Google has said that future Motorola smartphones will predominately focus on battery life and durability.
After the search engine giant announced record revenue for 2012, it confirmed that subsidiary Motorola has continued to lose money for its parent company; it lost $152 million during 2012's Q4.
Google co-founder and CEO Larry Page said it's working closely with the manufacturer to resolve two issues for its smartphones in the form of battery life and durability. "Battery life is a huge issue. You shouldn't have to worry about constantly recharging your phone. When you drop your phone, it shouldn't go splat. Everything should be a ton faster and easier. There’s real potential to invent new and better experiences."
Both Google and Motorola are rumored to be working on the X smartphone, a 5-inch device with Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie that's allegedly scheduled to be announced during Google I/O.
The earnings call also stressed that Google doesn't expect immediate returns from its products. "The number of search queries that we receive that are geographically related is very high, and we generate quite a bit of money from our web search business. But we’re in the early stages of monetizing Maps directly in the Maps product."
As for its rivalry with Apple, Page stated that Google is focusing on perfecting products over long periods of time until no other vendor can replicate them with ease, referring to how "long-term investment in Maps has paid off". Its maps service has been in development for a decade.
When discussing the situation regarding the continued absence of adequate Nexus 4 inventory, Page stated: "clearly there’s work to be done managing our supply better, and that is priority to our teams."
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Zak Islam is a freelance writer focusing on security, networking, and general computing. His work also appears at Digital Trends and Tom's Guide.
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evilsizer It'll be interesting to see what Motorola puts out under Google. They're both companies with great products. My Droid is my favorite device ATM.Reply -
matthelm I'd really like to have a smart phone that can last 3+ days with light usage. Splat wise, I use a OtterBox, not an issue. ;-)Reply -
matthelm, get the Razr Maxx or Maxx HD. My dad has the original Razr Maxx, and it lasted over 4 days in the middle of the Grand Canyon and still had about 30% when we left. The crazier part is that he still had service down there. Almost made me want to jump on with Verizon.Reply
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hewettbr yeah otter box is cool but as phones get thinnner we put bigger and bigger cases on them, so why even make the phones small?Reply -
whiteodian hewettbryeah otter box is cool but as phones get thinnner we put bigger and bigger cases on them, so why even make the phones small?So that when we put smaller phones in the bigger cases, there is a nice balance of size. small phone and big case = med sized device. Much better than big case and big phone = brick in your pocket.Reply
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Moto makes some sweet hardware, should be interesting to see Motos spin on a pure Android device.Reply
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hannibal Hmm... Sounds good for me! Battery life and durability have been on my focus when thinking smartphones for a while! I know that many people like very slim phones with 4 hours battery time, but I am more interested in phones that last several days in normal dayly usage. And old motorola Defy still is one of those better durable phones, so this may be something that I have been wainting for!Reply
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house70 If they're serious, they should put Razr Maxx-type of battery in every device, or better, they should make these phones available unlocked for everybody to buy. You can't find a Razr Maxx HD unlocked for GSM bands anywhere, because there isn't any. Drop that network exclusivity crap and release it to the masses.Reply -
house70 some internet dudeMoto makes some sweet hardware, should be interesting to see Motos spin on a pure Android device.Been waitin' for that spin ever since they bought Moto. Kinda losing my faith it will ever come.Reply -
MasterMace people won't go with Motorola because they are not trusted. They signed the agreement to update phones to the new OSs for 18 months, and they bailed 6 months later.Reply