What ever happened to the leak or rumor that never managed to pan out? These days everything we see hit the wire, whether it's a random image, or something we hear word of mouth from an unknown source, seems to pan out. I'm not talking about the ridiculous rumors, mind you, the ones that we already know right off the bat that they aren't true. I'm talking more about things like Motorola's Moto G. A device that has a pending official announcement right around the corner, but that's managed to slip through the leaky holes at Motorola more than a couple times in the last few weeks.
Actually, it's been more than a couple of months since we started hearing about the Moto G for the first time. Way back at the beginning of August we heard from Motorola's CEO, Dennis Woodside, that a cheaper Moto X-inspired device was coming down the pipe at some point in the near future, and that it would be aimed at developing markets and prepaid carriers. It wasn't give name back then, but it didn't take long for the whole world to learn that it would be called the Moto G.
And now it's official, kind of. Motorola's released an invitation for something new on November 13, and they're not shy to point out that it's something called the "moto g." We have to wait a bit longer to find out the final, official details of the device, but as you can imagine we've already got a pretty clear picture of what to expect.
(Can I just say how annoying it is that even on Motorola's invitation, they switch from "moto g" to Moto G? And then on their website it's "Moto X," so it better not be "moto g" for the new device. Figure it out, Motorola!)
As far as the leaks and rumors are concerned, the new Moto G (yep, that's what I'm going with) will feature a 4.5-inch edge-to-edge HD display, with a resolution of 1280x720. They say the Moto G will have a pixel per inch count of 329 for anyone keeping track. Under the hood you'll find a "super-fast" Qualcomm Snapdragon quad-core processor clocked at 1.2GHz, and the 5-megapixel camera on the back will be capable of taking 720p video at 30fps. There's a 1.3MP camera on the front of the device for good measure. It'll have 8GB of storage out of the box, and the rumors don't point to any kind of expandable memory (which is admittedly odd, even for a "budget" phone). Interestingly enough, the Moto G will run Android 4.3 Jelly Bean out of the box.
I think that last bit is interesting for the sole fact that it just goes to show, even more so than the Moto X maybe, how it just doesn't matter what Motorola's relationship with Google is. I think it's fair to assume that the Moto G, even as a budget device, will have 512MB of RAM, so it could very well be running Android 4.4 KitKat out of the box. And yet it isn't. Which, ironically enough, means it'll be running a newer version of Android than the recently released hero device, the Moto X, at least for a little bit. (Unless it launches after Motorola updates the Moto X to Android 4.4, mind you, which is certainly possible.)
As the title of the article states, I don't think the Moto G is a terrible device by any means. It sounds like a respectable mid-range device, and I'm sure it will definitely find a place in developing markets, and especially on prepaid carriers around the globe. If it can boast the same stability and feature-rich environment that the Moto X has, but manage to tone back some of the price, along with some of the features obviously, then I think Motorola's got a potential hit on their hands for the market they're aiming for.
It will come down to the price tag, though, and hopefully Motorola has learned from the debacle that was the Motorola X. We've heard that the Moto G will be free on contract, and that's definitely the right way to go. You can get the the Moto X sans a contract right now for $529.99 in most places (like Moto Maker), so the Moto G should be priced somewhere around $400, if not down to $350 right off the bat. The price tag will make or break Motorola's second effort in their "Moto" lineup, so hopefully they're weighing those ramifications accordingly.
Prepaid carriers don't have quite the stigma they used to have here in the States, so I can't help but wonder if the Moto G would make an impact there. We won't be able to tell how the device stacks up against others out there until Motorola finally takes the covers off of it on November 13, so thankfully we don't have long to wait.
Until then, I want to know what you think of Motorola's next Moto device. Do you think the Moto G can make an impact in developing markets, or on prepaid carriers here in the States? How much would you be willing to pay for it, based on the specs we've heard so far? Let me know what you think of the Moto G.
