Much to Google and HTC's chagrin, an apparent shipping issue has left the handset with the Snapdragon 835 — it's still a premium chip, but it's the same one virtually every flagship has offered in the past year.
Foxconn, however, will also be taking on the "inventory risk" – the problem of being left with handsets that customers don't want and which it cannot sell.
The incident followed a three-day blackout for 7 million customers in July, and O2 is blaming its recently installed Centralised User Database, which left some handsets shut out of the network.
Selling its portfolio could leave its handset operations without protection against lawsuits from rivals.
"Last week was essentially an announcement that they are leaving the handset business," said Jan Dawson, a telecommunications analyst with Ovum.
Moreover, only the last four digits of your Citi card number are stored on the phone, and, should you leave your handset in a cab, Citibank says it can shut off mobile access within minutes.
If Nomura International analyst Richard Windsor knows what he's talking about then Moto will be leaving the handset business to focus on being an enterprise and government company.
The "hub" handset left a five-page log of calls which Mr Rowland said showed he was repeatedly targeted, possibly to obtain details about property deals and yacht sales involving monied public figures and to steal high-profile contacts.
But at the same time, most of those don't leave our handsets — and if they do it's to be posted online somewhere like Facebook, Flickr, Instagram or Twitter.
At that point, it could take hours, or perhaps days, for the switch to be complete -- and the customer might be left with two handsets that do not work.
