Google unveils latest challenger to iPhone Google unveiled the Motorola Moto X smartphone on Thursday, its latest attempt to leapfrog Apple's iPhone - this time with a device packed full of sensors and processors that will allow the phone to anticipate its user's intentions. The Moto X, which will cost $199 when it goes on sale later this month with the five largest US mobile operators, is the first smartphone designed and built by Motorola engineers since Google acquired the company 14 months ago. It also represents an attempt to kick-start the next wave of innovation in smartphones, at a time when sales growth in the US and Europe is slowing and incremental improvements in screen resolution, processing power and battery life alone no longer excite consumers. Instead, Google is attempting software innovations that incorporate context awareness and predictive technology into the Moto X, with the promise that this will make smartphones easier and more intuitive to use. Among its key features, the Moto X will be able to respond to its user's voice commands without that person touching the device, even if the phone is in sleep mode. Despite its advanced features, Google claims the handset is very power efficient and will run for 24 hours on a single charge. The Moto X represents "a return to Motorola's [hardware] engineering and innovation roots," said Dennis Woodside, Motorola chief executive. He described the new handset, which has eight separate processors, as a key part of Google's mobile strategy. It will also be the first smartphone to be assembled entirely in the US, at a Motorola facility in Fort Worth, Texas. Manufacturing locally will enable customers who use AT&T as their operator to customise the device, for example with a unique case, and still receive the handset within four days of ordering it. However, the Moto X faces fierce competition. Apple is expected to launch a successor to the iPhone 5 this autumn that will run on iOS7, the biggest overhaul of its mobile operating system since the original iPhone. Samsung, meanwhile, commands nearly a third of the global market with its Google Android-based smartphones. Analysts and industry executives also say that, while there is much potential to improve today's smartphones, there are technical hurdles that have to be overcome. "The name smartphone is misleading because the phone today isn't really smart," said Kevin Jou, chief technology officer of MediaTek, the Taiwanese mobile chip company. Basically, it's a collection of many, many functions that we used to have to use different devices [such as a camera, television or phone] to perform. Chips must be designed to consume less power if phones are to remain in an always-on mode that will let them continually calculate a user's location, for example. "Power consumption is definitely one of the paramount challenges," said Mr Jou.