Sometimes, getting companies to admit what we all know is a huge game of cat and mouse. We all know, for example, that Motorola was still making phones before Google bought the company and still has to release some of those phones. We can also guess, based on the most recent Googorola announcements, that the hardware is good, but not really up to the standards we have come to expect from, say, the Nexus line. Well, in a stunning display of candor, Google's CFO agrees.

During a session at the Morgan Stanley Technology Conference, the Chief Financial Officer for the software giant said that the products that Motorola is currently working on "aren't 'wow' by Google standards." That's not just speaking about past devices (which companies are typically more willing to be honest about). He's referring to future devices as well.

Here's the full context of the quote:

"The case with Motorola is that we've inherited a pipeline. Motorola has a great set of products, but they're not really like 'wow' by Google standards. Dennis Woodside and his team have inherited 18 months of pipeline that we have to drain right now."

That's some pretty gross imagery to use in describing products you hope consumers will buy in the future. Especially when we're only 9 months in to that 18 month product pipeline. The wait for Google-caliber hardware out of Motorola is only half over. We can expect (read: hope) to hear about some "'wow' by Google standards" phones by December at the earliest.

While the wait is painful (and mobile hardware moves fast), it's still extremely exciting. What this means is that not only should we expect things to get better than the RAZR M and RAZR MAXX HD (which are actually pretty good phones with amazing battery life and horrible names), we should expect things to be even better than whatever Motorola puts out this year.

It's never a good sign when a company says "Look, these products we haven't even released yet? They're not the best they could be." It is, however, encouraging when it says "These products we still need people to buy are nothing compared to what's coming."

Source: The Verge