A Motorola VP wasn’t kidding when he said on Friday that other carriers would be launching the Moto X in days. On Monday, Verizon tweeted out availability details for its Moto X, which will be available in either black or white:
Ready to #MeetMotoX with Verizon #4G LTE? Available online 8/29 & in stores in the coming weeks. $ 199.99 on contract http://t.co/LyFZjvYVYE—
Verizon Wireless (@VZWnews) August 26, 2013
Verizon will be charging the same $ 199 with two-contract as AT&T but for the time being only AT&T customers can customize their handset using the Moto Maker website.
Aside from that difference, and support for Verizon’s LTE and voice network, there’s no difference in this version of the Moto X. Although I haven’t used Verizon’s Moto X, I have used the AT&T model extensively and find it to be an outstanding blend of intelligent hardware choices and new software features.
Even so, you can get a very similar experience from Verizon’s new trio of Droid Ultra phones priced at $ 99, $ 199, and $ 299 with contract. The lower cost model is the Droid Ultra Mini, pairing a 4.3-inch screen with the same basic internals as the Moto X. Three hundred dollars gets you the Droid Maxx with 5-inch screen and much larger battery, but again, the same functions as the Moto X. Costing the same price as the X is the base Droid Ultra, with its 4.5-inch display.
As a result of such similarities — and because of the lack of customization — Motorola will probably sell fewer Moto X devices than AT&T does. But I’d expect overall Motorola handset sells to be healthy with both the Moto X and the three Droid Ultra phones.
Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.
- Is Android broken and if so, will Google fix it?
- Mobile Q3: the fight for OS domination continues
- What the Google-Motorola deal means for Android, Microsoft and the mobile industry