Apple’s long time rival has been Samsung in the smartphone segment but with the rumoured X Phone from Motorola things might change in favour of Motorola and away from Samsung. One of the most haunting thing about Android is lack of software updates, even the best of the flagship devices fail to provide early updates and in most of the cases totally cease to provide updates after a year or so. But the scenario is quite different for Nexus devices that are controlled by Google directly but manufactured by various OEMs. Most of the Nexus devices get an early update and are supported with timely updates for a period of two to three years. Apart from that, the stock look of Android is more appealing that the skinned version which adds unnecessary noise.
The success of the Nexus 4 speaks as to what’s in store for Motorola, unable to meet with the demand LG is still taking around one to weeks time to deliver the handsets even after more than 6 months after launch. With Google backed Motorola the scenario is quite different, they have the potential to manufacture the handsets on a much larger scale and distribute them on a much larger scale as well.
Guy Kawasaki, a long term Apple evangelist, now helping Google in developing the X Phone confirmed that the X Phone will be known for its hardware customisation. Though the phone will not be customisable deep down the current rumours suggest that users will be able to choose the kind of casing the phone has with options ranging from plastic, metal and carbon fibre, internal storage and some software setting that might be customisable from a web front. Apart from that another attractive feature is a customisable touch based button on the back side of the phone that can be programmed to follow any command.
The specs of the X Phone might not be as good as the HTC One or the Galaxy S4 but it still will be able to handle all the tasks with ease and run all apps with ease. Even the Nexus 4 with inferior specs to HTC One X and Samsung Galaxy S3 runs better than both of them which shows the power of running default android OS.
This seems to be quite promising for both Google and Motorola for a resurgence. Will thing finally give Google better control over Android and put Samsung under pressure? Will this be the next rival to iPhone?