Motorola will be announcing the Moto G shortly. The handset is expected to be a lower-cost alternative to the Moto X. And coincidentally, we recently saw price cuts for the Moto X both on and off-contract. Motorola also opened up the Moto Maker to all four major US carriers this week. But with all this Moto X news, a new report coming from the Wall Street Journal brings talk of poor sales.
The important point to mention here, the sales information hasn’t come direct from Motorola. Instead, this report is based on “people familiar with the matter.” That being said, there was talk of “weak sales” for the Moto X. Research firm Strategy Analytics is estimating that Motorola has sold roughly half-a-million during the third quarter.
In comparison, the Samsung Galaxy S 4 managed to climb above the 10 million mark in the first month of availability. While the Moto X may not have lived up to all the expectations of Google and Motorola, we will soon see how well the Moto G will do. The Moto G is going to be announced on November 13th.
We have been seeing some specs leak for the Moto G recently, but much of the focus seems to have been on the pricing. Another Strategy Analytics analyst, Neil Mawston has said he expects the Moto G to arrive priced somewhere between the Galaxy S III and Galaxy S2, assuming someone were to buy either device new and off-contract.
Perhaps the key here will be for Motorola to find the right markets for such a device. We are expecting to learn where the handset will be available during the event tomorrow, however given the location for the event — it seems likely the Moto G will at least be available for those in Brazil.
Otherwise, the Moto G event will be streamed live on Google+, should you feel the need to watch the announcement live and as it happens.
If they had opened up moto maker to all carriers at launch I think things might have gone a little better. That said, it’s going to take some time for the masses to look past the Galaxy line. Moto just needs to keep building solid stuff and people will start to notice.
Personally I loved the size of this phone (4.7 in screen is bigger than my droid razr maxx but the phone is smaller in size), but considering that it would cost me almost twice as much as a Nexus 5, why would I buy it while moving from VZW to T-Mo.
The Moto X was definitely over-hyped in leaks and rumours as having a Nexus-like price point sold directly from Motorola. I’m sure a good number of people were turned off by the fact that upon release the Moto X sold for as much as flagship phones from other companies, both on off- and on-contract pricing. Then, as Jordan said, the slow, gradual rollout of Moto Maker availability to carriers definitely hurt sales figures, since customizability was supposed to be one of the X’s biggest selling points (but not enough to entice people into switching carriers). Up here in Canada it’s still only exclusive to Rogers and Fido, in just stock black and white, and it’s assembled in China, not the US. I do think that the X is a decent stepping stone and a showcase of what the Moto/Google collaboration is capable of, without being tied to Verizon’s Droid lineup.
Is this really considered weak or bad considering it was so limited. Comparing sales of a device that was available world wide and all carriers is a bit misleading. Since it was only available in the U.S. and on one carrier, I would think that it can not be that bad. Just have to see if it improves as it expands availability.
I bought the Moto X because the wait for Nexus 5 was too long. The Moto X is a great phone. It is very close to stock Android, was super easy to transfer from my old phone, has great battery life, is a great size and some really nice features not available on other devices. While color was not important it was fun to customize my phone (crimson and black) and it arrived in 2 days!
Yes, a few things hurt them: not available on all carriers, lower screen resolution (but due to its size and Amoled screen I think it has sharp visuals), the extended pre-release hype hurt and oddly minimal post-release advertising.
While I think the AT&T exclusive Moto Makr hurt the launch, I think that was only part of the problem. At launch most of the “tech” bloggers panned the device as gimmicky and low end based on specs. What they missed is to get the same functionality out of a higher spec’d phone would have meant a dead battery by lunch time, because Motorola’s use of a lower res screen and multiple cores is what enables the “gimmicks” to work without sucking battery. But if your joe schmo reading the tech blog saying it sucks because it doesnt have a snapdragon 800, thats your only take away. Lets say you like it anyway, wait here is a story before the phone ships that it will drop $100 in price in the fourth quarter (which it did). Let’s say you’ll wait for that…wait some more…here comes the Nexus 5, or they are releasing a lower cost version of the X called the Moto G (which happens tomorrow). I am getting the Moto X because I think what some call gimmicks many of us would call functionality, but I waited for the price drop. Motorola and Google did a really shitty job leaking information out to the public and that more than anything is what beat down opening sales.