2009 is a new year for Motorola. The firm’s sales are tracking down, the RAZR might be dead – hopefully – but these four upcoming phones look uncharacteristically good. Little is known beside about the mobiles besides what can be gathered from the pics. The branding indicates that they are Verizon-bound and at least three of the four are touchscreens. And none of the phones have the dumb RAZR-ish names. Each one, including the Flash above, has a normal, fully-spelled product name. Hopefully these devices will breath new life into the dying mobile phone maker. We only have one question, though? Any of these powered by Google’s Android?
Motorola somehow managed to keep its position this year as the number one mobile phone manufacturer in the US, according to a report by analysts at Multimedia Intelligence, but things aren’t looking so hot for next year. The analysts predict that RIM and Apple’s penetration (heh) into the mobile market are causing heartache for Moto and its 21% market share. Samsung and LG are looking to overtake the big bad batwing in the next year. Read More
Joel at BBG has found a bunch of threads from MGOODE08, apparently a shill for Motorola who posts comments to gadget sites about the Motorola Krave.
I’m so glad my boss isn’t like that! I’m working with Motorola right now, and became a huge fan of the Krave (motorola.com/krave). I especially like the full touch screen display and html web browser. It’s awesome!
And before that:
Oh man this looks awesome! I hope they release a version for the Krave by Motorola. Ever since I started working with Motorola I have became a huge fan of the phone (motorola.com/krave). With a full list of features, like a full touch screen, I can’t stop obsessing over it.
UPDATE – I found that MGoode is now appearing on CrunchGear as well. Read on.
UPDATE – His email is mgoode08@gmail.com. Do what you will. Read More
There was a time when the RAZR was king and HelloMOTO was all the rage. Sadly, Motorola hasn’t kept up with the time and is still living in that world while other venders, like Samsung, continue to innovate and produce quality handsets. Motorola’s US market share has dropped from 32.7% last year to a respectable 21.1% in ‘08, while Samsung slightly overtook Moto with its 22.4% marketshare marking the first time Motorola has not held the top spot since 2003. Maybe with Motorola’s commitment to Android, the manufacturer will once again produce a fresh handhelds. Maybe…
T-Mobile subscribers who desire an uncomplicated phone may want to look at the Motorola Zine ZN5, which goes on sale today. It’s your standard candybar—quad-band (only EDGE, though), built-in Wi-Fi, FM radio, etc.—except for its built-in camera. The phone comes with a Kodak-designed 5-megapixel camera, which Motorola swears takes, like, the most awesomest photos ever.
She’s only $99 with a two-year contract, though I suspect most of you would opt for a phone with a little more substance.
Motorola has quietly released its new GPS units – MOTONAV TN20 & TN30 – and the two are going to be for sale only at RadioShack. The TN20 rocks a 3.5-inch touchscreen with NAVTEQ provided maps and more than one million searchable points of interest. The big bro TN30 is equipped with all the TN20 functions, but has a larger 4.3-inch touchscreen along with Puerto Rico and Canada maps. Allegedly, these units are available now for $199 and $299 respectfully only at Radio Shack – besides this one on eBay.
The up-scale AURA might be Motorola’s last attempt to remain relevant in a post-RAZR mobile world and yet the dudes at Mobile Review got their grubby hands on the $2k cell phone. It sounds like they were impressed with the build quality and the round LCD, but Moto might have dropped the ball on the GUI by simply reworking a standard square LCD menu rather than, you know, designing something new. Still, we’ll hold our judgment ’till we can smudge up the screen on the so-called luxury mobile phone ourselves.
Quick Version: The Motorola Renegade V950 is a good choice for people who want a rugged phone with excellent call quality and push-to-talk capabilities. What’s more, Motorola and Sprint-Nextel manage to throw a little fun into the mix as well.
A few years ago on April Fool’s day, Geeks.com put up a product page for a 15-inch circular LCD monitor for $199.99 (if memory serves). The monitor looked pretty cool and everyone had a good chuckle at the thought of being able to somehow manufacture a display in anything but the shape of a square or rectangle.
Fast forward to the present day and we now see that the upcoming Motorola Aura cell phone actually will have “the industry’s first circular display,” according to a recent press release. How do you like that?
The Motorola Krave ZN4 is up on Verizon’s website for $149 after a $50 mail-in rebate and a two-year contract. Verizon and Motorola are billing the Krave as “the first interactive clear flip full-touch phone,” so keep that in mind just in case you think you can find another interactive clear flip full-touch phone somewhere else. You can’t!
The Krave is just short of a true smartphone, but it does feature a 2.4-inch 240×320 haptic touchscreen, 2-megapixel camera, 3.5mm headset jack, HTML browser, and an accelerometer. The big feature here is the clear screen cover that actually houses the phone’s earpiece and can be touched along the top to launch certain apps like messaging, music, and various VCast services.
The financial crisis is hitting the technology sector hard. Apple (AAPL) is down 18 percent over the last 16 months and Google slipped below $400 a share for the first time in two years. Best Buy (BBY) hit its lowest mark of $35.64 since 2005 and Circuit City (CC) just hit .77 cents a share. Want more? RIM (RIM) is tumbling, Nokia (ADR) is down to 18.43 a share verse 38 at the beginning of the year, and Motorola (MOT) is back down to $7 a share after briefly spiking in August. The Nasdaq Composite Index (IXIC) is even working its way down to 2002 levels. We’re not financial advisors but when you look at the details, there might be some bargains out there for those with long term plans.
The iPhone may be the only game in town for serious mobile Web developers right now, but that won’t last long. Next year, the iPhone will see some serious competition from Google’s Android platform. Of course, T-Mobile will start selling the first Android phone, the G1 made by HTC, on October 22. But other cell phone manufacturers are gearing up for a major Android push.
The most significant of these may come from Motorola. One of the original partners in the Open Handset Alliance behind the open-source mobile OS, Motorola already has 50 people on its Android team and is growing that to 350, according to an Android developer approached by a headhunter to join the team. That is a huge commitment that shows how big a bet Motorola is making on Android.
As it turns out, that shiny new chrome and silver Q9h we wrote about back in August brings more to the table than just a new paint job.
At AT&T’s request, the Q9h Global Silver has gained support for push over-the-air firmware updates, allowing deeply rooted system elements to be patched with very little effort from the end-user.
The WiMAX rollout should be right ’round the corner and Motorola is here with the USBw 100 adapter just in time. The companies first WiMAX device is coming in three tasty flavors – 2.3GHz, 2.5GHz and 3.5 GHz – to ensure a compatible version is available for your network’s frequency range. Thanks to multiple antenna technology and some Motorola wizardry, the USBw should provide seamless WiMAX network access. Pricing wasn’t announced, but Motorola at least let us know that it’s coming before the end 2008’s fourth quarter.
GPS! Bluetooth! WiFi! 3-megapixel camera! Windows Mobile 6.1 *sound of record scratching to a halt* Yeah, another Moto keyboard phone with Windows Mobile. Behold, the Q11 courtesy of Mobility Today. I honestly have no problem with how Moto builds these things – the Q9M was a really pretty phone – but I honestly wouldn’t get WinMo phone even if it came with a puppy and a back rub. Call me new fashioned, but Android is looking good and with WinMo 7 another five years away – tops! – this is the last of a dying breed.
Peter Ha is reporting live from a Motorola conference where they’ve just unveiled two new Bluetooth headsets. Their latest, the Motopure H15, was found to have the best overall audio quality from independent tester Metrico. It has next gen Crystaltalk noise reduction for a more natural sounding voice and it is wind-resistant. There are dynamically adjusting speakers built-in and a RapidConnect flip design.
The ‘phones have multipoint dual pairing that let you connect two phones at once for 4.5 hour talk time. A 15 minute charge equals 1 hour talk time and a desktop charging stand is included. The black styling is reminiscent of the PEBL.
The next model is the Motorola H780 with multipoint pairing, 7 hour talk time, candybar shaped. Both headsets ranked 1 and 2 in independent testing.
More as we get it.
Here is some unadulterated audio between Peter Ha and I using the headsets.
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Out of the blue, AT&T stores have started receiving shipments of newly renovated Motorola Q9h. Sure, it’s just a new chrome & silver body wrapped around the same hardware, pre-flashed with WinMo 6.1. But man, does it look better in silver or what?
Word is that they’re just demo units for now, so don’t hike over to your local AT&T spot just yet. You’ll know about pricing and availability as soon as we do.
Good ‘ol FCC. You are peering at the MOTOROKR S7-HD Jay-Z headphones. Clearly, this ugly set is not after the same market as Sony’s new stylish digs, but at least these have bluetooth work’n for ‘em. Plus, Moto managed to stuff a microphone in the headset somewhere. Too bad they couldn’t stuff some style in ‘em too. No word on price or availability; the FCC doesn’t know anyways.
Landing in the CG office is the latest flip phone from Motorola to hit Sprint, the Motorazr VE20. My first reaction to the VE20 is that it’s very thick, but that’s in comparison to the original RAZR line. The VE20 may be fatter, but it certainly has more features.
The VE20 is equipped with a 2-megapixel camera capable of video recording. The camera loads up rather quickly once you activate it via the right side button and choose between camera and camcorder. When the camcorder is activated it prompts you to choose between “video mail” and “long video.” It appears the only difference is that “video mail” is smaller than 1MB in size whereas “long video” takes up more space. You can also take photos of yourself without ever opening up the phone since the camera is located on the front flap. Nothing revolutionary, but it’s very convenient and I wish other manufacturers would follow suit. Read More
When shots of Motorola’s last-ditch handset effort, the Alexander, got out a few days ago, a resounding “meh” shot out across the internet. “Meh” on Windows Mobile 6.1, some said. “Meh” on the painful looking keyboard, said others.
If the Alexander didn’t get you pumped, perhaps its just spotted sans-QWERTY plus-Touchscreen counterpart, the Atila, might?
The iPhone may be the only game in town for serious mobile Web developers right now, but that won’t last long. Next year, the iPhone will see some serious competition from Google’s Android platform. Of course, T-Mobile will start selling the first Android phone, the G1 made by HTC, on October 22. But other cell phone manufacturers are gearing up for a major Android push.
As it turns out, that shiny new chrome and silver Q9h we wrote about 
