Iphone, Galaxy S4, Experia Z and now Moto X.

In between reviews and rants, the new “Google phone” has been the hot topic these past days. Not that I would initially care much to be honest. But after coming across a piece from Robert Scoble in response to a TechCrunch post, I came to think that there is more to Moto X and this current debate than just basic technology.

Let us look into this actual technology bit quickly and move on. There are certainly some nice features, a few innovative additions, the always-on voice control, etc … . But, one thing sticks with me : everybody is comparing this phone to the other brands flagships (above-mentioned iPhone, S4 and Z). Yet, the first article I read about Moto X was stating that this phone’s positioning would rather be mid-level. And so do some pieces at the moment speaking of “phone for all”.

Well then, is the name of Google enough to get people so excited they start another gold rush ?

Coming back on track, the “customers” one, the one for which Scoble’s piece raised my level of interest.

He actually wrote a fair note to journos and tech reviewers mentioning the fact they have a “specs” approach and are not testing the devices for real life. In this regards, as he said, a normal user would not look deep into the features but rather make sure the thing … works. And that usually takes a week or two to get a good grip on the phone while adding apps and trying to unleash some added power from the device (“Oh la la, just discovered I could get an Evernote plugin in my Hootsuite dashboard!”).

I, however, have to not fully agree with him at some point. And that is when, in his speech about real customers, he would hint his review as being one to look at for “real” (standard, normal, me-like) customers.

Indeed, focusing on actual usage of the phone in real-life situations and taking the time to do so is more like a customer review.

But when that is done by a guy who gets his hands on Google Glass and on the yet unreleased Moto X, how normal a customer is that ? That is sure part of the game for brands to provide influencers with their gadgets in order to make some noise and spread the love (or hate but let us leave that to the likes of tech blogs). But at some point, it seems easier to get some love from the cat you are feeding.

So, rather than speaking about customers, I guess the proper terminology here would be “elite customers”, with a little bias in their relation to the brands.

I also retained a point about moving from iOs to Android and so loving it. But with the Moto X now being THE Android (… phone). As a real user and knowing various real users I do agree that chosing either the phone or the OS does have to do with personal preferences.

Yet, I did move from an initial Windows phone to an iPhone, switched to Android on Samsung, quickly followed by Sony and am now back to iPhone. And I actually love it just because I can actually use it.

That is what customer experience [I read “user experience” recently, must be the customer experience 2.0] is about. Trying out various devices and defining which is the best fit, out of experience and usage.

That is also what would prevent me from writing a rant against this or that brand regardless of how bad my experience has been. I do resent Samsung phones which for most users I know around me always performed poorly (when not burning out like mine) but, at the same time, a friend of mine has found his best device ever in the form of the Galaxy S4 … .

Regardless of reviews and reviewers, users experience is the key.

Until the next release, of course. Ready for the rant against the iPhone 6 ? :)

Phone picture from Flickr user robinkaspar (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/deed.en)