Close
  • Latest News
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
Read Down
Sign in
Close
Welcome!Log into your account
Forgot your password?
Read Down
Password recovery
Recover your password
Close
Search
Logo
Logo
  • Latest News
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
More
    Home Latest News
    • Mobile

    Motorola to Launch Moto X, New Product Line, by October

    By
    Michelle Maisto
    -
    May 30, 2013
    Share
    Facebook
    Twitter
    Linkedin

      Motorola plans to introduce a new product line during the next few months into October, and has big hopes for a new hero phone, the Moto X, Motorola CEO Dennis Woodside said during a May 29 interview at the D: All Things D event.

      Since being purchased by Google in 2012, Motorola has yet to make a major comeback—despite talk of “the new Motorola” back at the Sept. 5, 2012 introduction of three Droid Razr phones.

      That day, Woodside also borrowed from a ’70s love song, telling the crowd, “We’ve only just begun.” At the D event—where he was interviewed alongside Regina Dugan, who was snagged from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to head Motorola’s advanced R&D work—Woodside’s comments suggested that is indeed the case.

      The Moto X, which Woodside said he had in his pocket but couldn’t show off, will rely heavily on sensors—bringing to mind the Samsung Galaxy S III and 4.

      “The new phone will know when you take it out of your pocket, for example,” he said, according to report from All Things D’s Ina Fried. “It anticipates my needs.”

      Woodside said he was given a directive by Google head Larry Page to take Motorola back to the roots of innovation.

      One area that could use some innovation is authentication, said Dugan. “It is so irritating that only about half of people protect their devices.”

      Motorola has a few ideas in the works, she said, including using electronic tattoos—she was wearing one, from MC10—for authentication.

      (At the BlackBerry Live show in Orlando earlier this month, a QNX software product manager showed removable tattoos—which look not unlike the kind marketed to small kids—being used as part of a tube- and monitor-free health care solution to take more effective patient heart readings.)

      “Everybody is interested in wearables. I’m profoundly interested in wearables,” said Dugan.

      She added that many 20-year-olds may not want to wear a watch—likely a dig at Apple CEO Tim Cook, who said the day before that people are probably more inclined to wear a watch than glasses, meaning Google Glass—”but they’ll wear a tattoo, if only to piss off their parents.”

      Another far-from-traditional authentication solution is a pill containing a chip and a switch.

      “It’s powered by a battery, charged by the acids in your stomach creating an electronic switch,” said Dugan. “Your entire body becomes your authentication token.”

      Woodside said that no one should expect the pills to begin shipping soon, but that they’re a “sign of the new boldness inside Motorola.”

      The company used to take more risks, he added. “If we can bring back that audaciousness and that confidence, good things will happen.”

      Yet another bold move is Motorola’s plan to build the Moto X in Texas, in a factory outside Fort Worth that once made Nokia phones. This would make it the company’s first smartphone—if not the only smartphone in the industry—built in the United States. Woodside clarified that the processors will be from Taiwan and the OLED screens from Korea, “but 70 percent of assembly will occur in Texas.”

      Motorola finished 2012 with a 1.9 percent share of the global mobile phone market, according to Gartner. When asked how confident he is that Motorola’s next batch of phones will “move the needle,” Woodside said “pretty confident,” pointing out that in 2010, current market leader Samsung was selling the same number of devices that Motorola is shipping today.

      The products Motorola plans to ship throughout the fall, Woodside added, “are unlike other things out there.”

      Follow Michelle Maisto on Twitter.

      Editor’s Note: This story has been corrected to reflect that the new factory is outside of Fort Worth, not Austin.

      Michelle Maisto
      Michelle Maisto has been covering the enterprise mobility space for a decade, beginning with Knowledge Management, Field Force Automation and eCRM, and most recently as the editor-in-chief of Mobile Enterprise magazine. She earned an MFA in nonfiction writing from Columbia University, and in her spare time obsesses about food. Her first book, The Gastronomy of Marriage, if forthcoming from Random House in September 2009.

      MOST POPULAR ARTICLES

      Cybersecurity

      Visa’s Michael Jabbara on Cybersecurity and Digital...

      James Maguire - May 17, 2022 0
      I spoke with Michael Jabbara, VP and Global Head of Fraud Services at Visa, about the cybersecurity technology used to ensure the safe transfer...
      Read more
      Cloud

      Yotascale CEO Asim Razzaq on Controlling Multicloud...

      James Maguire - May 5, 2022 0
      Asim Razzaq, CEO of Yotascale, provides guidance on understanding—and containing—the complex cost structure of multicloud computing. Among the topics we covered:  As you survey the...
      Read more
      Big Data and Analytics

      GoodData CEO Roman Stanek on Business Intelligence...

      James Maguire - May 4, 2022 0
      I spoke with Roman Stanek, CEO of GoodData, about business intelligence, data as a service, and the frustration that many executives have with data...
      Read more
      IT Management

      Intuit’s Nhung Ho on AI for the...

      James Maguire - May 13, 2022 0
      I spoke with Nhung Ho, Vice President of AI at Intuit, about adoption of AI in the small and medium-sized business market, and how...
      Read more
      Android

      Samsung Galaxy XCover Pro: Durability for Tough...

      Chris Preimesberger - December 5, 2020 0
      Have you ever dropped your phone, winced and felt the pain as it hit the sidewalk? Either the screen splintered like a windshield being...
      Read more
      Logo

      eWeek has the latest technology news and analysis, buying guides, and product reviews for IT professionals and technology buyers. The site’s focus is on innovative solutions and covering in-depth technical content. eWeek stays on the cutting edge of technology news and IT trends through interviews and expert analysis. Gain insight from top innovators and thought leaders in the fields of IT, business, enterprise software, startups, and more.

      Facebook
      Linkedin
      RSS
      Twitter
      Youtube

      Advertisers

      Advertise with TechnologyAdvice on eWeek and our other IT-focused platforms.

      Advertise with Us

      Menu

      • About eWeek
      • Subscribe to our Newsletter
      • Latest News

      Our Brands

      • Privacy Policy
      • Terms
      • About
      • Contact
      • Advertise
      • Sitemap
      • California – Do Not Sell My Information

      Property of TechnologyAdvice.
      © 2021 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved

      Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.

      ×