Well, except Google doesn't need Motorola. The rest of the industry can push Android units without them, and I think Motorola end up competing more with other Android partners than anybody else.

Apple made a wise move killing the clones. They brought back their premium status instead of having their hardware commoditized amongst the other beige boxes out there.

IMO, it's where Android handsets are now. All disposable generic grey slabs. It doesn't matter what the specs are, none of them says premium to me and none of them have more than a few months of lifecycle before their makers kill them with something new.

It's kind of funny that Motorola got the 1984 concept completely backwards in their most recent commercials. Apple is among a small group of other companies who are doing their own thing, rather than following the Google directive.