Google Inc’s Motorola Cuts Price for Moto X to $399 Without Carrier Contract

Motorola Mobility, the subsidiary company of Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) cut the price of Moto X from its original price of $550 to $399 without wireless carrier contract from customers in the United States.

The latest price cut shows that the company is stepping up its competitiveness in the high-end smartphone market, and a direct attack against its rivals in the industry.  Strategy Analytics estimated that Motorola Mobility sold approximately 500,000 Moto X during the third quarter of 2013. The device was released in August. On the other hand, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd (KRX:005935) sold over 10 mullion Galaxy S4 in one month after it became available in the market in April last year.

Motorola Mobility temporarily offered the Moto X for $349 during the holiday season, but the current price cut for the smartphone is permanent.

In a blog post, Rick Osterloh, senior vice president of product management at Motorola Mobility said, “We’ve been hearing a lot recently from people who want a new premium smartphone at a reasonable price without having to wait for a contract upgrade. That came through especially loud and clear during our holiday flash sales. So from today forward, we’re offering Moto X at an everyday starting price of just $399 on any major US carrier, without a contract. This includes customized devices.”

Osterloh emphasized that the primary objective of Motorola Mobility in introducing Moto X is to resolve the real problems of consumers and and provide them with other options by providing them with more control on the design of their smartphones.

He added that Motorola’s  Moto Maker customization tool is available to all major wireless carries to allow consumers to choose from hundreds of color combinatons. Furthermore, Osterloh pointed out that the battery life of Moto X would last all day, and its operating system is upgraded to Android 4.4 KitKat.

The $399 price of the Moto X is substantially cheaper than the Samsung Galaxy S4, which costs $600 for the 16GB model without a contract at Verizon Wireless. The price tag of the iPhone 5S 16 GB without contact is $650.

Motorola’s lower-end smartphone, Moto G costs $179 without contract—cheaper than its counterpart from other smartphone manufacturers . The smartphone was introduced last November.