It's difficult to overstate how high hopes were for the Moto X ahead of its launch. The mythical customizable Google X phone commanded fevered speculation that with Motorola under its wing, Google could finally produce an Android device to rival the global popularity of the Apple iPhone and Samsung Galaxy lineups. Alas, while the Moto X has proven to be a commendable device in terms of overall hardware and software quality, the phone's reach with consumers appears to have fallen short: only 500,000 Moto X smartphones have been sold since the device was released in August, according to a new report this week from Strategy Analytics, a market research firm (via The Wall Street Journal).

The figure has sparked renewed handwringing from tech writers over the utility of Google's purchase of Motorola, which remains an oddball pairing, given Google's continued reliance on other hardware manufacturers to produce its flagship Nexus lineup and losses incurred from the Motorola division. But it's also sparked hopes that Motorola's next device, the Moto G, due out tomorrow and widely-anticipated to be cheaper than the Moto X, could do better. The recent expansion of the Moto Maker online customization service for the Moto X beyond AT&T, to other major US carriers, could also help move more devices, though some are suggesting it is too little too late. For a device that was marketed by highlighting its assembly in America, the fact that America doesn't seem to have embraced it back is a dark irony indeed. We've reached out to Motorola for comment on the numbers and will update when we hear back.