Motorola Moto X Launch Scheduled for Aug. 1

Motorola's Made-in-the-USA Moto X phone is coming early next month.

ByABC News
July 19, 2013, 4:37 PM
Motorola's Moto X phone launch invitation.
Motorola's Moto X phone launch invitation.
Motorola

July 19, 2013 — -- Motorola's much-hyped, U.S.-made smartphone -- the Moto X -- will be unveiled at the start of next month.

On Aug. 1, the Google-owned company will hold an event for the media in New York City. On the digital invitation, which can be seen above, a woman on the left seems to be gripping the new phone.

The phone, which will be made at the company's new 500,000-foot factory in Texas, will be available in a palette of different colors, ABC News reported earlier this month. One color can be used for the back case and another can be selected for the trim of the phone.

Users will also be able to engrave a name or message on the back cover, as well as upload a personal photo through the website to be pre-installed on the home screen, people familiar with the rollout have told ABC News.

Last week, Google Chairman Eric Schmidt was seen carrying a version of the phone in black and white.

What We Know So Far about the Moto X

The biggest tricks of the phone come with what Motorola has been doing with the hardware sensors, sources said. Instead of having to fumble to find the camera icon or button, users will be able to flick the phone to launch the camera. There are also added voice capabilities, which leverage Google's advanced voice-recognition technology.

The phone is said to be smart enough to know when you are driving and will automatically launch the speakerphone function.

It will be available at the largest U.S. carriers, including Verizon.

Earlier this month, Motorola ran full-page ads in The New York Times, USA Today and Wall Street Journal teasing the phone before the 4th of July.

The phone will be the first that the company has worked on from start to finish since being acquired by Google in August 2011. Google's Android operating system is also developed in Mountain View, Calif.

During its earnings announcement Thursday, Google announced that Motorola Mobility took a $342-million operating loss.

ABC News will have the latest on the device on Aug. 1.