In May of last year, Google sealed a $13 billion acquisition to acquire mobile phone company Motorola. Since buying Motorola, Google has spent much of its time working of furthering the development of Google Glass and its Nexus line of tablets and phones. In August, though, Google unveiled its first creation from Motorola – the Moto X.
The Motorola Moto X was released to somewhat rave reviews, mainly due to its plethora of external customization options and its unique integration of the Google Now voice-command system. The other selling points of the Moto X at the time of its release were its turn-of-the-wrist camera functioning and non-invasive notifications system.
One aspect of the Moto X launch that was almost forgotten, until now, was the natural back option. In August, pictures began circulating showcasing the wooden-back options which would be available to customers at some unknown time.
Moto X price drop to $100 coming in Q4, along with wooden back configurations (for $50) pic.twitter.com/wpIdgYLjHO
— @evleaks (@evleaks) August 31, 2013
On Sunday, Motorola teased consumers with the natural wood option once again by posting this picture to their Google+ page:
And starting today, the Bamboo back-plate option became available on the Moto X Moto Maker page.
While the bamboo option looks fantastic and promises that unique-factor due to the fact that the wood grains will be different on every phone, the “upgrade” does come with certain drawbacks. First, the bamboo back will cost consumers $100 extra. While this is a splurge for just a new back, one has to remember that the Moto X is generously priced at $99 base. The other caveat to coveting the new bamboo back is that shipping takes an extra week, 14 days total. Thus, the first bamboo-backed Moto Xs will not arrive in the hands of consumers until January.
When Google first acquired Motorola last year, many speculated if this was Google’s attempt at entering the hardware market. While Google relies on the majority of it income coming from its advertising services, it certainly appears as if Google is trying to become a more full-bodied company with the acquisition of Motorola. While the Moto X was not received with as much acclaim as the iPhone, Apple will be hard-pressed to keep such a stranglehold on the smart phone market if Google and Motorola continue to release such promising products at such a low price.