This is the price for US. It actually starts at US$280 in Brazil.

Why is it more expensive in Brazil? Is it subsidized in the US because of expected add revenue?

Essentially all electronics are more expensive in Brazil, due to hefty import duties.

There are phones with similar specs on that price range in Asia. I got a Lenovo A820 about half a year ago from China for around 140$ (http://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-A820-Android-core1-2GHz-Smartph...). It has very similar specs with 4.5" screen and 1.2Ghz quad-core. I think it all depends on how hood build quality Motorola manages to achieve.

$179 in the US means that it'll probably sell for around $400 in Northern Europe. At least, someone in Norway wrote that the $350 Nexus 5 was marked up to $780 (the Swedish price seems to have gone down to $600 from $660).

I think so. For example thl sells the w100(cheapest phone they make) at $154 and it offers lesser specs, and it's targeted for the Chinese market.

$179 is just a bit more expensive, with better specs, so it could succeed.