What Moto X2 Needs: Truely Custom CPU

[Eli_C]

Moto doesn't sell enough phones to make custom silicone (like apple does), Google has the resources but has a firewall between itself and Moto, and of course Moto is likely to be transferred to Lenovo.

However, Google could and should develop custom silicone for Android, with Moto X2 in mind, but make it available to all Android OEMs. Google doesn't currently have the expertise, but could bring it in house and help push all of Android further. Google's real opportunity to shine is voice recognition, and could probably greatly outdo anything anyone else could do. Radios developed by motorola have always been the best and beat the current crops of integrated radios in most other silicone. Google is also very strong in image recognition/processing and this would probably help push camera portions of the silicone even beyond something like the Exceed processor. Even core functions of the OS could be cooked into the silicone to be much more efficient.

 

[KWKSLVR]

Google is an advertising company, not a hardware manufacturing. There is a reason why Android is "software" and support is given to OEM's... because they need to stick to what they know.

 

[Ry]

What is wrong with Snapdragons?

Posted via Android Central App

 

[binaryhermit]

IMO, it's likely that either the custom chips that Google would design wouldn't be any better (and probably would be worse) than the currently available options or Google would need to sink enough money into R&D that it'd take too long to recover their costs.

 

[Eli_C]

Google drives its revenue from advertising, but its much more than an advertising company.

In order to keep Android market share increasing and to better compete with Apple Android/Google/Moto need better chips. Apple doesn't use an off the shelf chip, and it shows. Go read an Anandtech Apple review. Apple does a very good job polishing every piece of its products. Moto needs that same focus.

There is nothing wrong with the Snapdragon, but I believe Google could do better, particularly in some specialized areas that may help the whole android ecosystem shine.

 

[NoYankees44]

Google drives its revenue from advertising, but its much more than an advertising company.

In order to keep Android market share increasing and to better compete with Apple Android/Google/Moto need better chips. Apple doesn't use an off the shelf chip, and it shows. Go read an Anandtech Apple review. Apple does a very good job polishing every piece of its products. Moto needs that same focus.

There is nothing wrong with the Snapdragon, but I believe Google could do better, particularly in some specialized areas that may help the whole android ecosystem shine.

Android is and always will be a glorified experiment on Google's part. Google wants to influence this market and collect Peta bytes of glorious user data. Nothing more. If Google were to somehow hit hard times, Android development would be one of the first things to go I guarantee you.

More on topic: If there was a time when Google started really loosing in the mobile market, I could see them maybe doing something like this if they did not have another game plan. But only then. Right now, Android is becoming more and more successful and hardware is getting good enough to cover up integration and optimization faults. There is no real reason to for Google to spend the massive amount of money and R&D time on hardware.

If the Nexus phone program was more than a few niche Dev devices, I might see your point, but currently it is not. Google has shown no real interest in getting into hardware in a significant way. I love the idea of a parallel software/hardware development too, but it is just not in the cards right now for Android. The best we can hope for is strides in optimization on the Oems' part.

 

[John Doe40]

Google does not NEED any custom CPU/APU designs. They are a software company, selling software services. They also want to keep Android OS customizable enough, unlike Apple or Microsoft, that is why they are letting the smartphone manufacturers (or manufacturers of other portable devices) themselves to pick up whatever CPU/APU configuration they want to, including letting them create their very custom designs. And it should stay that way.

Apple does a very good job polishing every piece of its products.

If you voluntarily enjoy drinking Apple's Kool-Aid - you can do so, but please at least try to add something like "in my uninformed opinion" at the end of your sentences. I have owned many Apple devices, both mobile and "stationary" and still do (I still use MacBookPro, though with Windows OS as primary OS, and I still use iPad but I am actively looking for an Android replacement). Right now they are FAR from doing a "very good job" at "polishing every piece of its products" and they seem to be doing worse every year. Just go to Apple's own forums and see, for example, how many people still have random battery life problems with their iPhones (that was part of the reason I got rid of mine and never looked back), even after latest iOS update. Or how many people are still pissed at awful iOS7 visual theme, which you STILL cannot customize at all unless you can jailbreak your device (which has multiple drawbacks on its own). Even my current MacBook Pro (latest 13" model with Retina display) is a "step backwards" in some aspects - for example the current "MagSafe" connector is pretty easy to accidentally disconnect (which is extremely annoying) and Apple has completely removed the RJ45 network jack (which is still useful in A LOT of situations). Apple should NEVER be used as any kind of "role model" anymore, neither for software design/features, nor for hardware.

 

[JRDroid]

Moto doesn't sell enough phones to make custom silicone (like apple does), Google has the resources but has a firewall between itself and Moto, and of course Moto is likely to be transferred to Lenovo.

However, Google could and should develop custom silicone for Android, with Moto X2 in mind, but make it available to all Android OEMs. Google doesn't currently have the expertise, but could bring it in house and help push all of Android further. Google's real opportunity to shine is voice recognition, and could probably greatly outdo anything anyone else could do. Radios developed by motorola have always been the best and beat the current crops of integrated radios in most other silicone. Google is also very strong in image recognition/processing and this would probably help push camera portions of the silicone even beyond something like the Exceed processor. Even core functions of the OS could be cooked into the silicone to be much more efficient.

Google already does this in a way. Google works closely with Qualcomm and Nvidia to ensure that their chips work fantastically with Android. There is no need for them to go further than that. It would be beyond the point of diminishing returns.

What is wrong with Snapdragons?

Posted via Android Central App

This was my first thought, and the answer is not a friggin thing.