Whoops! Motorola accidentally leaks Moto G Maker
The tool will allow users to pick the design of their choosing for Motorola's upcoming smartphone, but the smartphone has since gone dark after briefly appearing online.
If there was any doubt that Motorola's Moto G is coming soon and boasts a new design tool allowing for more customization, consider it over.
Motorola on Thursday accidentally posted its "Moto Maker" page to its website, allowing would-be Moto G buyers to design their own device and order it from the site. The Moto Maker is designed to allow people to customize in precise detail exactly how they would like their Moto G to look. For instance, customers will be able to pick whether they have a black or white front device housing, and choose a color for the back of their handset. They can also choose metallic accent colors and how much onboard storage they desire.
The tool, which was discovered by a user on community forum site Reddit, has since come down and redirects to Motorola's homepage.
The discovery suggests Motorola is looking to provide customers with far more control over the design of their smartphones. Historically, customers buying handsets from any company, let alone Motorola, have been able to choose little more than the color of the back casing. Motorola is seemingly trying to flip that on its head by giving customers control over the look and feel of their device and customize it to their own taste.
Motorola's Moto G is the company's budget line of handsets. In years past, the device, which has historically run on Android, has boasted several color options for customers. However, last year's model, which received three stars out of five from the CNET Reviews team, was hit hard for not having a built-in LTE chip, allowing it to connect to carrier long-term evolution networks. The omission was one that CNET's Jessica Dolcourt called "a drag."
The tepid reception to the Moto G was just the latest in a string of issues Motorola has faced in trying to stand out in the increasingly competitive mobile space. Companies like Samsung, Apple, and China-based Huawei have all secured the vast majority of the worldwide market, leaving companies like Motorola, LG and others to pick up the scraps. Motorola, which was at one time one of the top mobile device makers with its wildly popular RAZR flip phone, has largely lost its allure among customers. Motorola was unable to compete effectively with Apple's iPhone splash in the smartphone market and buckled under the pressure of so many Android competitors.
Rumors have been swirling that Motorola is planning a new Moto G with improved specs, including 4G LTE connectivity. Several reports have speculated that the handset will come with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 processor and 8 gigabytes of storage. It'll also feature a 5-inch display and a 13-megapixel rear-facing camera, those rumors have claimed.
On June 30, images purporting to show the Moto G were leaked to the Web. The device in the images appeared to have a similar design to the previous model with curved edges. Motorola did not confirm at the time that the images were real.
Assuming the Moto Maker is real, the images that surfaced last month appear to be accurate: A screenshot of Moto Maker taken by Android tracker Android Police shows an identical device to that featured in the images. In addition to the rumored 8GB model, the Moto Maker shows a 16GB option is also in the offering.
Although Motorola took down its Moto Maker site, the company has not publicly commented on it and did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Motorola is, however, planning a "Find Your Match" event on Monday, which should answer all questions.