The new Motorola Moto G smartphone retail for just $179 for the 8GB model and $179 for the 16GB model, and according to a recent report, the 16GB model costs Google $123 in hardware components.
Considering that the device retail for $199, when you take into account things like manufacturing costs, marketing and everything else, Motorola is probably making just $10 from the sale of the Moto G.
This means that Motorola is making a 5 percent profit on each Motorola G smartphone that is sold, we previously heard that Google are using Motorola get expand Android further and also drive down the price of smartphone sales, by selling cheaper handsets.
This is something they have done with their Google Nexus 5 smartphone, Google sells the handset direct to consumers at close to the wholesale price.
If you buy the Google Nexus 5 from one of the mobile carriers or a third party retailer, off contract, the handset will cost you more than you can actually buy it for, direct from Google.
The Motorola Moto G is the first of Motorola’s new range of smartphones that have been launched globally, the Motorola Moto X was only available in the US at launch.
Source WSJ, Pocket Now