back to article Is it TRUE what they say about the 'Moto G'? We FIND OUT on the 13th

Google-owned Motorola’s rumoured lower-cost alternative to the top-of-the-range Moto X looks set to arrive in time for Santa to drop it down a few of the world’s chimneys this year. A suitably seasonal promotion card scanned and then posted on GSM Arena by a punter who claims to have found a batch about to be sent to Phones4u …

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  1. hammarbtyp

    Tempting

    I must admit a phonelike that would be tempting. I would like to change my San Francisco and that is the price range I'm looking at that. But there is a dearth of decent phones at that price point so you are left with no name androids or go to the dark side with phones like the Nokia 620.

    Until now the latter has been tempting me just because there is so little alternative, but maybe I will wait a little longer and see what comes out of the woodwork.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Don't get it

    What on Earth is google doing with Motorola? They don't make the nexus, the phone everyone actually wants - LG does that - but instead make uninspiring offerings that make Nokia look popular. I don't get it at all. Anyone have any decent theories, or is it just patents?

    1. Charlie Clark Silver badge

      Re: Don't get it

      It looks very much like Google is letting Motorola get on with the job of making phones. There are lots of reasons why Google doesn't make the Nexus devices with its own subsidiary, chief among is most likely not wanting to piss off your partners by competing directly with them.

      But, you also need to factor in the lead time for new hardware projects: at least 18 months. So we are unlikely to see any really Googley Motorolas before next year. Google may continue to use Motorola as a quick technology test bed for new kinds of hardware.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Don't get it

        "There are lots of reasons why Google doesn't make the Nexus devices with its own subsidiary, chief among is most likely not wanting to piss off your partners by competing directly with them"

        Except it does on two levels. Every Nexus 5 will be a mid-to-top-end smartphone not sold by the hardware-only phone makers, and in the background you've got Moto continuing to grind out handsets at a loss, even with a free OS.

        But disagreeing doesn't answer the question about why Moto don't make Nexus devices. As far as I can see, it's a learning experiment, and/or defensive move. Making hardware probably won't be part of Google's long term plans, but Google branded devices might well be. So Motorola needs to be re-saleable, without any tie ins to Google, and for that reason they don't want Motorola to have the Nexus contract. But they will be learning from Motorola about the art of the possible, and about the technology which helps in negotiations with the companies bidding to make Nexus devices, so a not-too-threatening level of sales suits Google just fine. And the defensive strategy is that owning a hardware house will mean that if (for example) Samsung decided to jump ship to a rival OS, Motorola can throw down the gauntlet on price and capability with near immediate effect, probably based on a phone that's already on the market, or in the pipeline.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Don't get it

      Have a read of Reggie Middleton site called BoomBustBlog. If you look through the recent articles you will see exactly what is cutting. Google playing a long game.

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  4. Nanners

    Simple is ...

    The plan is to make a cheapo iPhone knockoff. Of course it isn't, and in case you didn't notice, the iphoneC didn't do so well.

    1. ratfox
      Happy

      Re: Simple is ...

      Careful: the iPhone 5c may have been a knock-off, but it was not cheap!

    2. CmdrX3

      Re: Simple is ...

      The iPhone C didn't do well because it didn't do what most people wanted and that was to provide a low to mid range iPhone at low to mid range market prices. Instead they delivered a low to mid range iPhone at premium range price, and if you are going to pay a premium price you might as well get the iPhone 5S.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    SD slot? On a Googly blessed device? Blimey.

    1. handle

      I'm not so sure

      The photo shows a silhouette of a micro SD card with the caption "STORAGE 8GB". The article interprets this as "8GB of SD card storage," which is ambiguous but implies an SD card slot. I don't: I interpret it as 8GB of internal non-volatile storage, as the internal storage figure is not given elsewhere and an 8GB SD card doesn't cost a fiver nowadays so isn't really a selling point. Use of the silhouette to represent non-volatile storage is an ironic reminder of the good old days before Google declareth that SD cards were evil.

      The Motorola Razr I has an SD card slot. Google hasn't had time to sew it shut.

  6. Charlie Clark Silver badge

    Low end?

    Google-owned Motorola’s rumoured lower-cost alternative to the top-of-the-range …

    That's a pretty impressive spec for something now considered low-end!

    1. Steven Raith

      Re: Low end?

      I was thinking that - it's not far off Nexus 4 specs in a few important ways, and I can assure you, that's not a slow, or underwhelming phone in any respect...

  7. Uncle Ron

    iPhone

    I'd like a high quality, 4G, microSD, WiFi, Bluetooth, HDMI out, Jelly Bean or higher, Sprint smart phone and I want it to be THE SAME SIZE AS AN iPHONE. Is that too much to ask? Almost all smartphones are JUST TOO BIG. If I wanted a 5" tablet, I'd buy a 5" tablet. I want first and foremost a PHONE.

    1. Robert E A Harvey

      Re: iPhone

      Dual (or more) sim would be a killer!

  8. Tapeador

    Sounds like the perfect replacement for a Huawei Ascend G300

    mine is an absolute PITA what with not picking up email reliably, not being able to cope with basic apps like swiftkey or whatsapp without slowing to a crawl, browser dying all the time...

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