Motorola has confirmed it will close its smartphone factory in Fort Worth, Texas, The Wall Street Journal reports. The plant, which employed 700 staff and was responsible for the assembly of devices customized with Moto Maker, is unsustainable due to weak sales and high costs.
When Motorola this week kicked off a new competition that gave participants the chance to win a Moto 360 smartwatch, the company mentioned in its terms and conditions that its gorgeous new wearable’s “approximate retail value” is $249.
That’s not a bad price for what is shaping up to be by far the best smartwatch yet, but before you get your hopes up too much, you should know that Motorola is now debunking reports that suggest this will be the device’s actual retail price.
If you thought Motorola revolutionised the low-end smartphone market with the Moto G, wait until you get your hands on the Moto E. The company has managed to hit another home run with the Moto E, which is already selling like hot cakes in India and Brazil.
For its price, the Moto E offers much more than what you can expect, and even beats the Galaxy S5 in terms of UI performance. Like any other recent Motorola phone, rooting the Moto E is pretty easy, provided you are ready to unlock the bootloader and void its warranty in the process.
If you had to guess what would win a simple smartphone speed test between the Galaxy S5 and the new Motorola Moto E, you’d choose the Galaxy S5 every time. I know I would. But quite incredibly, we’d both be wrong.
The Galaxy S5’s bloated TouchWiz interface means that simple actions take much longer than they should. Opening apps, scrolling long lists, and navigating menus is actually smoother and snappier on the $129 Moto E. Don’t believe me? Check out the speed test video below.
Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Android
Having sold half a million Galaxy Gear smartwatches already this year, Samsung has claimed a whopping 71 percent of the global smartwatch market. The South Korean company’s wearables, often branded a “flop” by critics, are taking advantage of the lack of competition to gain an early lead over incoming rivals.
