According to the Wall Street Journal, Motorola has been working furiously on a new handset with Google. Referred to only as the “X phone,” the device will be separate from other phones in development at Motorola that are exclusively sold by Verizon Wireless.
Dennis Woodside, a former Google sales executive who is now chief executive at Motorola, told the Wall Street Journal that the company is “investing in a team and a technology that will do something quite different than the current approaches.” He added that although Motorola has been “under hard times,” it can do more now that Google is involved.
Motorola is aiming to put more refined features in the X phone, like a better camera. The company is especially hoping to beef up the software on the X phone and is looking toward its acquisition of Viewdle, an imaging and gesture-recognition software developer, to help give it a leg up. Motorola has also been experimenting with bendable screens and a ceramic chassis as a way to make the phone more durable and stress resistant, although the WSJ's sources say these experiments "ran into difficulties."
Last quarter, Motorola handsets accounted for less than 3 percent of Android phone shipments. Regardless of its close relationship with Google and the near-stock version of Android featured on its handsets, the company continues to struggle to gain market share within the mobile sphere. Among Android handsets, Samsung holds the top spot for global market share with its Galaxy line of devices, with Sony and HTC trailing behind.
There’s no word on when the X phone is slated to hit or whether the handset would even be considered a part of the Nexus program. Ars will continue to follow this story as it develops.
