The best way to buy the best Android smartphone ever
CNN just called the new Moto X Pure Edition the best Android smartphone ever. That’s great news, but a great phone deserves a better buying experience for consumers.
We like to think we have the best of everything here in the US, but it’s not always the case. One of the fringe benefits of my job is that I get to see how smartphones are sold in countries all around the world. Compared to many places, consumers here in the US get a raw deal. Buying a smartphone here just hasn’t been an awesome experience.
Why not? Well, for a starter, we’ve been a subsidy-driven market, in which carriers cover some of the initial purchase price of phones. On the surface, this looks like a great deal. A $600 or $700 phone for $200. A $400 phone for free! But it’s not free. We’ve simply ended up paying in other ways. We’ve paid with higher wireless bills, rigid contracts — which consumers don’t like — and locked phones that destroy our ability to choose the best service. We’ve paid with bloatware and pre-installed apps that we can’t remove, and UI changes that slow the upgrade process, and often the phone itself. We’ve paid with a distorted market that artificially supports smartphones much more expensive than they need to be.
In much of the world it doesn’t work this way. Subsidies are rare. Phones are unlocked. Prices are transparent. Consumers have the power to choose. That’s the way it should be. And the good news is we’re beginning to see change here at home, as major carriers rethink contracts and subsidies and people begin to recognize the value of affordable, unsubsidized devices and more choice.
We’re really proud to be doing our part to improve the smartphone buying experience. If you watched the livestream of our launch earlier this summer, you may have noticed that here in the US, we’re selling the latest version of our flagship Moto X Style as the Moto X Pure Edition, and we’re selling it only online. This enables us to do some really cool things. First, because we sell it directly, we can offer Moto X Pure Edition as an unlocked, universally-banded phone that will work with any US carrier. Drop the SIM card of your choice in, and you’re good to go. Traveling overseas? No problem. You can also drop an overseas SIM into it and use an inexpensive local service rather than an expensive roaming plan.
Second, offering it online means that you’re not paying to cover the channel markup. So, while you don’t get a subsidy, you do get an awesome, flagship phone for $399, contract free so you can use it on the carrier of your choice and switch any time you feel like it. And it’s simply a better purchasing experience, especially if you use our Moto Maker design studio to customize your phone.
The last, and important, advantage of taking this approach is that we can continue to offer a pure Android experience, free of bloatware so you’re in complete control of what apps you put on your phone. And the devices we sell this way will be prioritized for software updates, including important security updates, because we don’t have to go through the same time-consuming carrier approval process as we must for phones sold through subsidy channels and loaded with carrier software.
This isn’t the first time we’ve taken this approach. We’ve already been doing it with Moto G, which we’ve offered unlocked on our website and through other e-commerce channels for some time. We’re glad to be doing the same thing with Moto X Pure Edition and the new Moto G, so you can get a great phone at a great price, contract free, regardless of your budget. And it’s nice to see our efforts being recognized by others.
Today Moto X Pure is available for purchase directly from us, online. Ultimately, the choice is yours. We’ll continue to offer some of our devices through traditional subsidy channels here in the US, and you can still buy your phone that way if that’s right for you. But now there’s a real alternative. And it points the way towards better value and a better future for smartphone consumers here in our home country.
