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Motorola CEO Dennis Woodside discusses upcoming ‘unbreakable’ plastic phones, compares Moto G to iPhone

Motorola had a pretty exciting 2013. The company released the highly-anticipated, highly-customizbale, American-made Moto X back in August. The company then released the budget Moto G, which received high reviews from many people. In a recent interview with AP, Motorola CEO Dennis Woodside sat down to discuss the company’s past year and give a peak into the future and how the company has changed since its acquisition by Google.

When asked what he thought consumers were most interested in seeing in their future smartphones, Woodside commented that a big area was durability. 

Q: What early signs (are you) seeing in what people are going to be wanting from their smartphones?

A: Phones break. They’re glass. That’s likely to change in the next 24 months, as plastic becomes more present and producible.

The Motorola chief went on to add that voice operations is another area of interest for the company, which we saw with the always-listening Moto X.

You’ll be speaking to (the) phone, asking it to do things, and it will be responding and actually doing what you intend, as opposed to you reading a command line.

Finally, regarding what the company is looking into, Woodside said that wearables are an interesting idea, as well and noted that no one has really come up with the perfect idea yet.

Wearables are obviously an area that’s of interest. No one has really come up with the killer-use case that defines what that means and how that works.

Woodside’s comments regarding durability are certainly interesting. Especially the fact that he specifically mentions plastic become more durable, not metal and other materials.

Next, Woodside was asked about the company’s biggest competitors, namely Apple and Samsung. He noted that Samsung has shown that a large marketing budget can get you very far in the smartphone market.

Q: Who would you consider your closest competitor?

A: Apple, Samsung. They’ve shown, especially Samsung, that marketing can really create a product and a phenomenon. We’re never going to have the money that they have to market our products.

So, we have to have products that do something a little bit differently, which is what you’re starting to see with Moto G.

The CEO also compared the Moto G to the iPhone, noting that you can now get a product with specs of the iPhone, for a fourth of the cost.

Q: A lot of people know Motorola for early cellphones and the Razr line. Today, how would you describe Motorola?

A: Our product is not necessarily the hardware, but the mobile Web. Our mission is to provide access to hundreds of millions of people, if not billions over time, to mobile services.

With Moto G, you’re starting to see the strategy. You have a product that spec for spec does stand up to an iPhone at one-fourth the price.

The full interview is available from AP now.

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