Google's Motorola seeks comeback with Moto G phone, priced at $179 - Indian Express ~ Electronic Gadgets

Reuters : San Francisco, Wed Nov 13 2013, 22:02 hrs

The new Motorola phone, which is being aimed at consumers in developing markets like Brazil and India as well as budget-buyers in Western countries. Reuters

Motorola is betting that low-cost smartphones can provide the spark to rekindle its struggling business, even as the company's ownership by Google Inc will force it to sit out of China, the world's largest smartphone market.

The company's new Moto G phone, unveiled on Wednesday morning, will be available for $179 without a wireless service contract, about one third of the price of Apple Inc's new iPhone 5C.

The new Motorola phone, which is being aimed at consumers in developing markets like Brazil and India as well as budget-buyers in Western countries, is the second major new product that Motorola has developed since its acquisition by Internet company Google in 2012.

Motorola, which reported a $248 million operating loss in the third quarter, is trying to break back into the top ranks of a fiercely competitive mobile phone market currently dominated by Apple and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd.

There are about 500 million people looking to purchase a smartphone with the Moto G's price tag, said Motorola Chief Executive Dennis Woodside in an interview with Reuters last week. "You don't have to get a lot to have some substantial change in trajectory for the top line and for the unit sales," he said, describing Motorola's business opportunity with the Moto G.

The Moto G will be available in Brazil and parts of Europe on Wednesday, with availability across Latin America, Europe and Canada in the coming weeks, and in the United States, India, Southeast Asia and the Middle East in the first quarter.

But the Moto G will not be available in China, the world's largest smartphone market by volume. The smartphone market in China is currently larger than the United States and Western Europe combined, according to research firm Strategy Analytics.

Woodside said that because the phone featured Google search, Gmail email and other Google Web services, the device could not be sold in China given the "current regulatory situation." Google relocated its search engine from mainland China to Hong Kong in 2010, in order to offer uncensored search results.

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