Motorola has finally begun sales of its latest 2014 flagship Moto X smartphone in the U.S., as it continues to resist the dominance of other major smartphone makers in the market. The smartphone has long been rumored to hit availability and the company has finally started taking orders for the second generation Moto X smartphone in the U.S. for $499 off-contract and $100 on contract with AT&T or Verizon.

After much speculation, Verizon officially confirmed that the availability of the latest Moto X smartphone through its network starting Friday. The smartphone is also being offered with customization options through Moto Maker. The 16GB and 32GB versions of the handsets is being offered along with special back panels made from wood and leather at some $25 extra through Moto Maker.

Verizon and AT&T are selling the 16GB version of the Moto X smartphone for $99 with a two-year contract through Moto Maker. If customers choose to buy the unlocked version of the smartphone, T-Mobile and AT&T are offering the handset for $499.99. Eligible customers can also upgrade through Verizon Edge. The largest carrier is also offering the new smartphone on the More Everything Plans with at least 1GB extra data per month for two years.

"The new Moto X lets you create your own custom voice prompt to wake it up," Verizon's official blog reads. "You can set it so it'll respond to phrases like 'What's up Moto X?' - or if you prefer to call your phone 'Jeeves' or 'Alfred,' you can do that too. You can ask questions, read your messages, search Google, post to social media, and more."

In terms of specs, the new Moto X is the upgraded version of the original Moto X smartphone. It sports a 5.2-inch Full HD display, quad-core Snapdragon 801 processor, a 2300mAh battery, 2GB of RAM, 16/32GB of storage, a 13-megapixel rear camera and a 2-megapixel front-facing shooter. Currently it runs Android 4.4 KitKat and will be among the first batch of Android smartphones to receive the Android L upgrade later this year.