Leaks & Rumors about Motorola’s X and Upcoming Nexus Smartphones

Motorola’s Nexus X:

Ladies and gentlemen, get ready for some interesting news from the rumor mill. We have been seeing a hint here and another one there indicating what Google & Motorola has planned for its upcoming X smartphone. And although there have been rumors and speculation floating around for a while now, we have in fact, began to see more and more leaks about Motorola’s upcoming X phone.
As if you all haven’t had enough yet, we now have more rumors to share with you courtesy of our friends from Android and Me. These leaks and rumors seem to come from a “confirmed source” of proven reliability…so hang on to your seats as we break down the latest and greatest!

New Rumor #1: “The target launch date for the Moto X has slipped from June to July due to manufacturing issues.“

Bottom Line Up Front (BLUF): Sources originally leaked a launch date of June 2013, so a shift to the right by a month doesn’t seem like such a far stretch. The source report also eludes to some type of “exclusive” launch sometime in July followed by a “broader” launch around the Thanksgiving time-frame. Which means we may be looking at an “internet only” initial launch followed be a carrier launch a few months later. If this launch date holds true, then we can expect to hear an announcement of the release at Google I/O in May. We shall see…

New Rumor #2: “X phone customization will be limited to the ‘design of the phone (to include color combinations, and material for the outer casing, like plastic, metal, or carbon fiber)’, ‘internal storage’, and ‘personalized software settings’.“

BLUF: Original leaks led us to believe the customization would be endless, causing readers to infer that they would have complete customization control right down to the amount of RAM to be used. Although a little disappointing, this new rumor further validates the original customization rumors, while adding an additional layer of believability to the rumor by placing restrictions on the types of customizations that can be done. I know I had a hard time believing the original reports, as it was hard for me to wrap my head around the production process and how Motorola would be able to afford the many changes they would have to make throughout the production cycle to make endless combustibility an affordable and worthwhile reality.

I have to admit, the idea of software customization, as we have seen made possible through HTC’s “Get Started”, would be nice.  I have to admit, being able to logon to an online dashboard using my Google account prior to the arrival of my ordered device to customize the desktop, wallpaper, ringtones, preinstalled apps, and the like, would be a welcomed feature. Something like this would save me hours of customization when I first jump on my new handset.

New Rumor #3: “The specs of the first Motorola X phone will be comparable to the HTC One, but will not be an iPhone or Galaxy S 4 killer.“

BLUF: Initial reports were that the Moto X phone line of devices would be marketed with an emphasis on customization capabilities, with additional options for expansion through connected devices like Google Glass and the upcoming SmartWatch. Basically, OEMs feel the specs are irrelevant due to the focus shift from hardware specs, which lets face it, have far outgrown software capabilities, to app, services, and experiences that the devices can deliver. I mean, to be honest, even the Galaxy S 4 would be just another high-end smartphone if Samsung didn’t pack it full of their “life companion” innovations, right?

Besides, if Motorola focused strictly on hardware advancements with the Moto X line, then they wouldn’t be able to keep their promise of “heavily subsidized retail pricing”, like we have seen with the affordable Moto RAZR line of devices, would they?

New Rumor #4: “The Moto X will feature a Motorola logo on the back of the device that acts as a touch sensitive button that allows you to launch commands.“

BLUF: This rumor holds true at this point in time. No changes here, other than Motorola may give users the power to control what the new logo button launches when pressed.

New Rumor #5: “Motorola will still release several more Droid phones this year.“

BLUF: Google has admittedly inherited an 18 month production pipeline, which means this rumor is more than likely accurate.

New Rumor #6: “Motorola will release a Nexus phone at the end of the year, that is not associated with the Moto X line.“

BLUF: Although the rumor mill is running rampant with whispers of another LG Nexus phone, we should not discount this one. There is nothing to suggest that Motorola won’t release its own Nexus handset. If the past is any indicator, than the release of both ASUS and Samsung Nexus tablets last year shows us that it is completely plausible that this can, and may, happen with LG and Motorola’s handsets.

If Motorola did decide to release both lines in parallel, this could pose a significant financial burden. The amount of money they would have to dish out in advertising alone would be a significant financial blow, one that smartphone sales alone may not be able to soften. Which means Motorola (Google) would have to pull resources from other markets to cover cost. Not sure if the initial losses would justify the overall gains, but I am no financial guru, so I will let the bean counters worry about this one.

If they were to release the two handsets, then the Nexus would probably end up as the “stock” option, leaving the Moto X line the dominant of the two as the only “customizable” option. If both smartphones are in the manufacturing pipeline, then this might explain why design spec leaks are all over the map and we are having a hard time narrowing down these leaks a rumors to a more specific list.

New Rumor #7: “Google Watch will be announced and sold at the same time as the Moto X.“

BLUF: All rumors up to this point in time indicate the release of a “Google Watch” being released sometime this summer. There have been no rumors to indicate otherwise at this point, so we are going to have to put some stock in these rumors for now. For all we know, these “Google Watches” may be released as companion accessories under the Motorola brand name, so for all intents and purposes, I wouldn’t put too much stock in the rumored name of the device just yet.

BLUF:

As far as we can tell, the “customizable RAM” rumor may be the only one debunked with this newly released information, leading us to believe everything else previously reported has a strong potential to be true!  Great news for those of us who are diehard Motorola fans. I am excited to see what surprises Google will unveil at the upcoming 15-17 May I/O conference.

Source: Android and Me