Google’s Motorola Mobility handset unit plans to unveil a new smartphone called Moto X by October.

GOOGLE’s Motorola Mobility handset unit plans to unveil a new smartphone called Moto X by October, stepping up efforts to gain share from Apple’s iPhone in the market for hand-held hardware.

The new phone will be manufactured near Fort Worth, Texas, creating about 2,000 jobs, Motorola Mobility CEO Dennis Woodside said on Wednesday in an interview at the D: All Things Digital conference, in Rancho Palos Verdes, California. Flextronics International would make the device, said company spokeswoman Renee Brotherton.

Google is using new designs and products to make the most of last year’s $12.4bn purchase of Motorola Mobility Holdings, its largest acquisition yet.

It was also racing to regain share lost to Apple in the $293.9bn market for smartphones.

“There’s a lot of opportunity for us out there over the next couple of years,” Mr Woodside said. “We’re trying to bring Motorola back to its roots.”

The Moto X, which will use two processors to conserve battery life, will include sensors to help it better understand what a user needs, Mr Woodside said. For example, the phone will know when it is turned on or being used in a vehicle.

By pledging to make smartphones in Texas, Google follows Apple, which last year said it would make Mac computers in the US. Apple’s plan would result the creation of about 200 jobs, if the company followed the pattern of other technology companies, labour economists said at the time.

Motorola, which uses Google’s Android operating system, ranked fourth among smartphone makers in the US in March, with 8.5% market share, down from 9.1% in December, according to ComScore. Apple was the leader, adding almost three percentage points to 39% from December, while Samsung Electronics, which also uses Android software, had a 22% share. HTC had 9%. Google’s Motorola Mobility was also looking at new ways that wearable computing devices could confirm a smartphone user’s identity, according to Regina Dugan, senior vice-president of advanced technology and projects at Motorola Mobility. For example, Motorola was working with a company that designs electronic tattoos that could be used for authentication, said Ms Dugan, who also appeared at the conference. Motorola was reviewing a pill with a chip inside that could be used for authentication.

Separately,

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site Babylon gained the most in more than four months as Google’s review of its user policies found no faults, easing concern that a key source of revenue would be jeopardised.

Shares of the company, which gets most of its advertising sharing revenue from agreements with Google, jumped 6.5% at the close in Tel Aviv. Babylon’s stock, which more than doubled last year, fell 25% in the two months ending March 31 on concern a change in plans with Google would hurt revenue. Bloomberg