RSS Feeds
|
BR DE ES FR IT JP NL UK US
Babblebaby
|
Defamer
|
Gizmodo
|
Kotaku
|
Lifehacker
Yesterday's purported renders of Motorola's 2009 smartphone line seemed plausible, but these less adventurous feature phone renders are almost too safe to be fake. Behold, the Son of Razr!
This may be the first good news Motorola's had in a long while: A feller named RJ Richard down in the New Orleans suburb of St. Tammany Parish was on his lawnmower in his backyard when something struck him hard on the chest. When he pulled his Moto RAZR out of his breast pocket to see if it had been damaged by what he presumed to be a pebble, a damn .45 calibre bullet fell out! Having saved the man's life, the phone fell apart.
Just days after supplanting the BlackBerry in customer satisfaction among business wireless smartphone users, Apple's iPhone has taken down another mobile phone icon, Motorola's Razr, in terms of total sales. According to NPD (the leading wireless research firm) the iPhone outsold the Razr in the 3Q—representing the first changing of the guard in three years. This change comes despite a higher price tag in the midst of a struggling economy. In fact, NPD notes that overall sales of mobile phones are down 15% from last year. Hit the press release after the jump for more details.
These days, most in-the-know folks would sooner eat glass than carry a Motorola phone. The company has shredded its reputation by failing to address basic interface design issues: freeze-prone software, head-scratching menus, keys that demand Herculean strength. It's baffling that such a venerable company could build such frustrating phones, considering the zillions presumably spent on development. How did Motorola make such a bollocks of its wireless division? Now that the company has annointed new wireless division chief Sanjay Jha, we surveyed former staffers for the inside scoop, as well as their advice on how to right the ship.
As revealed in that leaked Sprint roadmap from last month, Sanyo's Katana Eclipse and the RAZR VE20 become real phones today. The Eclipse is replacing the DLX, and it's headline gimmick feature is that the sides light up, rave style. And the VE20 is an, um, RAZR, but slightly less loathsome than usual.
Motorola, upset that one of its former executives might be violating a no-compete clause in his contract, has sued him for going to work at Apple with the iPhone as an executive in sales. The contention isn't just sour grapes, says Moto, but that the exec, Michael Fenger, has intimate knowledge of Motorola's "trade secrets and customer relationships". But let's be clear here: The people who settled for a free RAZR are not the people waiting in like for the iPhone. We'll see what happen. Non-compete suits are usually pretty cut and dry, but this one could get interesting, if not humourous. [Yahoo! News]
Wired Senior Editor Nick Thompson was on the Today Show this morning talking about why the N95 and iPhone are the best high-end phones and the RAZR is the best cheap phone. OK, fair enough. Unfortunately for Nick, when he dropped the RAZR to the floor to demonstrate its durability, it ended up getting destroyed in the process. It's a sound and sight I'm sure many of you former RAZR owners are familiar with. Well, I guess it proved your point, Nick: the RAZR is cheap. Very cheap. [Boing Boing Gadgets]
Yetro is something so unfashionable it has yet to be retro—and probably will never be. Example: my RAZR. I've had it for almost three years now. I hate it. Actually, hate is too strong a word. I pity it. My mobile phone with its nauseous blue-painted interface, its ability to change ring tone to the Motorola theme whenever it feels like it, and its battery, which now gives me about five minutes' talk time before it bleeps like a demented synthetic chicken. In the video above, Jesus and I "reenact" a more joyful time, its original unboxing three long years ago. Today, I'm thinking I should bite the bullet and retire the old boiler. Is the utter demise of the RAZR finally nigh at hand?
Say you're a company that had a hit design about three years ago and have been banking on variations of that spec ever since. What's the best way to improve your designs so that people will buy them and turn your company around? Is it firing half of them at one of your UK facilities? Actually, it probably is. What better way to loosen up entrenched ideas than to get rid of half the people responsible for them, shocking the other half into thinking up something new or face the axe as well? Motorola says in addition to laying off these 50%, it might even close the facility altogether. [The Register]
From the bestselling cellphone in history to the most ignominious departure of a CEO not related to any criminal behaviour, Motorola's had a hell of a slide, but still, the latest speculation comes as a punch to the chin. Richard Windsor, an analyst with a firm called Nomura International, says that Moto may exit the handset business. On one hand, it could sell the division to Chinese investors, but on the other hand, not even the Chinese really know how to solve Moto's problems. What happened, Motorola? Seriously, what in hell happened? [MarketWatch]
Wired Senior Editor Nick Thompson was on the Today Show this morning talking about why the N95 and iPhone are the best high-end phones and the RAZR is the best cheap phone. OK, fair enough. Unfortunately for Nick, when he dropped the RAZR to the floor to demonstrate its durability, it ended up getting destroyed in the process. It's a sound and sight I'm sure many of you former RAZR owners are familiar with. Well, I guess it proved your point, Nick: the RAZR is cheap. Very cheap. [
Yetro is something so unfashionable it has yet to be retro—and probably will never be. Example: my RAZR. I've had it for almost three years now. I hate it. Actually, hate is too strong a word. I pity it. My mobile phone with its nauseous blue-painted interface, its ability to change ring tone to the Motorola theme whenever it feels like it, and its battery, which now gives me about five minutes' talk time before it bleeps like a demented synthetic chicken. In the video above, Jesus and I "reenact" a more joyful time, its original unboxing three long years ago. Today, I'm thinking I should bite the bullet and retire the old boiler. Is the utter demise of the RAZR finally nigh at hand?