Do You Google? On Their New Secret Xphone
Motorola accounted for less than 3 percent of Android phone shipments in the third quarter
Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Google is working on what the company is internally calling the “X Phone” that it hopes will provide a credible challenge to Apple and Samsung, reveals the Wall Street Journal. Google is using Motorola, which it acquired seven months ago for $12.5 billion, to design a phone that will supposedly have new features unlike any seen in the crop of products currently in the market. But becoming a cutting-edge phone manufacturer is proving a tad more difficult for Google than it had foreseen and the Internet giant has run into several supply-chain management problems, according to the paper. The hurdles have led Google to “rethink” several features it had planned for the phone, including a bendable screen.
According to the anonymous sources cited by the paper, Motorola is working on a two-pronged strategy: developing phones to be sold through carrier partners, and on the X phone. There are also plans for an “X Tablet.” Even if some of the desired features won’t be a reality, or won’t be as novel when the device is actually released, Motorola has the advantage of being able to use the recently acquired Viewdle, an image and gesture-recognition software development company, to enhance the phone. The X phone is scheduled to be released sometime next year.
Comments