touchless control

Why Moto X failed to save Motorola?

March 10, 2014 by simon 4 Comments

Lenovo’s $2.91 billion acquisition of Motorola will be approved soon. Motorola Mobility, a Google company, will soon become a Lenovo company.

Moto X, the last bet of Motorola, failed to rescue Motorola from being sold. Bye bye Motorola!

It is a tragedy for all our Moto X fans.

After 6 months, Moto X is still unique and attractive, compared to recently announced Samsung Galaxy S5 and SonyXperia Z2.

But why did Moto X fail to fly? I believe you may have the same question.

USA is not the whole world

The tagline of Moto X is “The only smartphone assembled in the U.S.A” or “The first smartphone designed, engineered and assembled in the USA”.

It is a smart marketing strategy for US market.

But it is not a good sales strategy if you make it “the only smartphone that are exclusive to USA (and Canada)“.

After Motorola was bought by Google, most international operations stopped. This may save cost, but reducing sales and marketing power in such regions also means giving up such markets.

Moto X got excellent reviews from most technical media and geeks. But the reception of US consumers is another story. The sales of Moto X in US is far below the expectations from the launch day.

At the same time, a lot of international consumers are excited about this phone,but it is not available for them. Technical difficulties in touchless control for non-English languages are just an excuse. Please remember voice command with non-English languages had been used in many old smartphones.

Even for British English, it tooks Motorola 3-4 months to figure out.

Putting all eggs in one basket! Even your grandma knows this is not a good idea. But these well-paid MBAs ignore this simple principle.

After more than 6 months, Moto X finally will go to more non-USA regions. But who cares about a 6-month-old smartphone when the life cycle of the smartphone is just about 12 months?

Stupid pricing strategy

The hardware specs put Moto X among the middle range smartphones.

Of course, the software puts Moto X in … Continue to read....

Top 10 improvements in Android KitKat update for your Moto X

November 24, 2013 by simon 24 Comments

Motorola beats all Android smartphone makers again with the Android 4.4 (KitKat) update!

When Samsung, HTC, Sony and LG are still struggling to push Android 4.3 (Jelly Bean 4.3) update for their flagship phones, Motorola gives us the KitKat treat. We got this Android 4.4 update even a few days earlier than the owners of pure Android Nexus 4.

And it seems the update works very smoothly. Most Moto X owners are enjoying the updated phone. As a contrast, a lot of Samsung Galaxy S4 owners are grumbling about the latest Android 4.3 update.

There are quite a lot of improvements in the Android 4.4 (KitKat) update for Moto X. In this post, you will learn the top 10 improvements or new features you may enjoy everyday.

1. Unified messaging with Hangouts

If you have mixed contacts on phone and Google, you know all the contacts are combined in your phone. The new Hangouts app now moves a step further: it can (optional) combine your messages (SMS, MMS) with all other conversations in Hangouts. With the new Hangouts app, all of your SMS and MMS messages are together in the same app, alongside your other conversations and video calls.

The new Hangouts app also allows you to share your location and send animated GIFs. This makes it better than the most popular SMS app: WhatsApp.

Essentially, the new Hangouts app eliminates the need of a separate messaging app. Of course, if you are not ready for this change, you can still use messaging and Hangouts individually (although they share the same contact list).

2. Drag to focus and expose

You can focus on any location on the viewfinder by just dragging the crosshair to the desired objects or location. Moto X will automatically adjust the expose and lighting conditions for the photo. The result is better image quality.

This is actually a nice enhancement of the old “touch to focus”. You now get the option with a new circular, on screen control that can be dragged by your finger around the viewfinder to adjust a photo’s focus and exposure.… Continue to read....

Moto X Price Halved (including Moto Maker)

October 26, 2013 by simon 1 Comment

motox_moto-maker It seems Motorola (Google) finally realized the initial price of Moto X was not accepted well by consumers, even among long-term Motorola enthusiasts.

After 2 months of launching the handset, Motorola halved the price of Moto X to $99.99 (with 2 year contract) quietly. No public announcement. This includes Moto Maker, which allows you to customize your Moto X. Very likely, the contract-free Moto X price will drop within next a few weeks.

So, if price pushed you away from getting a Moto X, now it is probably the good time to get your hands on a new Moto X. It is unlikely to see a further price cut for this handset in next a few months.

$99.99 is actually the most reasonable price for this handset. Consumers still cares about specs, although user experiences are getting important day by day.

No one denies the unparalleled software innovation in Moto X (e.g., touchless control, Motorola Assistant), and most users enjoy them. The recent software update fixed most camera issues. Moto X is arguably the most attractive phone in the market.

Technically, the hardware in Moto X is more than sufficient thanks to the optimization of the code and close-to-vanilla-Android implementation. Moto X is actually more snappy than Galaxy S4 and HTC One. However, consumers are still thinking about hardware specs when touching the wallet. They are still unwilling to pay too much premium for optimized software. The mid-range hardware specs spoil the perfect image of Moto X. Most consumers and reviewers were surprised when the price of Moto X was announced in August.

This is a lesson Motorola should learn. Consumers are not ready to ignore hardware specs.

The price reduction is a correct step to educate consumers what a smartphone should be. Without reaching the hands of consumers, all innovations are wasted, and competitors will close the gap soon. Very likely, Moto Maker will not be exclusive to AT & T after middle or late November. This will remove another barrier between Moto X and its potential buyers.

Another reason of … Continue to read....

First major software update for Moto X

September 24, 2013 by simon Leave a Comment

moto-x-t-mobile Motorola rolled out the first major software update for Moto X (139.12.57.ghost_row.Retail.en.US). Significant improvements are expected. So, it is recommended to apply this update.

Although this update is for T-Mobile Moto X users, users in other networks will receive similar update in a few days (up to a few weeks).

According to the release note, this update boosts the following improvements:

Improved Voice Quality: Fixed an issue that could sometimes result in choppy audio being heard by the person you’re talking with on your Moto X
Improved Photo Quality: Improved capture of natural light (auto-white balance) and color accuracy for more precise exposure in outdoor and backlit scenes
Improved Focus: Faster touch to focus time and reduced unnecessary refocusing in low light conditions and scenes with continuous motion
Faster Switching: Shortened the time it takes to switch between rear and front-facing cameras, as well as transition between the viewfinder and the Gallery app
Enhanced Touchless Control: Increased accuracy and responsiveness when using Touchless Control, and added easier training of the “OK Google Now” trigger
Improved Motorola Migrate Experience: Improved transfer of content from an old Android phone to a new Motorola phone
Google Drive – 50GB Promotion: Added a promotion expiration date – customers have 30 days from phone activation or installation of this update to redeem the 50GB offer
Lost Device Finder: Fixed an issue that could sometimes prevent a lost phone from reporting its location to the Moto Care Lost Device Finder service
Driving Detection: Fixed an issue that could sometimes cause the phone to read out text messages and announce calls when not in Drive mode

The update is delivered through OTA. If you did not receive the update notification, you can go to Settings–About Phone–Software updates.

Before downloading and installing, you should backup any important info/files.

Hope you enjoy the update.… Continue to read....

Top 5 Unique Features of Moto X

August 5, 2013 by simon 2 Comments

Moto X is finally announced on August 1. By the end of this month, you may have the chance to get one in your pocket from the major carriers in US or BestBuy.

The biggest surprise of Moto X is not the phone, is its price. Motorola asks for similar price as that for Galaxy S4 and HTC One, although the hardware specifications are obviously inferior (arguable).

Motorola is confident consumers will like their unique features and fork money for features rather than hardware specs. They may be correct. Most flagship Android phones are obsessed with hardware specs, and therefore are overpowered (i.e., wasted).

The problem is what these features are and why people are willing to pay for them instead of better specs.

In this post, I will share with you the top 5 unique features of Mot X.

Touchless control

Touchless control is the killer feature of Moto X. You can control and operate the phone without touching it. It is also dam smart as well: it knows what to do and when.

Essentially, it is a combination of voice control and Google Now. What makes Moto X stand out of the crowd of Siri, S Voice and other similar apps is that you can use voice control even the phone is locked. “OK Google Now” is the hot words (Moto magic) to wake up the phone. You probably can configure this to something else like “Oh, Moto Magic” if you want.

More interestingly, Moto X only responds to your command, not others’. If 10 other people around you shout “OK Google Now” , your Moto X will not respond to them, because it knows your voice and knows you are the master. It is more loyal than you secretary.

Google Now is one of the best innovations from Google. It was officially unveiled in Google I/O 2012. Its predictive, not responsive, thinking make the smartphone smarter. By combining voice control and Google Now, Moto X now is No.1 in intelligence and voice control among smartphones. There are no comparable products in the market yet. Of … Continue to read....