You read that right! We just got a tip that basically more or less confirmed the phone we posted a couple days is going to be manufactured by Motorola for T-Mobile. Why isn’t HTC in the picture on this one? We have no idea. We’ve checked with a second source who also confirmed that this was going to be the case. Plus, look at the image real closely… Look at the keyboard font and the buttons on the front of the device — there’s stuff HTC just wouldn’t do — they’re totally crazy wild Moto style. Our question of the day is, does anyone care what I just wrote?
Today Motorola announced the MOTO W7 Active Edition, a 3G-enabled slider packing plenty of features that might appeal to those who live an active lifestyle. For starters, the MOTO W7 Active Edition features an accelerometer that not only doubles as a pedometer and ties into the Personal Trainer application, but also works with games that are designed to get ones body moving by dancing and jumping around. Okay, it sounds a bit cheesy, but it’s clear that Motorola put quite a bit of thought into this handset, and its accelerometer integration goes beyond exercise and gaming. For example, simply flipping the W7 over will mute an incoming call, snooze an alarm or pause music. Shaking the MOTO W7 will open a user-customizable application and flicking it from side to side makes for simple navigation between music and image galleries.
Following this morning’s rebate sheet from Verizon, one of our AT&T ninjas apparently got fired up and snapped a couple of shots of the carrier’s upcoming rebates for May 11th through June 21st. Unfortunately, no real bomb dropping on AT&T’s sheet either but there are a few items of interest. As is always the case, this doesn’t mean all of the handsets listed will be out during the rebate period but it does mean they’ll be dropping soon enough. Above, highlights include the sliding QWERTY-rocking Motorola QA1 Karma and Sony Ericsson’s 8.1 megapixel beast, the C905a. The second shot, pictured after the break, includes the Samsung i637 Jack and of course everyone’s favorite EDGE-only messaging machine, the BlackBerry Curve 8900. Hit the jump for the second image and let us know if there’s anything in particular on the new rebate sheet that catches your eye.
Live images of the Motorola Rival a445, previously known as the Rush 2, and the Samsung Alias 2 have hit the interwebs giving us a sneak peek of these two upcoming Verizon Wireless handsets. The Motorola Rival a455, looking especially blurry this morning, is a colorful QWERTY side-slider that is expected to have EV-DO connectivity, GPS, Bluetooth and a flashless 1.3 or 2.0 megapixel camera. A second set of images chronicles an impromptu unboxing of the Samsung Alias 2. Presumably arriving in stores just prior to its May 11th launch date, the Alias 2 looks very much like its predecessor and reportedly has a nice solid feel and a responsive electronic ink “magic keypad”. Though not expected to generate lines flowing out of Verizon’s doors per se, the Alias 2 is definitely shaping up to be a solid phone for Big Red. Hit the jump for a few more spy shots.
It won’t be winning any beauty pageants any time soon but Boost Mobile users waiting for a relatively rugged QWERTY handset will soon have a new option in the Motorola Clutch i465. Sprint and Boost obviously recognize that messaging is a bit of a hot topic these days and as such, we can expect the carrier to start rolling out a few QWERTY handsets to ensure its text-hungry customers are covered. First up, for better or worse, is the Clutch. It’s styling is certainly polarizing but love it or hate it, Moto managed to pack in a fairly decent feature set (relatively speaking). Highlights include Push to Talk of course, threaded SMS and MMS, POP3 email support, Bluetooth and a VGA camera. No, it’s not going to knock your socks off but relative to the rest of Boost’s lineup, this new Moto is an ok option if it’s released at a decent price point. The Clutch i465 will be available in Q2 of this year.
Motorola announced its Q1 2009 financial results today and reported total sales of $5.4 billion with a net loss of $231 million. Though wider than the $194 million loss posted in the same quarter last year, things were better than analysts expected this quarter. Motorola’s mobile devices division posted device sales of $1.8 billion and shipped 14.7 million handsets, grabbing an estimated 6 percent share of the global handset market. Handset sales have dropped 45 percent from Q1 2008 and operating loss has widened to $509 million from $418 million from 2008. On the bright side however, Moto posted a $595 million operating loss in Q4 of last year so at least things are moving in the right direction. Motorola notes that it continues to make progress on its upcoming handsets and remains committed to launching several new Android-based handsets by Q4 2009 with multiple carriers and in multiple regions. That little green robot sure has some heavy lifting to do.
Wait, what? Motorola possibly doing a cross-marketing campaign with a blockbuster movie? We kid, we kid, but hey, we wouldn’t put it past them… We just got hit with some really interesting information — it’s about this Motorola smartphone either called or code-named “IRONMAN”. We’ve been told it will most likely run Android and be out by the end of Q3. While we don’t have exact specs, word is it’s going to sport a screamin’ CPU and have pretty much every feature under the sun — Wi-Fi, 3G, high resolution camera, etc. We’d also assume most of the controls on the front are touch sensitive as there do not seem to be any buttons in the photo. Thoughts?
It looks like our ninja took it personally yesterday when we mentioned how eager we were for more info on Motorola’s Verizon-bound handsets. That said, consider us shut up. He swooped in with a few big updates that will definitely tide us over for a while — some good news and some bad — so let’s get right to it… First and foremost, the Calgary will indeed be Motorola’s first Android-powered handset. Some suspected it when rumors of a QWERTY-sliding Google phone from Moto emerged and it looks like that was a good call. The handset will likely focus on social networking to some extent and we’re pretty confident this could be a winner. The G1 and Magic are a bit, err, ho-hum and Samsung’s I7500 is basically just another full touchscreen phone. Moto could really knock it out of the park by introducing a unique, well-designed Android beast and the Calgary looks to be just that. We’re not yet able to confirm whether or not the Calgary is slated for Q2 as had been rumored regarding Motorola’s first Android offering.
Well, we have good news and bad news. The good news is that Verizon seemingly has yet another new world phone coming its way, this time from Motorola. The bad news is that it’s definitely not one of the sexy new handsets we scooped last year. While we continue to wait (impatiently) for stunners like the Flash and Calgary, the upcoming A4500 (aka, Napoleon) will do little to appease our need for sleek new designs from Moto. It will however, service as a viable option for world travelers looking for a simple QWERTY option from Verizon complete with the ability to roam globally. Reported specs include CDMA, EV-DO, quad-band GSM, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth connectivity, a fingerprint scanner, a 2-megapixel camera, a memory card slot and of course the QWERTY keyboard. Also, Windows Mobile 6.1 is still the OS of choice of course. It’s not exactly exciting but it’s also not a bad package at the right price, we’d say. Sure, we scooped it to no end way back in July of last year but feel free to hit the jump for a few more shots from the FCC doc anyway.
QWERTY handsets aren’t exactly in abundance right now from MetroPCS, so messaging fiends who enjoy ridiculously cheap unlimited plans should be pleased to learn that the scrappy young carrier has officially launched the Motorola Hint. For those who follow MetroPCS, it isn’t exactly a surprise that the Hint has arrived as chatter surrounding its impending launch has been surging for a while now. Even still, Moto’s QWERTY slider is now the most compact handset with a full keyboard MetroPCS has in its repertoire. It’s also the most expensive, ringing up at $249. With the recent launch of the Samsung Finesse and now the Hint becoming available, it looks like MetroPCS is stepping it up when it comes to its handset lineup. Now if we could only get some more extensive coverage, we’d be in business.
