Motorola Mobility is not making its newest smart phone, the Moto G, in the United States, but it is keeping some of the plastics design flexibility it introduced with the Texas-made Moto X earlier this year.
Buyers of the Moto G will be able to buy a variety of plastic shells for their phone, which will allow them to customize the look and feel of their phone, the company said during its Nov. 13 rollout of the Moto G in Brazil. A spokeswoman for Motorola, based in Libertyville, Ill., could not specify what resin will be used in the shells.
Users can pick from 19 customization options, with standard curved plastic backs in seven covers, a "flip" shell — also available in seven colors — which will cover the phone's face as well as its back and a five-color palette of "grip" shells, which have a rubberized texture around the phone's perimeter.
Those choices are not as varied as those available for the Moto X, which combine color options for the back, face plate and trim, but still would allow buyers to change the look of their phone quickly. Motorola officials said buyers could even buy a range of colors, and pop on a new one at any time they wanted to give the phone a face lift.
The Moto G is targeted at customers seeking a low-cost smart phone. It will retail for less than $200 and is not locked to a specific service provider, meaning that people will be able to use the phone with pre-paid phone plans. By comparison, Apple Inc.'s iPhone 5C retails for more than $500 when sold without a phone plan.
