Powerful, durable, and has a reliable battery. These are three of the rumored features of the much-hyped flagship Google smartphone, aptly named the “X Phone,” which, if speculation is proven correct, will be launched in the spring of 2013, possibly during the 2013 Google I/O Conference or at a later date.
When Google bought Motorola Mobility in 2012 for a cool $12.5 billion, it laid the groundwork for the search engine giant’s impeding foray into a smartphone market dominated by Apple and Samsung. If the X Phone project proves to be a success, it is likely that it will drastically change the landscape of the smart devices industry. So should you scratch your name off that iPhone 5 waiting list and forget about the Galaxy S4?
Does upcoming Google phone have the x factor?
The Motorola takeover gave Google access to more than 17,000 patents plus about 7,500 that are awaiting approval. While Google said the Motorola patents will be used to protect its mobile division from potential patent-related lawsuits from Apple and Microsoft, you don’t need to be an industry analyst to figure out that it wants to develop hardware that can compete with the leading players.
While company executives have yet to officially confirm or deny that the X Phone is in development, comments made by Google CEO Larry Page during an earnings call this month have been widely speculated upon as the features of the new mobile device. “In today’s multiscreen world, the opportunities are endless… battery life is a huge issue… when you drop your phone it shouldn’t go splat. There’s a real potential to invent new and better experiences,” Page said.
Motorola engineers are believed to be working on giving the X Phone the ability to take better panoramic shots, have enhanced color saturation, improved stress resistance (by using a ceramic material), and have a bendable screen, among others. Since these rumored features were first reported last December, before Page made his comments, it seems we can expect a major announcement (or announcements, if the rumored X tablet is also being developed) from Google within the next few months.
It’s just another smartphone
Since the phone isn’t out yet, obviously it remains to be seen whether the X Phone will be the one phone that will rule them all. With the failure of the Nexus One experiment still probably fresh in Google’s mind, the company is understandably being cautious with its latest hardware project. If the X Phone lives up to the hype, it will become a worthy challenger to the iPhone 5. Apple currently controls 50 percent of the smartphone market in the United States. Motorola, on the other hand, has almost 30 percent of the Android market share in America.
However, the success of the X Phone project could also backfire on Google since it will be directly competing with Samsung and HTC, the two biggest Android device providers. The X Phone may spur Samsung and HTC to step up their Android games, but it may also force them to cooperate more with RIM and Microsoft.
But at the end of the day, even if there’s a huge possibility that phone service providers will be scrambling to offer one of Google’s prize pieces to the public, the X Phone is just another smartphone. As seen with evolution of the iPhone and the rise of Samsung, technological advancements make the top features of the mobile devices a thing of the past within months. While the top brands continue to wage war against one another, it is the consumer that comes out the winner.
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