I’m due for an upgrade. I was looking at the Droid Maxx but this Moto X thing is looking better and better every day. Leo Laporte will be doing a full review on Before You Buy later today and if that goes well I think I’ll be sold. In the mean time here’s a great article from Staven Levy on the story behind the Moto x:
Almost exactly two years ago, Google announced its purchase of Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion. It was the company’s biggest deal ever, far exceeding previous big buys like YouTube for $1.7 billion and DoubleClick for $3.1 billion. Both of those acquisitions were hugely successful, but the Motorola purchase seemed baffling. Mainly, it seemed to provide Google with valuable intellectual property that would allow the company to defend itself against a tidal wave of patent lawsuits. Motorola—the inventor of the very first cell phone—had a great patent portfolio indeed. But the estimated worth of those patents was less than half Google’s purchase price. The other portion brought Google a money-bleeding Chicago-area-based hardware business. The purchase would almost double Google’s head count with employees who brought little to the bottom line. Employees who were not Googly, in a business that seemingly didn’t scale. What was Google thinking?
Finally, we have the answer. The Moto X, announced today, marks the arrival, finally, of the Google Phone.
Read the full story @ Wired.com.
It’s coming up on new phone time for me as well and I am looking at the upcoming Motorola phones. I’ll have to see the review Leo Laporte does. One thing that makes me hesitant right now is that the battery can’t be removed. I’ve had my current phone freeze up a few times and could only get out of it by removing the battery. Maybe there is a trick for phones where you can’t remove the battery – I haven’t read up on it yet.
Leo’s review of Before You Buy pretty much put me over the edge and unless something significant changes I’m planning on going with the Moto X. Now, the question is do I want to wait ’till November for a customizeable 32GB version?
I’ve watched the Before You Buy review as well as reading some other reviews. I am more tempted by the Moto X now. I’ll have to do a hands on in a store to see how it feels. I don’t want to wait until November – my current phone is driving me too nuts with how slow it is.