According to sources who spoke to The Wall Street Journal, Google plans to drop hundreds of millions of dollars – up to $500 million, and possibly more – on marketing the upcoming Moto X flagship handset. The budget will be for marketing that takes place in the United States, as well as “some overseas markets,” with it being offered by Sprint, Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile.

Says the sources, Google’s marketing plans is part of the reason the four major carriers will be offering the Moto X. In addition, so-called bloatware will be kept at a “minimum” due to specific efforts on Motorola’s part to ensure this will be the case. The sources also confirmed what we’ve heard about the customization feature: that different colors will be available, as well as engravings.

There’s also mention of pricing, with the sources saying that it will be “comparable” to the price of competing handsets, including the HTC One, Samsung GALAXY S 4, and iPhone 5. As such, buyers are likely looking at $199 with a two-year contract, and several hundred dollars without the contract’s subsidization.

Motorola’s Dennis Woodside had spoken briefly during the D11 conference about pricing, saying that he does not believe the large range of pricing in the smartphone market will persist, and that he feels the industry is receptive to Motorola “building a low-cost, high-quality market.”

Woodside had also said during the conference regarding the handset: “[The Moto X] is going to be broadly distributed. There are a couple things we’re going to be doing differently … Motorola has always been good at managing ultra-low power sensors, such as the gyroscope and the accelerometer, and keeping those on all the time so the device knows different use states. The [Moto X] knows when it is in my pocket, it knows when I take it out of my pocket. I might want to do something, I might want to take a picture, so it fires up the camera.”

SOURCE: The Wall Street Journal

7 COMMENTS

  1. I’m having a hard time believing the pricing on this article. As it was originally said that the phone would be the same price as an unlocked Nexus 4.

  2. So a successful campaign results in 20m sales. But that’s still a $25 premium per device.

    I wish Google didn’t have to go the Samsung /Apple route to sell devices… but they do.
    They have to halt the current unhelpful duopoly. And are the only company with the financial clout.

    I hope they break it.

    I’m keeping my Nexus btw. (Until the next one.)

  3. I was talking today with a coworker about their next phone, and this came up. I said “wait and see what Motorola does.” Not “buy Moto”, just “wait for it.” It could be a bunch of hype. It could be amazing. To just miss it if it’s amazing would be very sad.

  4. I still believe that CUSTOMIZATION will WOW us!
    I have no doubts that Google would not call custom colors and engravings “designed by you”!!!

    Custom colors and engravings (even with incredible software) ARE not customization worth 500Million marketing!

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