Following the continued growth of smartphones in the US and increasing competition between Samsung and Apple, the two companies saw combined growth between 2012 and 2013 amounting to 68% of the US smartphone market. That’s according to data provided by The NPD Group which reports overall smartphone growth increased from 52% to 60% in Q4 of 2012 and 2013, respectively. NPD reports Samsung rose from 22% to 26% in Q4 2012 to 2013 among US smartphone users. Expand Expanding Close
Following its announcement last August and rollout in the US, the Google-owned Motorola announced today via Twitter a timeline for Moto X availability in select European countries. Motorola is taking its Moto X smartphone to the United Kingdom, France, and Germany beginning sometime next month.
Of the most notable things Motorola has accomplished over the past year is arguably its contextually aware services, found on devices like the Moto X. Today, the company’s Assist app on the Play Store has been updated with a few new features. For those unaware, Assist can determine your actions, such as driving and sleeping, and perform a pre-specificed command.
Up until today, the app could only read you the text messages you got while driving. With this newest update, however, you can now reply to texts while driving by speaking to the phone. So once the text is read to you, you will have the ability to read a response to the app. In addition to that, Assist can also now launch your music player of choice when it notices you are driving.
The update is available on the Play Store, although Motorola Assist is only compatible with the most recent Droid line of devices, as well as the Moto X.
After the Cyber Monday madness surrounding the $349 Moto X, Motorola officially dropped the device’s off-contract price to just $399 last week, looking to get the device into even more consumer’s hands. Today, the company has announced another special offer for the Moto X. Starting today, January 8th, and running through January 14th, anyone who purchases an off-contract Moto X from Motorola’s website will also get a free Google Chromecast. The Chromecast costs $35 normally, so this is a great deal for anyone looking for the two devices.
The deal is live now on Motorola’s site. Simply use the promo “STREAM” to obtain the offer. The Moto X runs $399 for 16GB and $449 for 32GB.
Hot on the heels of rumors claiming that Verizon would soon be offering the Moto G for $100, Best Buy has announced that it is now selling the device in its retail stores. Speaking to the LA Times, Best Buy spokesman Jonathan Sandler announced that, the device “is currently landing in stores and is available for sale as soon as it arrives.” This means that there is no set release date for the device from Best Buy, so you’ll need to keep in contact with your local store if you are interested in purchasing one.
A version of the phone for Sprint’s Boost Mobile prepaid service was also released today, this time through HSN. The Moto G is currently on sale for $129.95, but you can get it for $99 after a $30 mail-in rebate (regular price $169.95).
Being priced at just $99.99 sans-contract, the Moto G is easily the best bargain phone on the market. We were big fans of it when we reviewed it, and its recent update to Android 4.4 KitKat only further improved the experience. Of course, it’s also worth noting that the Moto G’s older sibling, the Moto X, received a price drop today as well, and now runs $399.99.
Motorola is kicking off 2014 with a piece of excellent news as the Moto X drops to $399.99 without contract. Rick Osterloh, the company’s Senior Vice President just announced the news on the company’s official blog stating Motorola has “hearing a lot recently from people who want a new premium smartphone at a reasonable price without having to wait for a contract upgrade.” Motorola is taking the bull by the horns and dropping the price down to a level that is arguably one of the best price tags we’ve seen on a premium device in some time.
Update: According to an internal Verizon memo obtained by Droid-Life, the Moto G will be available from the carrier on January 9th.
It’s no secret that we are big fans of the Moto G here at 9to5Google. As of right now, the device is available unlocked from both Motorola and Amazon in 8GB and 16GB varieties for $179 and $199 respectively. According to a leaked image shared on Google+, the device will soon be coming for an even cheaper price.
Motorola CEO Dennis Woodside is in the precarious position of living up to incredible expectations as a Google owned company while still keeping the Motorola name in the spotlight. In an interview with the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, Woodside talked that very issue and more.
Last week, Motorola announced that the Moto G would soon begin to be updated to Android 4.4 KitKat. Today, it looks like the update has finally started rolling out to users, as both Seth and I have received the update on our respective Moto G devices. The update comes in at roughly 191MB and bumps the device to build number 172.44.4.en.US.
New in the update are many of the changes we’ve come to know and love in KitKat. For one, all the new white-gradiants are present, replacing the blue, as is the new transparent notification bar. Not included is the new launcher found on the Nexus 5, though Google touts that as being exclusive to Nexus devices. You can always side load it, of course. Motorola also touts that new camera controls, such as manual focus and exposure, are included, though that was also included in an update to the Motorola Camera app on Google Play.
While the world may be looking at Samsung with loving eyes thanks to the wild success of the Galaxy line, I wouldn’t call 2013 the year of the Samsung. Instead, I’m prepared to give that title to the folks at Motorola with a dose of LG on the side. There’s little question that Motorola roared back this year with the Moto X and the Moto G just boosted their game at the very end of the year. That’s not to say LG didn’t have a great year, but with the success and great reviews of the Nexus 5 comes disappointing sales of their flagship the LG G2.
To say that 2013 has been an interesting year in the world of Android would be putting it mildly, but has it really been a banner year? The release of Android-oriented products like Google Glass, Google Hangouts/revamp of Google+ and the beginnings of Google Retail led the way for a whole new approach for Google to take on the competition.
As we look back at the Android-based smartphones that launched in 2013, there isn’t any one handset that truly stands out as a market revolution. Instead, 2013 saw improvements and innovation on existing brands and lines that were already incredibly popular. For example, the Galaxy S 4 which kicks off our list below didn’t really raise the bar over the Galaxy S III in a truly big way, but it did improve on an already market-leading experience from the Galaxy S III.
So without further adieu, here are the 9to5Google’s top Android smartphone picks for 2013: Expand Expanding Close
Did you miss out on Motorola’s $350 off-contract Cyber Monday deal for the Moto X? If you did, here’s another opportunity to score the device sans contract for that very same price. The offer is “exclusive to Today Show viewers” but like any good deal made its way over to Slick Deals where readers are grabbing their shiny new Moto X units.
Just a few weeks after the device went up for sale, Motorola has announced that Android 4.4.2 is now rolling out to the Moto G. The update brings all of the KitKat features we’ve come to know and love. One of the biggest selling points of KitKat is the improved performance on lower-end devices that don’t have as much power under the hood. Given that the Moto G is own the lower-end of the totem pole, KitKat should drastically improve the performance of the device, not that it was bad before. Expand Expanding Close
Grabbing the attention of customers in the wireless industry these days requires some slick moves and a creative mind. Well, Motorola has done exactly that with a brand new interactive ad in January’s Wired magazine.
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. Expand Expanding Close
When I wrote for Fortune in 2010 that inexpensive hardware would allow Android to ‘take over the world’, the concept of smartphones that were priced only slightly above feature phones was just starting to take hold. Fast forward three years and Android has by some accounts cleared 80% of the world smartphone market. The low end of that Android spectrum, with the exception of a few mediocre handsets (LG’s Optimus line comes to mind), has been, frankly, a mess.
Today there is a truly great, inexpensive Android phone that costs less than $200 unsubsidized, and it is made by Google’s Motorola division. I’ve tested the Moto G for the past week and a half and I love it. It could easily replace any high end handset on a day to day basis in terms of speed and functionality. The one caveat being the camera is mediocre, but still functional.
I’ll rundown the specs, but the important thing to consider is the price and positioning of Google (and believe me, this is a Google phone, not an old Motorola one).
The $179/$199 8GB/16GB Motorola G comes with a 4.5-inch 720P display, which isn’t the best by any means, but it also isn’t far from the best out there. I’ve argued for awhile that you can’t hardly make out the difference between 720P and 1080P on a display without some very close inspection. Even those with sub 20/20 vision don’t notice much day to day.
The G has a quad-core Snapdragon 400 processor which falls along the same lines: Not the best, but not far from it. It is a little heavier than what I’d now expect from a 4.5-inch display phone, but that heft is largely because of the all day 2,070 mAh battery.
This thing looks and behaves like a flagship Nexus phone…from last year – all the way down to the hardly-touched Android 4.3 interface. Motorola has promised some form of 4.4 Kitkat by the end of next month. With the veracity that they’ve been updating their Moto X handsets, I have little doubt that it will get done.
But what does this all mean? Why this phone at this price? Why now? Expand Expanding Close
With it’s latest Moto G and Moto X devices, Motorola has made its camera app available on Google Play. This means that the company can rollout an update specifically to it without having to release a full, OTA update and deal with carrier approval. This afternoon, the company did just that and updated its camera app on Google Play. Most notably, the update adds the ability to manually control focus and exposure. To try this, simply bring up the settings menu from within the app, and tap the finger pointing into a square button.
The winter weather has already wreaked some havoc across the US and unfortunately those folks waiting for Moto G shipments, the wait might take a bit longer than anticipated. According to separate emails obtained by Engadget and Android Central, Motorola is explaining that bad weather has impacted operations at their fulfillment center in Forth Worth, Texas.
Update: Motorla has just detailed the full process for obtaining a Moto X at $350 on its blog. The company will now issue coupon codes to obtain the device at a discount, and customers will have one week to redeem the code and design their device with Moto Maker. Visit Motorola’s blog for the detailed instructions.
Motorola’s ultra-afordable Moto G finally became available in the United States earlier this week from the company’s website, and now the device is available via Amazon (via Android Central). The online retailer is selling the device in both 8GB and 16GB capacities for $179 and $199, respectively.
Features of the Moto X include:
A brilliant 4.5-inch HD display – the sharpest in its class – that goes edge to edge so you can enjoy movies, photos, video chats and more.
The newest Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 400 processor featuring a quad-core CPU for seamless multitasking and enjoying the web, videos and games, with all-day battery life.
Android 4.3 Jellybean, the most up to date Android of any phone in its class, with a guaranteed upgrade to Android 4.4 KitKat in the beginning of 2014. No skins to clutter or slow the experience and great performance with Google’s unbeatable mobile services such as Gmail, YouTube, Google Maps, Chrome and Hangouts.
Stylish design with a comfortable curved back and 19 customization options, including interchangeable backs (coming soon) – Motorola Shells and Flip Shells in seven colors as well as Grip Shells in five colors.
The Moto G will ship on December 4th, should you order it from Amazon.
