The last few weeks just may have been this year’s most significant when it comes to smartphone announcements. Earlier this month, after much anticipation, Apple fans were finally handed news of the next generation iPhone which turned out to be a smaller change than what all expected but should have known – the iPhone 4S is basically the iPhone 4 running iOS 5, Siri and slight boosts in hardware. In the Android world, two flagship smartphones were announced which had Android lovers waiting with bated breath; these of course were the Samsung Galaxy Nexus and the child of the newish Google and Motorola marriage, the Motorola RAZR.

continue reading "Say Hello To The New Motorola RAZR – Another Hot Android Smartphone"

It might not be the most exciting new handset to come to light this year, or this month, or even today, but Motorola has just added a new piece to the ROKR puzzle. The Moto ROKR ZN50. For the time being it looks like this gadget will be confined to South Korea but availability in other markets is likely at some point down the road.

It is about time Motorola delivered a stand-out touchscreen handset. We haven’t been hearing too much in the way of new products from Motorola in a minute, so it’s good to see the RAZR-maker still alive and kicking. It has a full widget-ized touchscreen interface.

The feature set is as good as any musicphone available today. The Motorola ZN50 sports a 3.2-inch touchscreen, 3.2-megapixel camera, SRS WOW HD sound system with equalizer, GPS, 3G data (HSDPA 7.2Mbps), Bluetooth 2.0 and 3.5mm headphone jack. And, because this is a Korea-bound handset, the Motorola ROKR ZN50 features a T-DMB TV tuner.

The Moto ROKR ZN50’s custom touch-based interface seems good enough, but let’s all remember that Motorola’s other feature-phone operating systems consistently failed to deliver a usable UI in the many years since the blockbuster RAZR was launched. It would be interesting to see elements of the ROKR ZN50’s widget-based UI making it to Motorola’s future Android handsets.

Features of the Moto ROKR ZN50:

• WCDMA 2100/HSDPA 7.2 Mbps, tri-band GSM 900/1800/1900
• Dimensions: 108.9mm x 54mm x 14.3mm
• Weight: 143g
• Display: widescreen touch-sensitive 3.2-inch, TFT, 240×427 pixels resolution, 262k colors
• Camera: 3.2 megapixels with auto-focus
• Bluetooth v2.1 + EDR
• “SRS WOW HD” sound system
• GPS
• microSDHC support
• Battery: 900 mAh
• Other applications: Alarm clock, calendar, calculator, units converter, world time

At the right price and in the right markets, we can see the ROKR ZN50 shining to some extent. Rumor suggests it will drop near the end of the year and will come with free access to a music download service of some kind.

Motorola ROKR ZN50 via unwiredview.com

The company wants to woo developers to create Motorola-specific Android applications to help it differentiate from the competition.

Motorola has been pressing hard to get developers to create content specifically for its upcoming line of Android devices.

The world’s fourth-largest cell phone maker has been sputtering lately, as it is recording massive losses, cutting thousands of jobs, and seeing embarrassing court disputes with former employees. One of the main issues for Motorola is that it has never been able to come up with successful follow-ups to the extremely popular Razr handset.

The company has not officially introduced any Android devices yet, but it said it will have multiple handsets that cater to casual and enterprise users. Motorola said some handsets will be focused on multimedia and messages, and the devices will range from mid-range to high-end.

Motorola hasn’t announced when its handsets will be released, but one is expected to be available by the end of the year. The company will be facing some stiff competition though, as Google expects at least 18 handset manufacturers to release an Android phone this year. By establishing a tight relationship with app creators, Motorola is trying to differentiate itself from the likes of HTC, Samsung, and other Android phone makers.

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