The Moto G was announced on November 13th of this year. Motorola said that units would begin shipping in January. At the end of November, it was announced that Motorola would actually begin shipping the phone as early as December 4th. That date has passed up by, with no Moto G smartphones shipping. The company is sending emails to customers who placed an order, saying that their device shipment could be pushed back as far as December 17th. Why is the Moto G delayed?
Winter storm Dion, that’s why. The winter storm has plowed through much of the United States, bringing snow and wintry conditions to Motorola’s facilities in Fort Worth, Texas. This is causing delays in getting shipments out to customers, although not everyone is affected. Some orders made it through before the storm hit Texas, but others are stuck waiting for their new smartphone. Now that the storm has passed, shipments will begin again in earnest. Your new phone should be arriving before the first of the year.
The Moto G is really aimed at emerging markets, although for the price it is a pretty good deal. For $179 you can pick up an 8 GB version, and it’s a solid phone. We can’t even add “for the price” to the end of that sentence. It’s just a decent phone. You can get a 16 GB version for just $20 more. The Moto G has a 4.5-inch LCD display, 1.2 GHz quad-core Snapdragon 400 SoC. It runs Android 4.3 Jelly Bean out of the box, and has a 5-megapixel rear facing camera. It does not have LTE connectivity, but it does support HSPA+ data connections. It’s certainly not top-of-the-line, but that’s not Motorola’s goal with the Moto G.
Motorola wants to offer a great user experience at a very low price point to attract users in new markets. The users that Motorola is trying to reach are those that don’t have $600 to spend on a new, off-contract handset. Although the overseas market is where Motorola is focusing with the Moto G, it’s also a great device for users in the U.S. that don’t want spend loads of cash on a new phone.
Was your Moto G shipment delayed because of the bad weather?