Find: Google and Motorola finally making a phone?

What took so long?

Google and Motorola draw up plans for “X phone”

According to the Wall Street Journal, Motorola has been working furiously on a new handset with Google. Referred to only as the “X phone,” the device will be separate from other phones in development at Motorola that are exclusively sold by Verizon Wireless.


Dennis Woodside, a former Google sales executive who is now chief executive at Motorola, told the Wall Street Journal that the company is “investing in a team and a technology that will do something quite different than the current approaches.” He added that although Motorola has been “under hard times,” it can do more now that Google is involved.


Motorola is aiming to put more refined features in the X phone, like a better camera. The company is especially hoping to beef up the software on the X phone and is looking toward its acquisition of Viewdle, an imaging and gesture-recognition software developer, to help give it a leg up. Motorola has also been experimenting with bendable screens and a ceramic chassis as a way to make the phone more durable and stress resistant, although the WSJ's sources say these experiments "ran into difficulties."