Will Motorola follow the Moto X with a new Nexus phone?
Rumor has it that the Google-owned hardware company has been tapped to make the next Android reference design smartphone by the end of this year.
At an event in New York earlier this month to an unveil its upcoming Moto X, Motorola head product guy Rick Osterloh made it clear that the company's first phone fully designed and delivered as a Google subsidiary was not a Nexus phone. In fact, it doesn't even ship with the latest version of Android. But apparently, that doesn't mean they don't have a Nexus in the works.
Android blogger Taylor Wimberly, whose sources delivered a lot of accurate information before the Moto X event, recently reported that Motorola will release a Nexus smartphone in the final quarter of this year.
When Google purchased Motorola, it was reported that the device-maker's operations would remain largely independent, and that contracts to make Nexus devices would still be open to competition from all comers. No nepotism for Moto, we were told.
And yet we all (or at least I) suspected that this day would inevitably come. Why wouldn't Google want an Android reference model phone to be made in-house (or at least in a relative's house, if you believe the talk of Moto's independence). Or, maybe Motorola really was the best choice of a "partner" for the next Nexus phone this go-round.
Regardless, Google is in a great position to have its cake and eat it, too, with its program to offer stock Google Play versions of the most popular smartphone models like the HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S4. This is also good news for the Android faithful, who can choose from contract phones from carriers -- including the Moto X -- Google Play editions of hot sellers, and now perhaps a Nexus phone that gives a glimpse of what MotoGoog thinks both software and hardware should look like in a perfect Android world.
Whenever the next Nexus phone finally drops, I'm ready and willing to make the trip, even if it means getting there and back in 24 hours. It's a hard life, but I'm always willing to take one for the team.
