Motorola may be owned by Google these days, but far from being the catalyst for a revival in Moto's fortunes, if anything the deal has seen it slip further from the front of the smartphone pack than it was before.
But be patient, long-suffering Motorola fans, as the latest rumour swirling around the mobile scene is that Google and Motorola are hard at work on a new high-end product line that will supposedly blow the competition out of the water when it lands next year.
The Wall Street Journal says the “X phone”, as it's known internally, will be a new flagship Android device that will stand apart from Moto's existing product line, but its development has been hit by a variety of obstacles related to its high-end specification.
It was reportedly set to feature bendable screen technology, similar to what we've been hearing a bit about lately from Samsung, but that has now been rethought due to manufacturing and supply-chain issues.
The class-leading camera hardware and software are also said to be causing headaches, specifically when it comes to battery life, and the combination of these various issues have set the project behind schedule.
Aside from the claim that the handset will be cutting-edge and “something quite different than the current approach”, we're not given a whole lot else to go on. But the WSJ's sources mention that the X phone will be followed by an X tablet, presumably built along the same lines.
As for a specific launch timeframe, your guess is as good as ours – 2013 is a long year, after all. But it will interesting seeing how Google differentiates the X phone concept from its own-brand Nexus line, and whether the mystery device truly is as special as these rumours are making it out to be.
