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You can't talk about Motorola's cell phone division without hearing gloomy predictions about its future. Such a prognosis is understandable considering the litany of bad news that's come out of the company over the past year. Indeed, plummeting earnings, layoffs, executive departures, and Carl Ichan haven't done much for Moto's image. Yet, I'm struck by how the cell phone world appears to be shrugging off the decline of a storied and pioneering company. Instead of hearing a lot of hand wringing over Moto's troubles, many consumer and industry watchers seem to be content to let Moto go.
An old classic.
(Credit: CNET Networks)This sentiment is both unfortunate and uncalled for. While Moto is largely responsible for its declining market share, I don't think it deserves the schadenfreude that goes along with it. We're not talking about some two-bit company; we're talking about a firm that gave us some of the most popular cell phones ever. We can't underestimate the impact of models such as the Startac and the V60, nor can we forget that Moto's iDEN phones continue to power Nextel. And I couldn't have agreed more when PC Magazine's Sascha Segan explained the dangers of a world without Moto. While competitors such as Nokia and Sony Ericsson consider North America an afterthought, Motorola gives equal attention to its home market. Instead of waiting in line behind Europe and Asia to get Moto's phones, usually we get them first. That's a benefit I don't want to lose.
History, however, can be a strength and a hindrance. When we talk about Moto now, we talk more about its past glories than its current hits. Like many of my colleagues, I've criticized the company over the past couple years for that very reason--it's been a long time since it has wowed us with something completely new. Just consider what Moto's record this year. After an exciting CES where it introduced the promising Rokr E8, it barely made a ripple at GSMA and at CTIA, it gave us just the Motorola Z9. Though the Z9 proved to be a satisfying phone, it was more of the same.
Moto's last big hit
(Credit: CNET Networks)I'm confident that Moto has the potential to surprise us, and I'm hopeful that it successfully spins off its cell phone business as it has promised. At CTIA CEO Greg Brown insisted that the company is committed to the mobile business but the Wall Street Journal isn't too optimistic on the prospect. The newspaper estimates that an independent cell phone division would need about $4 billion to support itself. It also reported that Hewlett-Packard executive Todd Bradley, who was being considered to head the new company, has pulled his name from consideration.
I'm not going to postulate about what Moto needs to do to save itself. Frankly, that's already been discussed many times over and I don't think I'd have anything new to say. But let me tell you a story. In late 2005, about a year after the iconic Razr V3 went on sale, I had the chance to ask former CEO Ed Zander what the Razr meant to his company. He replied that it had a huge effect not only on the company's external its external but also its internal morale. Because of the Razr, Zander said, Moto's employees began to believe in the company again and that it could do great things. After riding the Razr wave for so long, I wonder if the company still believes that. Please don't hang up on us Mototola, this is one caller that would hate to see you go.
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Though Motorola announced today that its Z9 slider phone was going to AT&T, we got the opportunity to examine the Z9 last night before CTIA began. Our initial impressions are a bit mixed (check out our Z9 slide show for more images). The Z9 is certainly an attractive handset with a slim profile and a solid feel, but it doesn't break very much new design ground. For the past two years Moto has been under enormous pressure from many camps (us included) to come up with something completely new, but the Z9 doesn't stray very far from the company's Razr-heavy past. Indeed, it has a familiar look in many ways. It has the same shiny mahogany color as AT&T's Razr2 V9, and it shares similar dimensions. It also feels about the same in the hand and the 262,000-color display looks identical. So on the whole, while it is slick and eye-catching, it's also very Motorola.
Fortunately, it does offer a few design changes. Its slider design is completely different from the Rizr family. Moto is careful to say that the Z9 is not a Rizr phone, and that the Rizr name has been retired. The slider mechanism has a sturdy construction with a delightful springy movement. You can open and close the phone easily with one hand and it snaps into place.
Motorola Z9
(Credit: Kent German/CNET Networks)The navigation array is dominated by a round Razr-like toggle with a central OK button. It's raised just above the surface of the phone so it's fairly easy to use. The remaining navigation controls (two soft keys, a Web browser shortcut, the Talk and End/power controls, and a Clear key) are flush with the surface of the phone without any clear separation between them. Yet, a closer look will show that they're not touch controls; rather, they offer a tactile "push" feel and a soft "click" sound when pressed. They're also covered by tiny silver bumps that are similar to the Motorola Rokr E8. The keypad buttons have the same design except that they rest on a more reflective surface.
This design left us a bit divided. On the upside, the navigation controls and keypad buttons are quite spacious and the backlighting is relatively bright, But on the downside, the keys felt rather stiff and the slippery surface made dialing by feel difficult. The controls on either side are rather small, but as with the Razr2 V9, they also offer the nifty Haptics vibrating feedback.
The menu interface is standard Motorola but the bright display is easy on the eyes. We noticed that the menu performance was a bit sluggish but we liked the way the menus faded when switching between different screens.
Call quality was decent during our brief test. Voices sounded relatively natural, if a tiny bit harsh, and the volume level was loud. We'll report back with a full review of the Z9 in a few days.
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Motorola Z9
(Credit: Motorola)Motorola announced during the first day of CTIA that its Z9 slide phone is landing at AT&T. The Z9 is the first Motorola handset to support AT&T's Video Share service and is the first cell phone ever to offer AT&T Navigator GPS service. Other features on the quadband (GSM 850/900/1800/1900) handset include dualband (HSDPA (850/1900) 3G, voice dialing, Windows Media Player 11 with support for AT&T Music, stereo Bluetooth, a speakerphone, a microSD card slot, an Opera 8 Web browser, and a 2-megapixel camera.
Though Motorola has retired the "Rizr" name, the trim Z9 is very much a slider phone. It sports the same mahogany color as AT&T's Motorola Razr2 V9, and its navigation keys and keypad buttons have a spacious design. The Z9 also has a 262,000-color display and its side-mounted volume buttons offer Haptics tactile feedback.
The Z9 is available today for $249 with a two-year service contract. We'll report back with a full review just as soon as we can get our greedy hands on an actual device. But in the meantime, check out our hands-on test drive and our Z9 photo gallery.
The Sony Ericsson Z750 was announced last year, but has not yet been released
(Credit: Sony Ericsson)Ah spring time; when romance, flowers, and new cell phone rumors bloom. A leaked "confirmation" to Engadget reveals a slew of upcoming phones to AT&T's lineup, and the lineup is a doozy. Not only do we get even further information that the LG Vu with MediaFLO is in the works, but we also hear that the Sony Ericsson Z750, the Motorola W760 Hurricane, a new Pantech Breeze flip phone, the Motorola Z9 slider, and last but certainly not least, the Nokia N95 for the North American market may finally be in AT&T's fold. It's all hearsay to us at the moment, but if this is true, AT&T customers may have more than a 3G iPhone to get excited about this year.
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