摩托罗拉借Moto X瞄准新市场

    谷歌（Google）及其摩托罗拉移动（Motorola Mobility）手机制造商的高管们于上周四在纽约发布了新的高端手机。但摩托罗拉CEO丹尼斯•伍德赛德和谷歌董事长埃里克•施密特表示，他们渴望向伍德赛德所说的“超价值群体”提供价格更低的智能手机。

    “如果我是巴西的一位中产阶级母亲，我可能买不起iPhone或Galaxy。”伍德赛德说。但这些消费者明显会受益于入门级智能手机提供的应用和网络连接。谷歌的安卓（Android）操作系统已经在竞争对手制造的大量设备上运行，其中很多面向的目标都是这类消费者。

    伍德赛德把Moto X称为摩托罗拉在2012年被谷歌收购后发布的首款高端手机。它具备语音控制功能和在“睡眠”模式下显示重要信息的“动态显示”（Active Display）功能。Moto X将于8月底或9月初由各大电信运营商在美国推出。

    但伍德赛德和施密特非常渴望获得目前无法用手机上网的约10亿手机用户。如果摩托罗拉能够把这些用户变成智能手机用户，它就能赢得销售和新客户。但更为重要的是，扩大用户数量会使谷歌受益匪浅，因为他们可能会用手机进行网络搜索。施密特说：“服务于这个市场群体对我们来说具有重要的战略意义。”

    虽然伍德赛德和施密特没有详细说明这类手机的定价或利润率，但摩托罗拉的“超价值”策略不仅让人想起了安卓策略：谷歌没有向那些使用其安卓操作系统的手机制造商收取任何费用。从一开始，谷歌的目的就是让智能手机遍布全球，进而鼓励消费者在手机上使用谷歌的搜索、地图、邮件和其他产品。市场调研公司Strategy Analytics的调查显示，安卓目前是世界上领先的智能手机操作系统，市场份额已经达到80%。（财富中文网）

    译者：千牛絮 

    Executives from Google and its Motorola Mobility handset maker unveiled a new premium phone, Moto X, in New York on Thursday. But Dennis Woodside, Motorola's CEO, and Google Chairman Eric Schmidt, say they are eager to deliver lower-priced smartphones to what Woodside calls the "super value segment."

    "If I'm a middle class mother in Brazil I might not be able to afford an iPhone or a Galaxy," Woodside says. But those consumers would clearly benefit from the applications and broadband access that an entry-level smartphone would provide. Google's Android OS already powers a wide variety of devices from rival manufacturers, many of them aimed at such consumers.

    Woodside characterized the Moto X as the first high-end phone Motorola has launched since Google (GOOG) acquired the company in 2012. The phone, which features a suite of voice-activated controls and an "active display" feature that pushes key pieces of information onto the screen while it is in "sleep" mode, will be available in the U.S. in late August or early September on all major carriers.

    But Woodside and Schmidt are keen to capture the billion or so users of mobile phones who presently don't have Internet access on their devices. Motorola wins sales and new customers if it is able to convert those customers to smartphones, but more crucially, Google benefits by broadening the pool of consumers who may do mobile searches. "It is strategically important for us to serve this end of the market," Schmidt says.

    While Woodside and Schmidt didn't offer any details on pricing or profit margins for such phones, Motorola's "super value" gambit is reminiscent of its Android strategy: Google does not charge handset manufacturers to use its Android operating system for mobile phones. From the outset, the aim was to proliferate the world with smartphones, thereby encouraging consumers to use their phones for search, maps, email and other Google products. Android is currently the leading smartphone operating system worldwide, with 80% market share, according to research from Strategy Analytics.