New Motorola Phone Is Said To Have Edge-To-Edge Screen
Motorola Mobility's next mobile phone, due to be unveiled at an event with Verizon Wireless next week, will feature an edge-to-edge screen and work with LTE networks, a person familiar with the product said.
Context & Ripple Effects
The rumored device, still unconfirmed ahead of next week's joint event, lands at a pivotal moment for Motorola Mobility, whose last marquee hardware statement was the RAZR2 back in 2007. Under Google's ownership, the company has been fighting on two fronts: it filed a confirmed patent-infringement suit against Apple at the U.S. ITC targeting Siri and location reminders just weeks before this leak surfaced.
The carrier side of the pairing has history — Verizon committed to a Motorola phone for its 4G network back in December 2010 — and the timing now coincides with Verizon's newly expanded Share Everything shared-data tiers, including a $150 20GB plan. Eight syndicated pickups (TechCrunch, Gizmodo, BGR among them) show how much attention a single sourced rumor about Motorola hardware still commands.
First-order effects
- Verizon gains a rumored edge-to-edge LTE flagship to merchandise against the Samsung Galaxy S III it started selling at $199.99 in July, while Motorola Mobility gets a high-profile launch stage weeks after opening its ITC front against Apple.
Second-order effects
- With Verizon and AT&T already engaged in explicit price signaling and Share Everything tiers live, a new premium LTE handset gives carriers another subsidized anchor for their shared-data upsell, pressuring rival OEMs to match the display design or cede the spec-sheet lead.
- Samsung, coming off the Galaxy S III launch, faces direct screen-design competition at the top of Verizon's lineup, where shelf position is negotiated through exclusives like this joint event.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, handset differentiation consolidates around display engineering and LTE silicon rather than brand heritage, and carrier co-launch events harden into the default go-to-market for flagship Android devices.
- For Google-owned Motorola, the combination of hardware launches alongside aggressive patent litigation against Apple suggests an owner willing to spend on both fronts — a structure that could reshape how Android manufacturers compete with Apple beyond specs alone.
The trend: Flagship smartphones are converging on edge-to-edge displays and LTE as the differentiating battleground, launched through carrier-exclusive partnerships rather than manufacturer-only events.