Google’s CFO Talks Motorola, Casts Doubt On May Release Of X Phone
Chief Financial Officer Patrick Pichette spoke last week at a conference about Google’s struggles with inheriting Motorola Mobility’s product pipeline, something the company must fulfill despite an evidently lacking sense of pride of the devices.
Pichette made some interesting comments regarding the fact that Motorola’s manufacturing obligations for yet-unreleased phones will force us to see upcoming products that aren’t really up to Google’s standards:
The case for Motorola, as I’ve said many times on the [earnings] calls, we’ve inherited a pipeline. Motorola has a great set of assets. And it had a pipeline of products that were fine, but not really to the standard to what Google would say was “wow.” “Innovative.” “Transformative.”
So we have been working really hard, through [CEO] Dennis Woodside and his team, to take a hold of Motorola, really kind of putting it on a trajectory that’s much more what we believe at Google is the right mindset, the right timeframe. You invest for the long term.
But we’ve inherited 18 months of pipeline that we actually have to drain right now, and while we’re actually building the next wave of innovation and product line. And so far, as we’ve said many times in the past, we have to go through this transition. These are not easy transitions. We’re very optimistic. We’re very supportive. And we have a great plan for Motorola.
Pichette is basically saying that we should be seeing some rather ho-hum phones released under the Motorola name until it has fulfilled its pipeline obligations. Once this is complete, we should start to see a new line of products designed with the wow-factor and innovation of Google.
As such, this would appear to cast doubt on whether or not we should be expecting to see the Motorola X phone announced in May’s I/O conference, something many of us have been expecting. It is unclear from Pichette’s comments whether or not there is room in Motorola Mobility’s 2024 product release cycle for the rumoured Android superphone.
To be realistic, there hasn’t been any kind of proof as to the phone’s release; we have not heard anything substantial about the details of the phone, something that should be considered given that the releases of the HTC One and upcoming Samsung Galaxy S4 have been preceded by a rather steady stream of leaked information regarding the devices. Maybe we shouldn’t be so sure that this phone is a sure thing to be announced in May.
As a result, at this point, I personally have no idea what to expect in May. The Nexus 4 can still be considered one of the leading phones on the market given its impressive specs. The recent offerings from Sony, LG, and HTC don’t necessarily force Google to follow up with something bigger and better, especially given the phone’s success in the past few weeks due to steady availability on the Play store as well as through carriers.
Would it be all that surprising to see Google unveil Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie on the Nexus 4 rather than the purported X phone? Your guess is as good as mine, but it sure is fun to speculate. Perhaps there is nothing to be read into Pichette’s comments concerning the X phone, but that’s your job to decide.