Moto X smartphone is real and will be launched by October

RANCHO PALOS VERDES, Calif. -- Google's $12.5 billion purchase of Motorola Mobility has not been the search giant's finest hour, at least so far. Motorola lost $271 million for Google in the first quarter of 2013, and it's unclear at this point what the plan is to reinvent the division. And, some Android phone makers aren't totally believing that Motorola won't have some kind of unfair advantage as part of Google. In addition, the European Commission has been looking into how Motorola Mobility might be using its market position to seek and enforce a patent-related injunction against Apple.

Motorola CEO Dennis Woodside attempted to address concerns in an interview Wednesday and let the world know that the company will be launching the rumored Moto X smartphone sometime between now and October. In fact, the entire product line of Motorola smartphones will be revamped, Woodside said during an the D: All Things Digital conference here. "We'll launch a handful of smartphones that aren't the end, but show where the company is heading," he said.

Woodside wouldn't show the Moto X, which he said was in his pocket, but said it was contextually aware of what's going on around it. It can fire up the camera when he takes it out his pocket (he didn't explain how), and it will act differently if you are driving 60 miles an hour in a car.

A phone that persistently understands changes has an impact on battery life. "Motorola has come up with two processors that allow you to do those things" that won't destroy battery life, Woodside said.

"The ability to engage with the phone is different than competitors," he said. The Moto X will be manufactured in the U.S., in a plant outside of Fort Worth, Texas, and employ 2,000 people, Woodside said. He added that carriers are excited about where Motorola is heading.


Woodside addressed how much Google is involved in Motorola's business. He said it is supported by parts of Google, such as finance and legal, but Android is completely independent and Motorola is managed like any other partner. "We are treated as a separate company," he said.

That said, Motorola is doing a deep mind-meld with Google and going for more moonshots, attempting to bring back what Woodside called the "audaciousness and confidence" of the old Motorola, which pioneered the cell phone industry and took its own moonshots, like the failed Iridium satellite project.