Report: Motorola job posting confirms plans for 'X-Phone'

Google's (NASDAQ:GOOG) Motorola Mobility unit confirmed in a job listing that it is seeking a senior director of product management to manage the launch of what is widely believed to be the division's rumored X-Phone, an advanced Android device. 

The job posting on LinkedIn, which has since been removed, described the duties of the position and explicitly mentioned X-Phone, according to The Verge. The job posting is still available for viewing on Motorola's job board but references to the X-Phone have been removed. The duties of the job include managing "the product customization requirements for hardware, software, packaging and application development with respect to launching products with carrier customers."

In December the Wall Street Journal reported that Google was working on X-Phone and X-Tablet devices, citing unnamed sources, but said Google was running into issues related to manufacturing and supply-chain management. At the time, Motorola CEO Dennis Woodside, a former Google top sales executive, declined to discuss products under development but told the Journal that the company is "investing in a team and a technology that will do something quite different than the current approaches." The report said the devices represented the first true partnership between Google and Motorola since Google bought the firm or $12.5 billion. The report indicated the devices would be based on Android and would have advanced camera capabilities, bendable screen technology and other enhancements.

According to the blog Droid Life, the phone will be announced at Google's I/O developer conference in May, sold in the summer through multiple carriers as well as online through Google's Play store--and that it will not be part of Google's Nexus device program.

During the Google's fourth-quarter earnings conference call CEO Larry Page said that he was "excited" about the future of Motorola's business. He said that "the opportunities are endless" for innovation in a multi-screen world.

"Think about your devices, battery life is a huge issue. You shouldn't have to worry about constantly recharging your phone," he said, according to a Seeking Alpha transcript. "When you drop your phone, it shouldn't go splat. Everything should be done faster and easier." Those comments were similar to ones Page recently made to Wired about the potential for mobile hardware innovation.

For more:
- see this The Verge article
- see this TechCrunch article
- see this BGR article

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