We already know that the Moto X is going to cost $199 and $249 on-contract for the 16GB and 32GB versions. We are learning now that, at least for AT&T, the device will cost $575 for the 16GB and $630 for the 32GB off-contract. That’s definitely not “Nexus pricing”. We had heard many rumors that the Moto X would be priced competitively, which this doesn’t look very competitive with other mid-rangers. We also had heard that the 16GB version would be $299 and the 32GB for $349 unlocked. Which definitely seems to not be the case. As the off-contract pricing is starting at $575. It really changes our whole perspective on this device. We though the Moto X would be a device with mid-range specs but have an extremely low price tag. Looks like we were wrong.
We haven’t seen pricing for other carriers or even the unlocked and Google Play Editions of the Moto X. So this could be AT&T charging extra, but I highly doubt it. Especially with the on-contract price being around $199 for every other carrier and $189 up in Canada. Would you pay almost $600 for a 4.7-inch 720p display phone running on a dual-core Snapdragon S4 Pro? Yeah I didn’t think so. I mean the Nexus 7 runs a Snapdragon S4 Pro, but it’s also $229 and also has a 1080p display. Yes, I know the Moto X is extremely optimized, but it’s still a dual-core processor at the price of quad and even octo core processors. I’m not quite sure what Motorola was thinking here.
I can’t say I’m all that surprised by the pricing, since this is Motorola and not Google. Yes I know that Motorola is owned by Google. But remember that Google is not treating Motorola differently from say Samsung or LG. They are just another hardware partner for Google, that is costing them money each quarter. How many of you are surprised by the pricing?