Re: "only 500,000 Moto Xs sold in third quarter"
I think that is wishful thinking.
And I really think the Moto Maker is being wildly overhyped. Most people just go to a carrier store and get what they have. Why do you think there are so many Pebble Blue VZW GS3s around? Cause towards the end of its lifecycle all Verizon was stocking was Pebble Blue and people got it even if they went there looking for a different color. They didn't decide to get an HTC One or whatever, they still got the GS3 they went to the carrier store to buy.
I do think the Maker is a nice idea, ultimately, but I think people are giving it way too much credit... Samsung doesn't need that to sell 500k phones, nor do they need to price their flagships are $99 on contract (like Nokia did with the L92x series) to sell them.
That phone is selling poorly because the bad things about it aren't minor (like the camera) and the good things about it (like voice controls) simply aren't high up in the list of priorities for the average consumer. Sometimes it's important to get off the tech blogs and actually talk to real people (the ones you don't have a lot of influence over) to see what they thing about these things.
Practically no one cares about the Moto Maker or Voice Controls that I know. All they care about is the fact that it's worse than a GS4 or G2, so they get those devices instead.
Most people don't buy off contract. The subsidy is what matters, and brand recognition.
For those that do like to buy off-contract, there is very little reason to consider this phone over a Nexus 5, Voice Controls or not. Money talks, and the price disparity is too large given how much better the Nexus is in a number of ways.
Well, the camera is fixed and the phone is not worse. And while there may be little reason for some to consider it, someone who wants a smaller phone, or a phone with advanced notifications or who knows what voiceless controls can do, there are very good reasons to consider the moto. But I think that’s been covered 100x over on this board.
Then there is, like you said, the lack of name recognition, agree. It’s a pretty big leap of faith for a phone that a person knows they will keep for 2 years, to buy a phone that is being advertised as coming in colors.
Then there is sheep-think. Later that day that i had posted it's like long and short lines in store I went into Ikea. There were 2 lines. 1 had 10 people on it and another had 2. I laughed and said to the cashier "i'll never understand that", she said, "it's always like that". And it's true. And honestly I’m not necessarily knocking sheep-think, most people do it so it’s not really saying anything bad about the person, it’s just human nature, people have other things on their mind.
As for the voice controls, people see my voice controls they’re impressed. Now one guy in my office that has an HTC One is actually going to switch over to the moto. Another person is getting the droid mini b/c even though she’s self proclaimed old fashioned, she’s intrigued. But if they hadn't seen them in action it's hard to imagine how it works or benefits you. So their priorities might be what for LG2, big screen? I just refuse to believe that everyone wants as big a screen as they can find. The 'must-have-beast-phone' mentally doesn’t cover everyone
And so many people like the smaller phone compared to the N5/LG2/Sammy but even they can't find their way over to really contemplate the phone. The moto x isn't being hyped in the store and it takes posters and name and all your friends having it for people to really look into a phone.
I agree moto maker is overhyped, but it's how they're trying to get recognized, it's not working, i live in nyc, there are many many people here and i have yet to see one color moto x, actually, yet to see 1 any moto x, other than mine.
GS3s and GS2s are everywhere though
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