Moto X Play launched in India at Rs 18,499: Motorola's Amit Boni says consumers influence device pricing, not competition

Motorola announced its third generation Moto X today at an event in Delhi in the form of the **Moto X Play** . Unlike the **Moto X second generation** that was launched at Rs 31,999 last year, the Moto X Play starts from Rs 18,499.

This is quite a competitive price point considering last year’s Moto X launch price. While Motorola has kept its phone prices competitive, the Moto X Play price begged the question if this was the company’s response to the sub 20K Chinese smartphones flooding the market. Motorola India general manager Amit Boni said that wasn’t the case.

“We have always made phones keeping in mind the end consumer. We have tried to keep pricing competitive in all generations. Honestly, we don’t decide the prices of our phones looking at competition because we do not want to compromise on quality expected from our phones. We try and sell our phones close to cost,” he said.

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During the launch Boni had indicated that the Moto X Style would also be launched in the Indian market soon. On being asked if the Moto X Style or the Moto X Pure would see the 30k pricing, Boni told us that the Moto X Play pricing is not a precursor to the pricing of the Moto X Style. He did not give an exact timeframe for the launch of the Moto X Style.

Motorola phones come with pure Android OS onboard and the new generation of Nexus devices are expected to be launched by the end of the month, which will most likely come with Android M. Would Moto X Play then get Android M soon? Boni said that one couldn’t say for sure by when it would happen.

“To be very honest we havent yet got the software from Google for Android M, so we cannot give an exact timeframe as to by when we will have Android M on the Moto X Play. But rest assured that we will be one of the fastest partners to launch it thanks to our pure Android editions,” he said.

During the launch event it was mentioned that Motorola would be making its phones in its India plant and the company expected to have an annual turnover of 6 million phones from its India plants. Does that give Motorola handsets a major cost advantage over importing a Moto device made abroad?

“It is a tricky one to answer if making phones in India gives major cost benefits, because we have a certain way in which taxes and duties are structured. As you know, chipmakers and RAM suppliers aren’t based in India, so that has to be considered. So within the realm of ‘Make in India’ we are fulfilling all parameters. But yes, as compared to importing completely made phone from abroad, there is a slight benefit,” he mentioned.

Motorola claims that it has managed to sell over 40 percent more Moto G 3rd gen handsets as compared to Moto G 2nd gen. With the competitive price point of the Moto X Play - Rs 18,499 for 16GB and Rs 19,999 for the 32GB variants, consumers now have a proven player in the sub 20k price point to consider.

We will do the full review soon enough to let you know if this is the phone to go for.