Motorola CEO talks $50 Smartphones and Custom Screen-Size Options

Motorola had quite a bad run for a number of years. After Google acquired them though, things have dramatically turned around the company. 2013 was definitely a good year for Moto with the Moto X and especially the Moto G.  Motorolas CEO, Dennis Woodside, is quite the leader and quite the speaker. Minus all the public spectacles, I would put him right up there with John Legere as far as creating some change in the mobile space. His latest interview with Trusted Review certainly was full of interesting conversation that may or may not surprise you.

In the states, the Moto G at $179 is a pretty great bargain, especially for what it is capable of. It is literally all over the place at varying prices and even up for grabs at $99.99 with Verizon pre-paid. However, Woodside is brings up this price tag and talks how it is still quite a large chunk of change for many parts of the world. Apparently Motorola is looking for ways to deliver a similar device to a global market at an even lower price point.

“We’re going to look at that and just delivering on that value promise is super important. I mean why can’t these devices be $50? There’s no reason that can’t happen so we’re going to push that.”

It will take a lot of work to bring out an off-contract device that lands at or near the $50 price tag. That doesn’t mean it won’t happen though. This direction and out-of-the-boxing thinking is exactly what the OEM’s of the world need to start looking towards. Sure, it might be a bit more of a low to mid-ranged device, but that is the point. If everyone could buy a Galaxy S4, Note 3, HTC One or even a Nexus 5 at full price they would. Even the contracted prices are sometimes more than people can afford.

Also on the docket was mention of introducing even more customization for those higher-end more premium devices. The Moto X is the current example of customizing colors and wood backplates, but Woodside wants to do more. He mentions, “Today you have colours and beginning of materials but you don’t have screen size and you don’t have functionality and we’re going to bring all that in in the next year or so.” Which sounds an awful like Project Ara if you ask me. That was the Phonebloks partnership with Motorola for fully customizable and interchangeable smartphone blocks. Basically choose your screen size as the base and add what you need and want ‘right now’ then upgrade pieces and more in the future when you have some more money.

It doesn’t sound like Motorola is going to be changing their approach to the smartphone industry anytime soon. I really look forward to seeing what Moto puts out to the world this year. What about you guys?

Source: Trusted Review Via 9to5Google