Leading up to the first of August, 2013, Motorola wasn't coy about the device that would eventually turn out to be the Moto X. The company was quick to point out that the incoming handset would be their "hero device," and their expectations for the phone were obviously pretty high. Of course, the company's plan has to be to stoke the flames of interest before the device launches, or they run the risk of no one caring when it finally is unveiled.
Lucky for Motorola that when they did unveil the Moto X, with all of its mid-range specifications, it stood on its own legs when people got their hands on it, felt how great it was, and saw the features that Motorola built inside it to help it stand out. The Moto X isn't perfect, but no phone is. I've admitted more than a few times that the only real flaw with the device was its price tag, which launched at $199 on a new, two-year contract, and well over $500 without an agreement. It was just too high.
When I asked all of you what you would change about Motorola's Moto X, I wasn't all that surprised that many of you wanted the specifications to match the price tag. You wanted a better display. A faster processor with more cores. The screen size was generally okay, from the responses, which wasn't all that surprising. A lot of people said they wanted it to just be cheaper in general.
And a lot of people said they wanted access to Moto Maker.
Moto Maker, for those who have missed that particular boat, is the way you get to customize the Moto X to your liking. You get to change the battery cover, the button hues, and the front-facing panel's color, too. The ring around the camera's lens can also be colored, too (to match the buttons, mind you). When Moto Maker launched, it was an exclusive deal with AT&T, and it has been ever since, despite the fact the Moto X has been available for other carriers for a little while now.
Today, that changes. Motorola has officially opened the floodgates, and Moto Maker is now available for all the major wireless carriers. No longer do Verizon customers have to just select between white or black, and the same goes for Sprint and T-Mobile subscribers as well. You can pick all the colors that suit you the best, and get the phone that really stands out in your own life.
There is no doubt in my mind that while there are good things about the Moto X, especially with its current price drop across the board (both on-contract and off), the real standout feature is the customization. Moto Maker is what makes the Moto X really stand out, and the exclusivity deal just wasn't the way they should have started things for Motorola's hero device. But now that it's over, I can't help but wonder if there were people out there genuinely waiting for this day to come.
I know a lot of people on AT&T received customized Moto Xs, and I even know a few people on other carriers who just picked up a Moto X without the customization options. But I don't know of anyone personally who waited. I know there are a lot of people who said they'd like Moto Maker available for other carriers, but I can't help but wonder if those same people were actually waiting for it to happen. Did they hold off on purchasing another phone, or especially a Moto X, because they wanted to customize their phone that much?
Or, on the other end of the spectrum, did Motorola miss their window of opportunity and just launch Moto Maker's widespread availability too late? Did you plan on picking up a Moto X now that you can customize it for your carrier? Or have you already forgotten about Motorola's hero device? Let me know!
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