starting to look alike.
It’s
good to note to, that the Smartphone is a 4.7” device and not phablet sized
like the 5” Samsung Galaxy Note in 2011 and it’s
update in 2013 the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 as stated in
“Samsung Galaxy Note 2 review: The ultimate anti-iPhone”, published
April 2013, CNET News or the 6.3” Samsung Galaxy Mega in April
2013 as described in “Samsung
Galaxy Mega 6.3-inch phablet, hands-on”, published April 18, 2013
12:55 GMT (05:55 PDT) By Ben Woods, ZDNet.
This is interesting. It appears that by focusing on
customization and not on screen size, Google appears to be noting the trend
towards smaller, cheaper smartphones with additional perks such as Dual-SIM a
predicted in my Geezam article
entitled “Trend towards Dual-SIM Smartphones developing in
Jamaica as MNP Approaches”.
As if to confirm this, Motorola Mobility CEO Dennis Woodside
has also confirmed that, yes indeed, they’ll be making a cheaper version of the
Motorola Moto X in
a few months aimed directly at Developing Markets as stated in “Motorola
CEO: Don't worry, cheaper Moto X in the works”, published August 1, 2013
1:55 PM PDT by Marguerite Reardon, CNET News.
Google is clearly focusing on reducing the learning curve of
a Smartphone experience instead of making yet another supersized Smartphone.
This is a tactic similar to what Samsung is doing with the Samsung Galaxy S4
Mini or even introducing a new category, the Feature Smartphone dubbed the Samsung
Galaxy Folder as stated in my blog article “Samsung
to launch the Samsung Galaxy Folder phone in Q4 of 2013 - Android improvement
of the Feature phone is the R.I.P.D. resurrected Feature Smartphone”.
Motorola Moto X is The Wolverine (2013) of
Customization that’s Made in America.
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