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.

Motorola i9 official pics surface - a release should follow soon

For an iDEN phone, Motorola i9 sure looks pretty. As a matter of fact, it looks really nice for a regular phone too, and its official press photos that have just leaked on the Web can only confirm this.

The i9 is a clamshell (in the RAZR style) that comes with an external screen and lots of external keys that seem to be touch-sensitive. I can clearly spot music dedicated keys, as well as some camera-related keys.

And speaking of camera, the back of Moto i9 hosts a 3.1 MP one with both autofocus and flash. I don’t think there’s any other iDEN handset out there to have a camera with these performances.

The alphanumeric keypad of i9 is flat and probably easy to use. Other than that, the rumored features of the phone include GPS and Bluetooth.

Most probably, Sprint Nextel will be the first carrier to release the Motorola i9. And although there are no details yet about when this will happen, I wouldn’t be surprised if the handset were available across the US in the first months of 2009.

Via Mobile-review

$4 Motorola W180 can be OLPC of mobile phones

Does Motorola think it can rake in millions of dollars in revenue because of its over-priced masterpiece called the Aura? No, of course not. So what’s the company going to do about it? Why, make a mobile phone for the opposite end of the price range, of course. In the far, far opposite end, that is.

If you happen to be in the UK, and are looking for a really, really, really, really cheap mobile phone that you can maybe give away to a number of your friends this Christmas, this is it. The Motorola W180 only costs an astonishing £2.89 price tag, and that’s about $4.30 and €3.40.

For its price, you’d be a fool to think it would be anything else other than just a low-end mobile phone. It serves up dual-band GSM access, a small color screen, and USB 2.0 connectivity, before losing everything else.

But come to think of it, this seems like the perfect mobile phone to give away during the holiday season. Since we’re in some sort of financial crisis and all, the least you could do is give something, anything, away. And you could use this for that purpose without spending too much of your money.

Via Reg Hardware