Motorola W165, another low-end Moto phone

There will always be customers who want cheap, basic mobile phones, thus there must always be manufacturers to produce them.

Motorola isn’t ashamed of being one of these manufacturers (why would it?), and the new Motorola W165 phone comes to say I’m right.

The handset is a candybar that will probably be targeted to emerging markets. Even so, the US might get it too, since it’s Motorola’s home country.

Design-wise, the W165 is as simple as it gets, looking like a phone from circa 2004. Here it is:

The known specs and features of Motorola W165 include:

• Dual band GSM connectivity (900 / 1800 or 850 / 1900 MHz)
• 1.44 inch CSTN display with 65K colors and 128 x 128 pixels
• A 2.5mm headset jack
• A 780 mAh battery of unknown performance
• 108 x 46 x 12.5 millimeters
• 77 grams

No details yet about the release date of W165 or about its retail price.

Via Mobile-review

T-Mobile’s Motorola Renew shows its green face

Motorola Renew, one of the phones T-Mobile USA is getting ready to launch in February, has just appeared in a leaked photo - and what we can see there might not make everyone happy.

The phone, which seems to be officially called MOTO W233 Renew, is only a low-end one, far from the likes of Samsung Memoir and BlackBerry Curve 8900 (both of which should be released by T-Mo in February too).

If the new candybar looks familiar it’s probably because you’ve seen the Motorola W231, a handset that’s basically identical with the W233.

The phone is made from environmental friendly materials and, judging by the features we know the W231 has, it should come with:

• MP3 player
• FM radio with RDS
• CrystalTalk technology
• MicroSD card support, up to 2GB

The price of Motorola W233 Renew is not known yet, but it will surely be a low one. Now all you need to do is wait for February 4 to come and buy the phone. In case you like it and want it, of course.

Via TmoNews

Motorola Prizm (MotoPrizm) to hit Korea as an improved Krave ZN4

How would you like a Motorola Krave ZN4 with an 840 x 480 pixels display and a 3MP camera? I’m sure you’d choose it over Verizon’s Krave, which has a display of only 400 x 240 pixels and a 2MP camera.

Wel, for South Korea, Motorola thought the US features of ZN4 are not good enough, thus it upgraded the phone and changed its name into MotoPrizm (or Motorola Prizm).

So, as I said, the Prizm has a 2.8 inch WVGA (840 x 480 pixels) touchscreen display, a 3MP camera, mobile TV capabilities, Bluetooth and probably all the other things that are packed into the original Krave.

MotoPrizm should be soon available via SK Telecom, and it seems that it’s a Korea-only affair.

Via Aving

More phones for Verizon: Motorola Niagara, Fairbanks and Harmony

It looks like Motorola and Verizon Wireless indeed have big plans for 2009, and those four leaked handsets (Flash, Rush 2, Calgary and Inferno) are not the only surprises prepared by the two companies for next year.

According to BGR, at least other three new phones are scheduled for a 2009 release.

These are Motorola Niagara, Motorola Fairbanks and Motorola Harmony.

None of them seem to be high-end, but the Niagara surely looks good, sporting a slider design that might make it a next-generation RIZR (if Moto wants to continue with the RIZR line, of course).

Here’s what the Motorola Niagara looks like:

Motorola Fairbanks and Motorola Harmony, the other two handsets that Verizon will out sometime next year, are both clamshells. Fairbanks is a rugged PTT one, while Harmony looks like a music-centric device, with touch-sensitive external keys.

There are no details about the new handsets’ features for the moment, nor about their prices and exact release dates.

Nokia and Motorola have 90% of the Chinese smartphone market

According to a study published by CCID Consulting, China’s smartphone market is currently dominated by Nokia and Motorola, the two companies’ products accounting for 89.15% of the total market share.

More exactly, in the third quarter of 2008, Nokia had a market share of 69.2%, while Motorola’s devices represent 19.9% of the smartphones sold.

Other manufacturers that worth mentioning are Dopod (owned by HTC), Samsung, Coolpad (a local brand) and Sony Ericsson.

As you can see, LG is the only big name that doesn’t have an important market share in China.

Obviously, Symbian is the leader when it comes to Operating Systems, while Linux and Windows Mobile follow on the second and the third place.

Overall, there were 7.474 million handsets sold in Q3 2008 in China - the world’s largest mobile market.

Via DigiTimes

Motorola Flash, Rush 2, Calgary and Inferno all leaked on the way to Verizon in 2009

And here I thought Motorola was sleeping on its laurels. Well, those that it still had on them, anyway. Apparently, the company’s adopted some sort of new hush-hush approach to developing their products, especially those that are most likely to catch the public’s attention.

Displayed here in all their drool-worthy glory are a total of four upcoming Motorola phones for Verizon’s network, and not one of these disappoint when it comes to looks, at the very least. Time will tell what features exactly each model holds.

For now, Motorola fans can settle on the fact that these handsets are as sure as the sun’s setting in the afternoon, and that they’re all scheduled for release some time in 2009 under Verizon’s network. The red-hot QWERTY Rush 2, pictured below, is said to be the first one of these that will come out, during Q1 of 2009.

The other two handsets on display are the Motorola Calgary (the silver one with a QWERTY keyboard), and the Motorola Inferno (the one that looks like a MOTO MING).

We’ll be on the lookout for more info regarding these handsets ourselves, and will update you hopefully in the near future.

Via BGR

Motorola A3000/ A3100 - Moto Attila get’s the model number. At least in China

The news about the upcoming Motorola Atila phone keep on leaking.

We’ve already know pretty much about this upcoming touchscreen handset, and even seen live pics of it several times.

We also know that it should be launched sometime early next year, probably during CES Las Vegas (January) or MWC Barcelona (February).

And today we can tell you it’s model number.

According to some Chinese sites Atila touchscreen phone will be called Motorola A3000 and/or A3100, depending on final final specs and operator.

To remind you the details, Motorola A3000/ A3100 Atila will be a pretty powerful toucscreen handset with:

• 850/1900/2100 Mhz GSM/GPRS/EDGE, UMTS/HSDPA connectivity
• 528 Mhz Qualcomm CPU, 256 ROM, 128MB RAM
• Windows Mobile 6.1
• 2.8″ QVGA 262K color display
• 3.2 megapixel camera with autofocus and LED Flash
• 1130 mAh battery

The new Motorola A3000/A3100 model name will probably be applicable mostly in Asia, where this handset will be the successor to popular MotoMing A series phones like Motrola A1600/ A1800.

If it ever appears in U.S and Europe, the new handset will probably become something of ZN series, just like Motorola A1600 became Motorola ZN4 Krave.