Hasta La Gadget!

RAZR. KRAVE. MOTOROI. SHOP4APPS? We think — nay, we hope — that we’ve at long last reached the nadir of Motorola’s naming convention and are finally on our way up from the depths of marketing hell now that the company has announced its new Android app store for China. We’re not totally clear on why these guys need this on top of the Android Market and China Mobile’s own Open Mobile System initiative, but for what it’s worth, Chinese buyers of the XT701, MT710, and XT800 will have yet another way to find, buy, and store purchases for their phones.

Perhaps the more interesting part of the announcement, though, is that Motorola is adding the capability to choose a non-default (read: non-Google) search provider on these phones. For all practical purposes, Baidu is China’s Google, anyhow, with a commanding market lead — so it probably makes a lot of sense for locals to be able to route searches through them, never mind the fact that it gives Moto an escape hatch for sidestepping the drama going on right now. An Android phone tightly integrated with Google search isn’t so useful if Google leaves the country, right? Look for both of these services to be available via over-the-air updates in time for the Chinese New Year — January 26.

Motorola bringing SHOP4APPS app store 2CHINA, adding workaround for Google spat originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 21 Jan 2010 16:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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China is one of Motorola’s last safe havens for Windows Mobile-powered devices, but even the Far East is falling to the inevitable onslaught of little green robots — one need look no further than the XT701, MT710, and XT800 for evidence of that. That leads us to believe that the company’s 2010 haul of smartphones for China will be primarily Android-based — particularly in light of China Mobile’s commitment to it through Open Mobile System — expanding on comments in Korea this week by Moto’s GM of the mobile devices business that there will “probably another four or five [smartphones] later” in the region following the recent announcements of the MT710 and XT800 and the upcoming launch of the XT701. Considering that China continues to be a stronghold for Moto, we’re not surprised to see so much of the company’s product R&D dollars go that way — as long as the rest of the world ends up getting some trickle-down benefit, of course.

Motorola China has a bunch of smartphones on tap this year originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Mon, 18 Jan 2010 11:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Fan-made render? Very possible, but we’re intrigued by the notion. The gang at Mobile01 have laid out two more photos of what is being called the Motorola Shadow (not to be confused with the T-Mobile Shadow), which in a nutshell looks like Droid / Milestone with a white keyboard and wrist strap. Even more interesting is the assertion that this could be Google’s next flagship device, here lovingly dubbed the Nexus Two. Now while there is no way to corroborate at this point, we could totally buy this as feasible. After all, what better way to complement the Nexus One slate than with one with physical QWERTY? And who better than the company whose Android 2.0 device increased the platform’s mindshare at supersonic speeds, with a CEO willing to signify support even at the launch event for a competitor’s product? Color us curious — wrist strap-laden render after the break

[Thanks, Serge]

Continue reading Motorola Shadow is Nexus Two with sliding QWERTY keyboard?

Motorola Shadow is Nexus Two with sliding QWERTY keyboard? originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 16 Jan 2010 15:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Amazing what a little success will do to a company, isn’t it? The Wall Street Journal is reporting today that Motorola has put the brakes on its search for a buyer for its Home and Networks Mobility division that’s responsible for the company’s set-top boxes and network infrastructure equipment. It’s easy to see why this might be a good time for Moto to pause and take stock of its situation — while no one’s even close to calling the Mobile Devices division’s turnaround complete, the focus on Android appears to have injected fresh interest (and commercial success) in a lineup plagued with countless duds just a year ago. Apparently the company is also discouraged by the fact that suitors have lowballed Motorola’s expected sale price by a billion or two, but make no mistake, the split isn’t off altogether — the executive board is expected to convene in the next few days to figure this all out before the next round of bidding is due in February. Stay tuned — by the end of the year, we could realistically be looking at one, two, or even three Motos depending on how this goes down.

Motorola pauses split to mull options originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 14 Jan 2010 18:13:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Though its market share pales against the home teams, Motorola has maintained a continued presence in South Korea for some time — and seeing how the company is going all-in with Android globally, it makes sense that they’d be launching it here, too. Enter the alleged XT720, a localized version of the XT701 that’s seeing duty on China Unicom on the other side of the Yellow Sea. Rumor has it this will be coming to SK Telecom, but details are sketchy and conflicting: Mirae Asset Research says the phone will feature a 5 megapixel cam while the source of this picture here says it’s 8; they’re also quoting the screen as a 3.7-inch 480 x 640 unit, but clearly, it’s going to be WVGA if the pic is legit. The research firm believes we’ll see this launch next month which would likely make this the first high-end device out of Moto to feature BLUR; whether that’s a good thing or not, though, is strictly a matter of personal opinion.

Motorola XT720 spreading Android, BLUR to South Korea? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Jan 2010 16:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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