Motorola Plans Stock Android Phones, Sized 'Just Right'

Motorola might be building my dream phone. Jim Wicks, Motorola's design chief, said the company's first round of products designed after Google's purchase of the company will follow a philosophy of "better is better" rather than "bigger is better," and that's music to my ears.

The original mobile phone maker's fate under Google's thumb has been under question since Google completed its acquisition of Motorola last May. Last fall, Motorola came out with a well-reviewed new line of Razr smartphones, but Google execs emphasized that those were built without their input - and even said they lacked "wow." Pundits speculated that Google bought Motorola solely for its huge library of critical wireless patents.

Google and Motorola are now working together, Wicks said, frustrated that the "wow" quote was "missing a lot of context."

"It comes off as kind of weird to anyone who hears it for the first time, but there have been follow-up discussions and there's no issues with that at all," he said. "We've been spending the past eight months on this next generation of phones, and we've all seen positive feedback and collaboration around things." Various Google business units are turning to Motorola for advice on things Motorola has expertise in and vice versa, he said.

The first Google-influenced Motorola phones will start to appear in the second half of 2013, Wicks said, and if you like smaller form-factor devices or stock Android, you're going to be excited.

"Consumers love what the Android OS can do for them, and they want to have the most recent releases faster," Wicks said. "From a software and UI perspective, our strategy is to embrace Android and to make it the best expression of Android and Google in the market. It will be the unadulterated version of Android, and I feel really good about our embracing Android and being the best Android experience."

Better, Not Bigger
Motorola is also fighting back against phone bloat; it's the only Android phone maker I've spoken to recently that's willing to push back against the current trend of larger and larger phones.

"Certain people like a large screen," Wicks said. "But there's a sweet spot for consumers that we're currently exceeding in the market. There are some people that like a big display, but there's also a lot of people that want something that's just about right," he said. "I think 'just right' is important, and we're designing so we don't disappoint those people."

The fight against bloat isn't just physical, Wicks pointed out. He wants Motorola phones to be as bloatware-free as possible (though we'll see what the carriers have to say about that).

"People don't want all that stuff pre-populated on their devices," he said. "They really want to define these things themselves. We're focusing on simplicity and the power of the consumer."

What else marks Motorola design? To create smaller devices that can still pack big screens, the company will continue to make bezels as narrow as possible. "When you buy a TV, you're not wanting a frame," Wicks said. Scratch resistance and drop resistance will also be key.

"We believe in getting away from the spec wars that are just about specs and not about consumers. That's the simple way out: spec, spec, spec. I don't think that's the answer," he said.

Coming to a Carrier Near You?
As an example of a just-right phone, both Wicks and I settled on Motorola's Razr M. But the Razr M hasn't made a huge impact on the market, in part because it's exclusive to Verizon and in part because it's only a single flower in a Verizon bouquet of Razrs. (Ouch.) Over the past few years, Motorola has been doing a lot of carrier exclusives rather than having a consistent identity: it's sold Droids and Razrs on Verizon, the Atrix line on AT&T and the Photon and Admiral on Sprint.

Motorola will be shifting this year to build more cross-carrier brands, producing fewer products, Wicks said.

"We are going to try to drive a more singular expression of our brand across multiple carriers," he said. "It's a fundamental change in the model."

That doesn't mean the Droid line will end - "the business is going well for us and for [Verizon]," Wicks said - but Motorola may look to build new, cross-carrier brands outside the Droid and Razr lines, much as HTC has the One and Samsung has the Galaxy S.

"We're continuing to do design work on Razr and what that could look like in the future, [but] when you look at non-Razr devices, there's a little but more of a green field," he said.