Google Motorola is set to re-enter the Indian telecom market by launching Moto G smartphone in January 2014.
The company is yet to announce the Indian price of the low cost smartphone.
The price of Moto G in the U.S. — without a contract — will be $179 for the 8GB version and $199 for the 16GB version.
Motorola, after the takeover by search engine giant Google, stopped selling its smartphones in India last year.
The entry of Motorola into India, the second largest telecom market, will enable the search engine major to strengthen its market share in the smartphone space. Google Motorola, with a cost effective phone Moto G, can take on Samsung, Nokia, Samsung, LG, Sony, etc. It may not take on Apple, which focuses on high end phones.
Key specification of Moto G includes 4.5-inch HD display, Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor with quad-core CPU, and Android 4.3 Jellybean OS, etc.
IDC recently said the global smartphone market grew 38.8 percent in the third quarter of 2013 as vendors shipped 258.4 million smartphones.
With a shipment of 81.2 million smartphones in Q3, Samsung maintained its leadership position. The Korean smartphone vendor shipped more units than the next four vendors (Apple, Huawei, Lenovo, LG) combined.
Motorola needs to follow Samsung to compete in the smartphone volume market. IDC earlier said Samsung’s flagship models received the lion’s share of attention during Q3, with more carriers adding the Galaxy S4, continued demand for the Galaxy S III, and the introduction of the Galaxy Note 3. Despite the popularity of those models, mass-market smartphones helped fuel volumes to reach a new record level.
Since HTC and BlackBerry are facing tremendous pressure to sell their devices, Google-owned Motorola can gain market share. But Microsoft, which will take over Nokia phone business, and Apple will always be remembered by smartphone fans for their new phones and giving new directions in the market.
Moto G will be available in Brazil, parts of Europe, throughout Latin America, Europe, Canada and parts of Asia. It will be available in the US, India, the Middle East and more of Asia in early January. Moto G will be in more than 30 countries with 60 partners by 2014.
Baburajan K
editor@telecomlead.com
