New Moto X and Smartwatch Confirmed, MotoMaker Headed to More Countries

Looks like a simple Q&A at Mobile World Congress with Motorola executives about the state of Motorola after the news that Lenovo would be attempting to acquire, them turned into quite a bit of other news. The panel consisted of Rich Osterloh, Steve Horowitz, and Mark Randall, and they were ready to talk about plenty of other things.

During the Q&A it came out that a new Moto X will arrive “late” summer 2014. This seemingly confirms the information that one of our sources proved that a new flagship Motorola phone wouldn’t be seen until late Q3. Along with the next Moto X, they also revealed that they are indeed working on a smartwatch that will be released later this year. No specifics were mentioned.

It isn’t all that surprising that there is another Moto X in the works. It is still a highly sought after device and one that is loved immensely by end users. What would they need to do to make the next one even better? Well, we know that Google kept Project Ara, the module building device building blocks. So that is out. Lenovo of course has some pretty spectacular little bits of tech that could make its way over all while keeping the basic stock-ish Android approach with the added benefits of what Motorola did with the current Moto X. I wouldn’t mind seeing two variants. A 5-inch version and another 4.7-inch version. We will just have to wait and see what they are doing in a few months.

The smartwatch side of things is a whole different story. If they take the same customizing approach to it as Moto Maker does, it could be pretty interesting. Of course it will all rest on what direction they take things. Rick Osterloh made a statement regarding the smartwatch, “We are working on a watch that will be available this year. We aim to address consumer issues like style & battery life.” Battery life is big one. The new Galaxy Gear 2 upped their battery life to 3 days from 1.5. Where as we have the Martian Notifier battery at 5 days and the Cogito hitting 1 year. Varying degrees of smartwatch approaches of course. One thing I personally don’t want to see is a proprietary watch that is only compatible with Motorola devices, but I am sure that is exactly what will happen.

The last bit of great news to come from the Q&A session was aimed at Moto Maker its self. The guys confirmed that the customizing ordering tool will be launching in Europe in Q2. Specifically the UK and Germany to start and then will expand. Droid-Life also mentions Mexico.

Not a bad little Q&A after all.

Source: Engadget via Droid-Life

img: Laptopmag