Just when you thought Motorola had already exhausted every color of the rainbow for it's phones, it goes ahead and starts gold plating them. More specifically, a gold MOTORAZR V3i Dolce & Gabbana was introduced to the Middle East & North Aftica markets.
That's a bit of a long name for a phone... If you combine "MOTO" and "GOLD", you get "MOLD." Much better. It rolls right off your tongue.
The team at Engadget scored a few photos of the upcoming Motorola Canary (RAZR 2) from someone calling himself the Boy Genius For Engadget (a groupie, I assume)-- you can check them out here and here.
According to the team, these are the Canary's features:
Last week, a manufacturing flaw found in a small group RAZR phones led to a halt in sales and a flurry of press. (A flaw in any other handset probably wouldn't have attracted as much attention, but this was, after all, the mighty mighty RAZR.) Apparently, some phones sold after Feb 1 were dropping calls and rebooting upon opening. Oops.
Fortunately, according to Motorola, only a small batch of phones were affected, and sales would be able to resume by the end of this week. And in fact, RAZRs are already returning to store shelves. You can't keep a good phone down.
With iRadio scheduled to launch by the end of Q1, and the ROKR E2 only launching in mid 2006, what will be the first iRadio phones? I don’t have a definite answer, but have been able to collect a series of cryptic hints pieced together from insider tips. (Hey, it’s better than nothing...) Put on your Sherlock Holmes caps, and deduct away…
Mystery Phone #1: It’s a bluetooth, clamshell phone, that’s razor-thin, and runs iTunes… (hm…perhaps the PEBL? ...just kidding... :)
Mystery Phone #2: This phone was at CES 2006, in the iRadio booth on the opposite side of the wall that the RAZR and ROKR E2 phones were displayed on. (I wasn’t there, but if you were and know the phone, drop me a line!)
Mystery Phone #3: This phone closely resembles the phone nicknamed “ROKR E3,” seen here, here, and possibly here (?). Apparently, this phone was present at CES, and will be iRadio enabled.
There you have it. There may be more. Any speculations?
Motorola is releasing a slider version of the RAZR, called the MS600 RAZR Z, in Korea. Check it out at MobileMag and MobileGazette. Features:
UPDATE: I removed the iFilm SuperBowl ad "plugins" because they weren't working properly. Besides slowing down the site, only audio was coming through, no video. iFilm has the RAZR ad here, along with all the other SuperBowl ads, in case you're interested.
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Might as well throw in the RAZR ad as well, right?
(again, thanks to iFilm)
David Pogue of the NY Times wrote a nice (and somewhat humorous) article comparing the RAZR and the Blade. In summary, though the Blade is a physical knockoff of the more elegant RAZR, the RAZR's software is cloogy in comparison.
Excellent UI is key to making music devices sticky. (see any iPod) Motorola’s challenge with iRadio is that it has to work on any portable device with any configuration of buttons. The iRadio team will need to invest serious resources into software design and GUI (graphic user interface) if they want to hit a homerun.
The MOTORAZR Magenta will be available through T-Mobile on November 25th.
Does another color really require another press release? :)
The Motorola Razr is tearing up the mobile space.
Motorola profits more than tripled in the third quarter of 2005, mostly due to the spectacular performance of the ultra-sleek ‘n’ sheek Motorola Razr. The exact tally? Try a profit of $1.75 billion in the third quarter of 2005, compared with $479 million in the same quarter of last year. Wow. (That represents an increase from 20 cents per share to 69 cents per share, for all you Motorola stock holders)
Mind you, this is in the face of a disappointing start for the Motorola Rokr. However, CEO Ed Zander qualified the disappointment, pointing out that the phone exceeded their expectations by selling 250,000 units in the first month.
The Razr;’s success will help establish a strong foothold within consumers’ mindshare, which in turn will help Motorola iRadio launch to an attentive audience.
