In a session at MWC 2014, three Motorola exec including senior vice president of Software Engineering Steve Horowitz, senior vice president of Supply Chain and Operations Mark Randall and product manager Rick Osterloh revealed that Google did not actually have any influence on Motorola products since the Search giant acquired the company, V3 reports. According to them, Google “rarely got involved with its product development or innovation efforts,” further reinforcing the idea that Google didn’t give Motorola special preference.
“Google wanted us to be successful but never needed us to,” Horowitz said. “I wish we had a special relationship with the Android team but before meetings I waited in the lobby like everyone else. We got treated like any other OEM. Google was very careful to not give us any special treatment.”
The execs went on to say that the Moto X’s software features or the Moto G were original Motorola creations that had nothing to do with Google’s input, even though these devices clearly departed from the RAZR Android handsets the company launched before, especially when it comes to the almost pure Android operating system. However, the execs say that was also an internal Motorola decision that had nothing to do with Google.
“I know where [our] strengths are, and I feel that Android’s something to leave with the Android engineers. We’re not about making useless changes,” Horowitz said. “This strategy lets us ship Android upgrades at a much faster rate than anyone else. For example we shipped our KitKat upgrade to the Moto X 19 days after release.”
For the future under Lenovo, Motorola seems to be focused on Android. The company plans to take advantage of Lenovo’s improved supply chain and portfolio, not its software, Randal said. “Lenovo is good at taking the first unit and ramping production to high volumes and shipping quickly. The other thing is their technologies. They’ll give us better access to better and newer tech,” the exec said.
Also at MWC, Motorola confirmed that a Moto X successor may be launched later this year alongside a Motorola smartwatch. A purported Google Nexus smartwatch prototype that was apparently created by Motorola last year was also leaked during the show.
