For some reason I remembered it being approved and on Moto Mobility's Wikipedia page the parent company was listed as Lenovo. However, Motorola's site still labels them as a Google owned company so it looks like I was mistaken. I think it's just waiting for regulatory approval at the moment. I've updated the paragraph to better reflect the current situation of Motorola's ownership.
That being said, when I look at Google's track record with SD cards on their Android devices (I don't think any have had it since the Nexus One) I feel like the Moto E and Moto G LTE wouldn't have been outfitted with MicroSD support if Google didn't intend for the company to be sold to someone else.
I don't think it would have been outfitted with only 4GB of NAND. It's not like Google has ever tried to achieve large margins on their devices. I think they would have taken on the extra $3 per phone to ship it with at least 8GB.
I do not know if Google is the one deciding the margins on Motorola phones, if they are supposed to be 2 separate companies? Anyways, in my view that just proves that selling Motorola to Lenovo might be the right thing, because SD cards are important for "emerging markets" where the cloud isn't always accessible or fast enough. On a 8GB phone you put some apps, some music and some GPS maps and your phone slows down, because NAND doesn't have enough breathing room.
On that note will be interesting to see how will the E perform over time, with so little NAND.
PS: I use a Nexus, so no, I am not in the SD card camp, but I understand how it is useful specially in the low-end and emerging markets.
I wouldn't disagree with you that SD cards can be important in emerging markets due to their affordability. I don't mind the inclusion of MicroSD on a device, although I'm not someone who cares enough to make it a deal breaker when a phone doesn't have MicroSD (as long as it has sufficient internal storage).
I've had a 128GB Micro-SD chip in a Samsung Note 2 for about a month. Yesterday I received a 2nd and 3rd Micro-SD chip. So I went ahead and upgraded my Blackberry Z10, and then put the other chip away for later use.
The phone and phablet work fine with 128GB. When I get time, I'll try the 3rd chip in my GoPro 3 camera to see if that works any good.
Micro-SD cards are the mobile equivalent of having room for an extra hard drive in your PC for bulk data. If you frequently upgrade your high-end PC with bigger and better hard drives and SSDs, then you might appreciate the high capacity and high speed versions of Micro-SD chips and their upgradability.
So in at least one respect they are a high-end solution too. In fact, they seem more like an all-end solution.
It's much more like adding a cheap HDD than adding an SSD to a desktop tho (in practical and performance terms, obviously the cards are flash), so I'd say it's a mid range/enthusiast solution at best. The premium/mainstream market moved to laptops long ago, and they care about expandable storage there about as much as they do on phones.
"What is interesting is that the MSM8x26 in the Moto G is capable of dual cell HSPA+ (DC-HSPA) at 42Mbps and category 4 LTE but Motorola was unable to include it as the software support was unavailable in time for launch."
Wait, I'm confused. The HSPA+/LTE model is only different by software? Is there an update coming for us Moto G users of the past several months? At the very least, will it be possible for a custom ROM to enable support?
The Moto G with the MSM8926 (others like the dual SIM model use MSM8226) has a modem block that can do LTE cat4 and DC-HSPA but the software for it was slated for after Motorola was going to launch the Moto G so it launched with single cell HSDPA 21.1. It's not something that Motorola can roll out to previous Moto G phones.
Interesting... So someone at XDA could enable this with the help of the Moto G 4G ROM or is that a Qualcomm firmware? Can you expand on that a bit, thx?
There probably is a hardware difference. The software for the radio is only one part of the chain and you need it supported in every part of the chain so the new phone probably has more or different antenna's and amplifiers too. For the Nexus 4 they were actually able to unlock LTE but it only worked on one band. It happened to be AWS, which is the band T-Mobile was deploying on so it was useful but that mainly because they also do DC HSPA+ on AWS.
Much more interesting than the whole microSD/Google/Lenovo debate is their continued commitment to the low end market (and to lowering phone prices in general)... Granted, this and the E were likely in development long before talks with Lenovo, but still, they could've been axed instead.
I'm trying to figure out how there could be any connection between these getting SD cards and Lenovo buying them. That decision was most likely made before Lenovo had any say at all.
I think it may be quite easy to change the design to include or exclude an SD card, at least when we are talking about relatively bulky, non-unibody phones such as the Moto G. Even if the takeover of Motorola has not technically completed, I would expect Lenovo will already be influencing some decisions there.
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djw39 - Tuesday, May 13, 2014 - link
Are they actually owned by Lenovo yet?Brandon Chester - Tuesday, May 13, 2014 - link
For some reason I remembered it being approved and on Moto Mobility's Wikipedia page the parent company was listed as Lenovo. However, Motorola's site still labels them as a Google owned company so it looks like I was mistaken. I think it's just waiting for regulatory approval at the moment. I've updated the paragraph to better reflect the current situation of Motorola's ownership.That being said, when I look at Google's track record with SD cards on their Android devices (I don't think any have had it since the Nexus One) I feel like the Moto E and Moto G LTE wouldn't have been outfitted with MicroSD support if Google didn't intend for the company to be sold to someone else.
kpkp - Tuesday, May 13, 2014 - link
Even for Google a smartphone with only 4GB nand would be silly.Brandon Chester - Tuesday, May 13, 2014 - link
I don't think it would have been outfitted with only 4GB of NAND. It's not like Google has ever tried to achieve large margins on their devices. I think they would have taken on the extra $3 per phone to ship it with at least 8GB.kpkp - Tuesday, May 13, 2014 - link
I do not know if Google is the one deciding the margins on Motorola phones, if they are supposed to be 2 separate companies?Anyways, in my view that just proves that selling Motorola to Lenovo might be the right thing, because SD cards are important for "emerging markets" where the cloud isn't always accessible or fast enough. On a 8GB phone you put some apps, some music and some GPS maps and your phone slows down, because NAND doesn't have enough breathing room.
On that note will be interesting to see how will the E perform over time, with so little NAND.
PS: I use a Nexus, so no, I am not in the SD card camp, but I understand how it is useful specially in the low-end and emerging markets.
Brandon Chester - Tuesday, May 13, 2014 - link
I wouldn't disagree with you that SD cards can be important in emerging markets due to their affordability. I don't mind the inclusion of MicroSD on a device, although I'm not someone who cares enough to make it a deal breaker when a phone doesn't have MicroSD (as long as it has sufficient internal storage).hrrmph - Tuesday, May 13, 2014 - link
I've had a 128GB Micro-SD chip in a Samsung Note 2 for about a month. Yesterday I received a 2nd and 3rd Micro-SD chip. So I went ahead and upgraded my Blackberry Z10, and then put the other chip away for later use.The phone and phablet work fine with 128GB. When I get time, I'll try the 3rd chip in my GoPro 3 camera to see if that works any good.
Micro-SD cards are the mobile equivalent of having room for an extra hard drive in your PC for bulk data. If you frequently upgrade your high-end PC with bigger and better hard drives and SSDs, then you might appreciate the high capacity and high speed versions of Micro-SD chips and their upgradability.
So in at least one respect they are a high-end solution too. In fact, they seem more like an all-end solution.
Impulses - Tuesday, May 13, 2014 - link
It's much more like adding a cheap HDD than adding an SSD to a desktop tho (in practical and performance terms, obviously the cards are flash), so I'd say it's a mid range/enthusiast solution at best. The premium/mainstream market moved to laptops long ago, and they care about expandable storage there about as much as they do on phones.coder543 - Tuesday, May 13, 2014 - link
"What is interesting is that the MSM8x26 in the Moto G is capable of dual cell HSPA+ (DC-HSPA) at 42Mbps and category 4 LTE but Motorola was unable to include it as the software support was unavailable in time for launch."Wait, I'm confused. The HSPA+/LTE model is only different by software? Is there an update coming for us Moto G users of the past several months? At the very least, will it be possible for a custom ROM to enable support?
Brandon Chester - Tuesday, May 13, 2014 - link
The Moto G with the MSM8926 (others like the dual SIM model use MSM8226) has a modem block that can do LTE cat4 and DC-HSPA but the software for it was slated for after Motorola was going to launch the Moto G so it launched with single cell HSDPA 21.1. It's not something that Motorola can roll out to previous Moto G phones.kpkp - Tuesday, May 13, 2014 - link
Interesting...So someone at XDA could enable this with the help of the Moto G 4G ROM or is that a Qualcomm firmware? Can you expand on that a bit, thx?
kpb321 - Sunday, May 18, 2014 - link
There probably is a hardware difference. The software for the radio is only one part of the chain and you need it supported in every part of the chain so the new phone probably has more or different antenna's and amplifiers too. For the Nexus 4 they were actually able to unlock LTE but it only worked on one band. It happened to be AWS, which is the band T-Mobile was deploying on so it was useful but that mainly because they also do DC HSPA+ on AWS.ryuzaki - Saturday, July 19, 2014 - link
I don't understand, the Moto 4G LTE has the support to DC-HSPA up to 42Mbps?Impulses - Tuesday, May 13, 2014 - link
Much more interesting than the whole microSD/Google/Lenovo debate is their continued commitment to the low end market (and to lowering phone prices in general)... Granted, this and the E were likely in development long before talks with Lenovo, but still, they could've been axed instead.iamlilysdad - Wednesday, May 14, 2014 - link
I'm trying to figure out how there could be any connection between these getting SD cards and Lenovo buying them. That decision was most likely made before Lenovo had any say at all.Klug4Pres - Wednesday, May 14, 2014 - link
I think it may be quite easy to change the design to include or exclude an SD card, at least when we are talking about relatively bulky, non-unibody phones such as the Moto G. Even if the takeover of Motorola has not technically completed, I would expect Lenovo will already be influencing some decisions there.suresh.rajasekaran - Tuesday, June 10, 2014 - link
when it Will be Available in India?