Google Inc (GOOG): X Marks The Spot

Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) has been quite busy tinkering and overhauling its $12.5-billion asset known as Motorola Mobility. From about the time the purchase contract ink signatures were drying, Google was at work trying to streamline the operation in the hopes of it becoming a vital smartphone hardware manufacturer for Android-based handsets.

Well, after shaving employees and consolidating divisions, even selling off a couple pieces, it seems that Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) is ready to allow Motorola Mobility to release its first smartphone under the Google banner, it was announced at the AllThingsDigital conference in California this week. Motorola Mobility CEO Dennis Woodside made the announcement himself at the conference, revealing that the Moto X smartphone, which would be a flagship phone to compete with the iPhone and Samsung Galaxy, will be hitting store shelves sometime in the fall, he said.

He did not elaborate on pricing or detailed specs, but he did mention some features of the phone that might put Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) in an even more advantageous position in the smartphone market – which is already firmly in Android control thanks to the popular Samsung devices. However, Woodside did say that this new smartphone would be contextually aware of its surroundings thanks to various sensors which would conserve power by shutting down certain components of the phone based on its location and the environment.

But the highlight of the Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) phone, at least for Woodside, is that it would be one of the very few smartphones to be built in the U.S., as the phone will be put together in a facility in Texas which, when fully operational in August, will have 2,000 people working there. The factory itself, however, will be run by Flextronics International Ltd., based in Singapore. The company had in mind from the start, Woodside said, to have smartphone manufacturing in the U.S., and this Moto X will be the first step.

The story seems to be efficiency, according to Woodside.

“It’s obviously our major market so, for us, having manufacturing here gets us much closer to our key customers and partners as well as our end users,” he said. “It makes for much leaner, more efficient operations.” And that efficiency will apparently carry over into the phone, which Woodside said would have low-power sensors to register context and environment so certain features of the phone can power down to save energy, and he said the phone will run on processors that are designed to save power and battery life as well. He did not go into details.

What are your thoughts about Motorola Mobility getting back into the smartphone space, and your thoughts about Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) getting involved directly with its own hardware to fit around its Android platform? Give us your feedback in the comments section below.

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