Google issues Moto X smartphone aiming to compete with iPhone

Google will present the Motorola Moto X smartphone today, its latest attempt to leapfrog Apple’s iPhone – this time with a device containing bunch of sensors and processors that will allow the phone to anticipate users next move.

The Moto X would cost around $200 when it goes on sale later this month with the five largest US mobile operators, is the first smartphone designed and built by Motorola engineers since Google acquired the company 14 months ago.

Among its most exciting features, the Moto X will react to user voice commands without any need to touch the device, even if the phone is in sleep mode. Google stated that the ongoing mic usage would not hurt smartphones battery life which is believed to endure 24 hours of moderate usage on single charge.

Eric Schmidt, Google’s chairman, who attended the launch in New York, said that while Google could not favor Motorola over its Android partners, “we can certainly compete with Samsung and with Motorola against Apple.”

He explained that the mobile industry had moved towards a model of mobile apps running on devices supported by cloud-based services.

“We ride with that,” Mr Schmidt said to Financial Times. “I think a lot will be determined by the quality of what Motorola can produce. Can it really do these incredibly innovative products?”

The Moto X represented a return to Motorola’s engineering and innovation roots, according to Dennis Woodside, Motorola chief executive. He described the new handset, which has eight separate processors, as a key part of Google’s mobile strategy. The new smartphone is not going to follow on the footsteps of flagship phones as making it faster instead Google tries to produce a smarter device which would define surroundings by integrated sensors and would suggest appropriate applications to the user to serve him more efficiently.

It would also be the first smartphone manufactured entirely in US at a Motorola facility in Fort Worth, Texas. Manufacturing locally will enable customers who use AT&T as their operator to customize the device, for example with a unique case, and still receive the handset within four days of ordering it.

Analysts and industry executives also say that, while there is potential to improve today’s smartphones, there are technical problems that have to be solved.

“The name smartphone is misleading because the phone today isn’t really smart,” said to Financial Times Kevin Jou, chief technology officer of MediaTek, the Taiwanese mobile chip company. “Basically, it’s a collection of many, many functions that we used to have to use different devices [such as a camera, television or phone] to perform.”