Motorola unveils 'affoadable' moto G

 Google-owned Motorola Mobility on Wednesday unveiled the Moto G, aimed at the half-billion consumers around the world, many in emerging markets, who want a smartphone without a high price tag.

The new handset will sell at less than $200 without a contract in the US market and, around the world, will be around one-third the price of top-line Apple iPhones and Samsung devices.

Unveiling the phone in the Brazilian business hub Sao Paulo. Motorola chief Dennis Woodside said: "Half a billion people will buy a phone for under $200.

"Moto G is a smartphone that delivers a premium experience with today's technology at less than one-third of the price of today's smartphones like the iPhone 5s," he said.

The new device is a low-cost version of the Moto X released earlier this year in the United States.

It features a 11.5cm display and all-day battery, and will include the latest versions of the Google Android operating system.

Motorola hosted the launch after Britain's Tesco supermarket chain and Germany's Phone House listed it in their catalogues.

Woodside said the phone would be especially attractive in emerging markets where carrier subsidies for phones are rare and consumers are reluctant to pay $600 or more for a handset.

"Our industry forced consumers to make a choice between two very bad options," he said.

"The first option is to buy an old technology that doesn't work well with applications like Google maps... the second option is to buy an old premium phone that was typically released in the US two or three years ago. We think the industry should deliver more value for the consumer's dolar.

The handset packs in a 1.2GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor and 5-megapixel and 1.3-megapixel cameras front and rear.

source: www. news24.com

U.S smartphone buyers moving upscale while others goes cheap

Smartphone prices are falling in every region of the world except North America, as U.S. consumers buy ever more sophisticated handsets.

Market research firm IDC forecast Tuesday that smartphone prices worldwide will fall at a compound annual rate of 7.3% over the next five years. But in North America, it sees average selling prices for smartphones increasing 2.1%. It's the only region where prices are expected to rise, IDC says.

Smartphone prices in the U.S. and Canada are already the most expensive in the world, with an average selling price of $531 this year. But IDC sees that creeping up to $567 by 2017 as consumers upgrade to phones with bigger displays and 4G LTE wireless capabilities. Premium phones from Apple, Samsung and others are seen driving this trend.

We're a market that's moving away from entry-level smartphones and toward higher-end smartphones," IDC analyst Ramon Llamas told IBD. "We're moving more toward LTE, and LTE smartphones usually command a higher price tag than 3G phones. On top of that, you're seeing phones getting bigger and bigger (displays)."

Apple's latest flagship handset, the iPhone 5S, without a wireless service contract, costs $649, $749 and $849 for models with 16, 32 and 64 gigabytes of flash memory.

In the rest of the world, smartphone average selling prices are seen falling rapidly as handset makers produce lower-cost devices for poorer customers. These devices typically use Google 's  free-to-use Android operating system.

Average selling prices for smartphones worldwide, including North America, are seen falling to $265 in 2017 from $337 this year.

In the Asia-Pacific region, prices are forecast to drop 8.9% to $215 over the next five years. In Europe, smartphone prices are seen falling 9% to $259 during that period. In Latin America, smartphone prices are expected to dip 5.7% to $246. And in the Middle East and Africa, smartphone prices are forecast to decline 7.3% to $230 by 2017, IDC says.

Meanwhile, worldwide smartphone unit shipments are seen rising at a compound annual growth rate of 18.4% from this year to 2017, IDC says. The research firm expects smartphone shipments to surpass 1 billion units in 2013, up 39.3% over last year, and approach 1.7 billion units in 2013.

source: news.investors.com