Hasta La Gadget!

Motorola is going to be launching a series of next-gen phones that will forgo Motorola’s old, bloated UI, and offer the Stock Android experience instead. In an interview with PC Magazine, Motorola’s Design Chief, Jim Wicks, says that the company plans on releasing Google-influenced smartphones to the market the second half of this year. Not only will the phones feature a stock experience, they will also be smaller than the current smartphones on the market.

While Motorola’s RAZR line-up was great, it didn’t have the “wow” factor that Google was looking for, at least according to Google’s CFO Patrick Pichette. Because both Motorola and Google wanted to create devices that would “wow” the community, they have been working together for over 8 months on a new generation of phones. Throughout various discussions, Motorola realized that it needed to drop its bloated UI, and go for the natural Android experience. Both sides also agreed that bigger isn’t always better, so Motorola adopted the philosophy “better is better” and nixed the philosophy “bigger is better”.

Jim Wicks said, “Certain people like a large screen, but there’s a sweet spot for consumers that we’re currently exceeding in the market.” He says that many consumers want a screen size that feels “just about right”. Motorola wants to address the needs of those people. Along with smaller screens, Motorola will also reduce the size of its bezels to reduce the size of its phones. Wicks says, “When you buy a TV, you’re not wanting a frame.”

Wicks also says that they’re not going to be participating in the spec wars that all of the other major manufacturers seem to be participating in. He says that he wants to focus more on consumers, and not the “simple way out”. He says that “spec, spec, spec” is not the answer. Wicks also said that he will focus less on carrier exclusives, like the Atrix line-up or the DROID line-up, and focus on cross-carrier brands. While those line-ups will still exist, the company will “drive a more singular expression of our brand across multiple carriers.”

[via Android Community]

Motorola to launch stock Android phones sized “just right” is written by Brian Sin & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

When Motorola launched its Webtop concept alongside the original Atrix 4G, it had grand visions of replacing our PCs with a smartphone, a Lapdock and some optimism for a mobile-focused future. Most of us don’t appear to have shared that rose-tinted view, as Motorola has confirmed that devices from the Photon Q 4G LTE and Droid RAZR M onward don’t carry Webtop and won’t get it in the future. The firm is blunt in explaining the cut and says that “adoption has not been strong enough” — we just weren’t buying those desktop- and laptop-oriented docks in the large numbers Motorola would need to devote further attention. As CNET explains, the move isn’t surprising in light of Google’s cost cutting as well as an initial $500 Lapdock price that likely chilled any momentum, even after prices dropped to as little as $200 in the Atrix 2 era. We’d also point to a market that still favors budget laptops and tablets: when $400 will get you an entirely separate Transformer Pad TF300, albeit without a keyboard, it’s hard to justify buying what amounts to an empty shell. At least we’ll still have our PadFone to keep us company while you read the full statement below.

Motorola’s Webtop app helps users extend their smartphone experience to larger screens. While consumers around the world have adopted Webtop and the concept spurred a lot of innovation in the industry, the adoption has not been strong enough to justify continued resources being allocated to developing Webtop on future devices. We have also seen development of the Android operating system focus on the inclusion of more desktoplike features. Beginning with Photon Q and Droid Razr M/Droid Razr HD/Droid Razr Maxx HD, we will no longer be including Webtop on our products moving forward.

Filed under: Cellphones, Peripherals, Mobile, Google

Motorola phases out Webtop, points to a Lapdock-shy world originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 07 Oct 2012 13:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  CNET  | Email this | Comments