Rick Osterloh, the President of Motorola, has been answering questions about the company on Twitter, and he revealed a few snippets of interest to fans of its mobile hardware. Perhaps the biggest news relates to this year’s Moto X smartphone, closely followed by talk of a Motorola branded tablet — or rather, the lack of one.
One Twitter user asked Osterloh if we can expect a 2015 version of the Moto X around the same time as previous years. Osterloh replied that the firm tries to “stay on a roughly annual cycle for all products including Moto X.” The second-generation Moto X, also know as the Moto X 2014, was announced in September last year, so we should be on the look out for the 2015 model around the same time this year, give or take a month.
.@northead we try to stay on a roughly annual cycle for all of our products including Moto X. #AskRickO
— Rick Osterloh (@rosterloh) March 25, 2015
While this was always a distinct possibility, there has been a major change at Motorola since the Moto X 2014 was announced — the arrival of new owners Lenovo. Osterloh’s words indicate Lenovo hasn’t altered much when it comes to release schedules, at least for established devices. Following up on this, Motorola’s not keen to tread on any toes at Lenovo, and currently has no plans to launch any tablets. Osterloh points out that while the Motorola name won’t be put on a tablet in the near future, there are “lots of great offerings” in Lenovo’s Yoga range. Lenovo doesn’t feel the same way about smartphones, and continues to launch them under its own name in its popular markets around the world.
.@broota_sumer @Motorola On Tablets, we don’t have any plans, but @lenovo has lots of great offerings here (e.g., Yoga). #AskRickO
— Rick Osterloh (@rosterloh) March 25, 2015
Recently, images of the Moto 360 2 smartwatch leaked, which could end up arriving at the same time as the Moto X 2015, should Osterloh’s annual refresh claims also apply to it. In February, Motorola announced the low-cost, modestly specced Moto E 2015, complete with 4G LTE connectivity.
