Just yesterday we published Motorola’s official word on the slight delay with the arrival of the Moto X Play, Moto X Style and Moto G (3rd Gen), and while the delay isn’t significant (“early September” has now been changed to “mid September”), it now looks as if we have — unofficially, at least — a precise date we can talk about.
Some well placed folk within Vodafone attended a briefing with Motorola last week, and they walked away with a timeframe for these handsets arriving in stores, as well as a better understanding of the pairing between Vodafone and Motorola for this release. First things first, the three handsets were due to go on sale tomorrow; 9 September 2015. However, some questions about stock availability led Vodafone and Motorola to jointly delay the launch until the 14th, when (presumably) more stock would be available in more stores, thus allowing a better and more consistent customer experience.
We expect the Moto G (3rd Gen) will arrive at other retailers around the same time, though as they’re not coming through Vodafone, this rumour doesn’t really apply there!
While further plans are to be confirmed, we know that the Moto X Style will launch on Vodafone’s Red $80 plan with a $3 handset payment each month, which includes 6GB of data, unlimited national calls and text, as well as Vodafone’s unlimited international calls to select destinations. Colours will be black front/back and white front/bamboo back. The Moto X Play, being a mid-tier handset, will launch on a Red $40 plan with $5 handset payment, including 1GB of data, unlimited calls and text, in the single black/grey combination (which we’ve seen; it looks good and feels better).
Both handset will be available for outright purchase, also from 14 September: $792 for the Moto X Style, and $528 for the Moto X Play.
Of course, while this information is current at the time of writing, until the stock appear in stores, we can’t be sure of anything … hopefully this won’t get pushed back further!
It’s also interesting to note there was a discussion about why Motorola chose to partner with Vodafone for the exclusive this time around. As we all know, Motorola handsets haven’t been available on carrier contracts since the Razr M and Razr HD from Telstra a couple of years back. Word is, Motorola have decided to re-enter that space to challenge the brand heavyweights, buoyed by a strong (even overwhelming) response to the Moto G range through direct retail sale.
Motorola share the same view of Vodafone — a challenger to the industry heavyweights Telstra and Optus. Given these synergies, Vodafone was a logical choice for Motorola this time around.
Let’s see if there’s stock in stores on the 14th; we’ll be checking our local Vodafone retailers at open on the 14th and we’ll let you know!
