We have another piece of leaked information from Google. This time it is for Google’s Motorola unit. It appears that the company is preparing to introduce a low cost phone tomorrow, November 13, 2013. This information comes from “people who are familiar with the matter.”
In addition to a new Motorola phone coming to store shelves, due to what can be considered disappointing sales of the Moto X, Motorola’s flagship smartphone, It has slashed its price in half. The formally $200 smartphone with a two year contract is now $100.
Research firm, Strategy Analytics, reports that somewhere in the neighborhood of 500,000 Moto X phones were sold in the third quarter. The phone was released in August. By comparison, Samsung said it sold more than 10 million Galaxy S4 phones within a month of its April release.
While there are no real details concerning the new cheaper smartphone, which will be called Moto G, the leak occurred over this past weekend. It seems that a version of the phone appeared on Amazon.com’s U.K. website. It was selling for about $255 without a contract from a cellphone carrier.
The supposed plan is that when the smartphone reaches the U.S. shelves tomorrow it should be a lot cheaper. Considering that the colorful flagship Moto X was just dropped to $100, well you get the idea!
During a May conference, Dennis Woodside, who is chief executive of the Motorola unit, said that Motorola can attack the market in ways that Apple and Samsung can’t. This is the type of market strength that the new Motorola Moto G will be competing in.
The Moto G seems to be some sort of a Google strategy that is intended to shake up the smartphone market and sap some of the profits of rivals Apple and Samsung. Back in May, Woodside said “One of the areas that we think is really open for Motorola is building high-quality, low-cost devices. The price of a smartphone is $650? That’s not gonna persist.”
Rajeev Chand, head of research at Rutberg & Co., an investment bank focused on the mobile industry, believes that the low price for the Moto G points to a “persistent and increasing tension” between Google and Samsung.
Chand also mentioned that the Moto G reminds Samsung that “Motorola with Google’s support is a potential market disruptor.” Keep in mind that Google has relationships with a lot of handset makers who use the Android operating system. Samsung is not alone in that category.
The smartphone showed very disappointing numbers with fewer than two percent Moto X shipments worldwide in the third quarter. The forecast from Strategy Analytics is that Motorola will sell one million devices which have a starting price of $585 without a contract on Amazon.com, during the fourth quarter.
The new and cheaper Moto G is scheduled to be introduced Wednesday at an event in Brazil.
Edited by
Cassandra Tucker 
QUICK LINKS 
