Google will splurge $500 million on Moto X marketing

How much will Google spend to promote its pet Moto X phone? The device that could well signal the rebirth of Motorola will see a backing of more than $500 million by the Internet giant, according to reports.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the Mountain View-based company will be opening up its pockets for Motorola’s hardware unit to dig in to as far as marketing the device goes. The spend will cover not just Moto X’s marketing in the US but also in overseas markets including Europe, according to sources.

Marketing is key

Google has stepped on the accelerator as far its newest release is concerned. The company recently placed a full-page ad in the July 3 editions of some of US’s leading newspapers to tease the phone. The ad drives home the fact that the phone will be designed, engineered and assembled in the US. Google is also playing out the phones customisable features like letting users select the colour of their phone and engrave messages on the back of the handset.

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The phone is set to be available with all four major carriers in the US – AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Sprint and T-Mobile, sometime in the fall. The report also claims that Motorola has succeeded in minimising the amount of software and app related bloatware that will come pre-installed on the Moto X.

While there is no official word on the hardware specs of the Moto X yet, leaks show that the smartphone will not be featuring top-of-the-line hardware but will instead compete with the mid-rangers in the market currently. The phone will apparently have a Qualcomm MSM8960 Pro dual-core processor, clocked at 1.7GHz. With Google planning to launch a massive marketing campaign soon, we will hopefully find more information about the phone in the coming days.