All signs sugest that Motorola is reviving their 'eye of the tiger' fire to fight back to a competitive stance in the mobile world. PC Magazine recently interviewed Jim Wicks, Motorola's design chief, and his comments are more than encouraging, they are downright exciting.
First, remember several weeks ago when Google execs made the comment that the current Motorola pipeline lacked the "wow" factor. This lead to a great deal of speculation that the Motorola X Phone and/or other phones about to be released by Motorola where somehow lackluster. Apparently, the quote was taken out of context. Jim Wicks was frustrated by that. He indicated that the first Google/Motorola collaborative phones will come in the second half of 2013. He also added,
It seems that the Google execs who made this comment were actually referring to the current lineup of Droid RAZR products. Putting it in that context, and filling in the blanks with Wicks' statement, it's easy to speculate the next flagship Moto device to hit the streets toward the end of this year will be designed purposefully to "wow" us.
Clearing up this contextual misunderstanding would be exciting enough for one story, but there is still a whole lot more to share from the interview that really has us at HQ thrilled. Next, Wicks shared,
So, basically he is implying that the next gen Motorola Androids will run a stock or "near-stock" version of Android. That's pretty awesome, but there's more!
Apparently, Motorola and Google plan to "buck the trend" when it comes to physical phone bloat. In other words, Motorola intends to stick with smaller form factor designs and do not intend to release a phablet sized smartphone. According to Wicks, they are adopting the philosophy "better is better" instead of "bigger is better." Here's what else he had to say on the subject,
Wicks also shared that the fight against bloat wasn't just the size of the device, but also included Motorola's new strategy to reduce bloatware software on the device. Here's his comment,
At this point, your mind might already be blown, but there is still a bit more to share. Additionally, Wicks added that Motorola intends to continue their move toward creating devices with little to no bezel, like the Motorola Droid M. He also indicated Moto plans to continue focusing on scratch-resistance and drop-resistance. He explained,
Finally, despite Motorola's excellent success with the Droid RAZR branding on Verizon, they intend to focus less on carrier exclusivity and instead develop a more carrier-agnostic market identity the way Samsung has with the Galaxy line. Motorola is shifting their strategy to offer more cross-carrier brands and fewer products. Wicks said,
Wow! so, let's do a quick bullet-point recap to take it all in:
- Our earlier perceptions of the Motorola pipeline were skewed. The next-gen Moto devices (like possibly the mythical X Phone) are designed to "wow."
- Moto intends to adopt a more pure-Android experience for these next-gen smartphones.
- The next-gen Moto devices are coming out toward the end of this year.
- Motorola is not going to jump on the "giant phone" bandwagon just because everyone else is doing it.
- Moto intends to continue focusing on tougher, lighter & smaller form factors and push toward a bezel-free design.
- They intend to drastically reduce the amount of bloatware software on their devices.
- Motorola plans to branch out across multiple carriers with their next lineup of devices instead of focusing so much on exclusivity.
Source: PCMag
