I don't have plans to buy this phone simply because I'm over buying anything that's not stock android now after having so many flagship phones that continue to lag, never get good support from the manufacturer and that relies on carriers to determine when the updates roll out (I'm on Verizon, so expect this phone to take forever to get updated), but I do like what Motorola is doing here. Now, all they need to do is get Google behind the marketing to pull it off. Essentially, they are just doing something Apple has done for years = focus on end user experience and not hardware. iPhone's have never had the top specs compared to Android's released at the same time, but they were never bad either. That's the same case here with the Moto X. It's not the top, but it's not the worst. It's arguably "just right" for what they are trying to accomplish = smooth user experience with useful features.
If you've used a Nexus 4 - even with its now year-old hardware - that phone just clearly outperforms every other Android smartphone on the market. It's super smooth. Stock android - or any software for that matter that has been optimized for maximum performance (something 'skinned' versions of Android often don't do - runs smooth. The Moto X is 90% or more stock with just a few tweaks Moto added. To me, this is something OEM's have needed to do for a long time... leave the design alone and just make a few tweaks to things you want to add instead of doing all of these insane skins and redesigns that lags the experience. Smartphones such as the S4 would perform better had the skin stayed the same and instead they just added things like multi-window or whatever they wanted.
Motorola is also playing to their strengths. Their design team sucks in every way imaginable - software and hardware. Yup, I said it. Every skinned phone they've made is hideous and even their hardware to me for the most part is typically hideous. The Moto X is just less hideous than Razr's, but to me it's not a great looking phone. It's just a screen. There's no character really and Moto Maker only matters if you don't want to throw a case on it (I do), but in the end that might not be a bad thing. Going with stock android eliminates the use of their horrible graphics team entirely, smooths out the experience, makes them the only OEM with a smartphone that has a near-stock experience on all carriers and allows them to update quicker (again: the issue here is that carriers will still play politics when determining WHEN they want to release updates, so don't expect them quick... it won't be much different than it is now other than the fact that Motorola will likely complete the update a lot sooner, but carriers will still delay it). If I was going to stick with non-stock smartphones I'd get the Moto X hands down, regardless of the price, as long as it came with 32gb minimum at that $199.99 price point.
I think with the right marketing this will do very well. The issue is marketing. Consumers have been taught to believe that better hardware = better experience and that's just not true. Software is greater than hardware in this industry. Plus, you have to remember that most sales reps will be selling against this phone because of its hardware for that very same reason (they aren't any smarter than the typical consumer and believe that hardware matters most). So, really...again, it will come down to marketing.
So far, most that have played with it say the experience almost matches stock in terms of speed - as it should. Given the huge battery life improvement that's a huge selling factor as well. The price shouldn't bother too many people because you should be buying a piece of technology based on "how well it works" and "not what's in it". That's what Apple sells their premium priced everything under and you see it works for them...so, why shouldn't it work for others as well?
.... release a version of the Moto X that isn't dependent on Verizon for software approval and I may very well pick it up...
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