According to a New York Times article, Motorola, which is owned by Google, will be releasing a new smartphone that is geared to emerging markets. Motorola is now another company that is trying to appeal to people with lower incomes.
With sales for Motorola’s Moto X slow, the company is looking to tap into a less developed market. According to Motorola, the smartphone should appeal to people in Peru, Chile, Brazil and parts of Europe.
The phone will costs approximately $180 dollars without a contract. People will enjoy the services Google embeds in these phones, but others won’t be able to access these features. China is the biggest smartphone market in the world, but Motorola won’t be able to compete because their services would be blocked by the government.
The company believes the product will still be successful because there are many people outside of China that have needs unmet. The Moto G is designed to solve those desires.
In order to keep costs down, the phone is bulkier than other smartphones and also lacks a highly refined design. In addition, the phone isn’t constantly monitoring and listening to commands, another major difference with Samsung and Apple products.
I find it interesting that Motorola is competing on price, while looking to delve into emerging markets. It seems the price for the Moto G at $180 is still a bit high. I’d be curious to see what other phone companies in some of these countries are charging. At $180 it seems like there must be alternatives that can fill what the Moto G offers for less. I guess we will just have to wait and see. I’d assume a company owned by Google, which also used to be a major player in the phone market, should have quite a heavy budget for marketing. The amount of money and time spent on marketing will help this phone sell, otherwise they might have a tougher time breaking in to these emerging markets.
