Choosing to Start Something
This week we launched the new version of Moto E, our most affordable smartphone. The theme of this launch was “choose to start,” and in that spirit I’m choosing to start something here on Medium. I hope this will help me to engage more openly with customers, fans, critics, peers, competitors, and anyone else who may also be interested.
The mobile device business is a stage for some of the most important and controversial topics in technology and society today: how devices are getting more intelligent and know everything about us, how they provide a lifeline to the internet and to community, and the importance of affordability and accessibility of technology. All of these are things I am fascinated by and that I get to work on everyday at Motorola.
And that brings me back to Moto E, and the issue of access. There’s a counterintuitive reason why this launch is so critical for us. It’s because Moto E is our most affordable phone.
For most of our competitors, their most expensive device is the most important launch of the year. Why not? Flagships throw haloes and drive buzz. Amazingly, some already pricey flagships have become even more expensive this year. That’s going backward, and it’s what happens when you’re built around defending a high-margin business at all costs. Low-cost devices get marginalized, built by the b-team as an afterthought. Or simply not built at all.
There are strictly low-cost players who focus on cheap devices, but most of them are completely commoditized, cranking out low-quality devices on outdated software. Billions of people around the world who don’t want to spend $700 or more on a phone are caught between these models, and get the shaft. A poor result for consumers.
We’re taking a different approach. For us, the affordable Moto G and Moto E are the spiritual heart of our business. They get as much attention and care in development as Moto X. That doesn’t mean that our premium line isn’t important — we want it to succeed on its own terms and it is often the place that we can introduce technology first when it requires lots of investment. But, importantly, it’s also the proving ground for new experiences and technology that we then move into our affordable devices as soon as possible. This is why both Moto G and Moto E today have features that originally launched on Moto X, Like Moto Display and Moto Assist.
If we can bring truly great devices to people at truly affordable prices, we’ll help drive down the cost of mobile devices overall so that billions of people around the world can experience the mobile Internet the way it should be experienced. It should be a choice anyone can make, not a privilege. That’s our mission. I’m passionate about it, and if we’re successful at it our business will thrive.
Here is why this matters; last weekend the New York Times Magazine published an article about the difficulty of life in favelas that a group of citizen journalists are trying to improve by documenting violence and transgressions of criminals and the police. Having a modern smartphone that can take and send images and communicate with others helps to drive meaningful societal change in an area that could really benefit from it.
That’s why I’m excited about the launch of Moto E. If you have a chance, pick one up and play with it, see how it feels to you. I’d love to hear what you think. If you want to catch up with me in realtime you can find me on Twitter as @rosterloh.
