According to unofficial sources, Motorola is going to fire some of its handset division staff this week. And the scale is really large – the layoffs may amount to 50% of the handset division staff, other divisions being unaffected. Besides, we have learned that Motorola is planning to reduce the number of new phones to just a dozen per year.    

  Today we are going to make a brief review of several cell phones announced at CES 2009. They are Palm Pre, Sony Ericsson C510, Sony Ericsson W508, Motorola Tundra Va76r, MOTO W233 Renew, Motosurf A3100, HTC S743, Nokia 7510 and Nokia E63. Palm Pre   The Palm Pre smartphone presentation seemed to be the most interesting one. Finally is has become clear why Palm company was so silent during recent several months – they were busy with a new mobile device and platform for it called Palm® webOS™. Thinking about all those cell phone announcements in the second half of 2008 you may come to a conclusion that Palm postponed the announcement deliberately, i.e. the company wanted everybody to completely satisfy curiosity regarding such new mobile devices, as iPhone 3G, Google Phone, Sony Ericsson Xperia and BlackBerry Bold. The Palm Pre smartphone features EVDO Rev. A/UMTS HSDPA, a 3.1” touchscreen (320×480), slide-out full QWERTY keyboard, Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth, 3MP camera with LED flash and Gesture area control.             Sony Ericsson C510 and Sony Ericsson W508   Sony Ericsson announced two cell phones at CES 2009 – Cybershot 510 and Sony Ericsson W509

  Today Motorola announced two new mobile devices: MOTO™ W233 Renew and MOTOSURF™ A3100. MOTO™ W233 Renew is the world’s first mobile phone made from 100% recyclable plastics comprised of recycled water bottles. The package size is reduced by 22 percent and the box and all of the materials inside are printed on 100% post-consumer recycled paper. Renew will first be available at T-Mobile USA in Q1 2009. As for MOTOSURF™ A3100 it is a high-speed touch tablet with a customizable home screen. The phones will debut this week at the CES in Las Vegas.  

  All mobile phone makers grow rainbows inside their head at some point, and for Motorola, that is now. Which is why the company has announced the existence of two new colorful handsets, the Cocktail Mint and Cocktail Tropical. Both phones don’t pack in anything revolutionary, except maybe for the fact that they’re so color-filled, it’s supposed to be a feature. Well, who can blame Motorola, for they were the ones who introduced variety and stylishness in an otherwise dull and non-RAZR craving world. The Motorola Cocktail Mint and Cocktail Tropical phones are actually fairly similar. About their only difference would be that the Cocktail Mint is colored with a combination of chic black, fresh mint, and pearl white, while the Cocktail Tropical uses white, light green, violet and orange in its hues. For no obvious reason, both phones also feature a wine dictionary so users can work on their wine jargons and other wine-related skills.   We know the Cocktail Mint phone supports 3G data, supports microSD cards and has a 2.2-inch QVGA screen. There’s a camera lens at the back but its megapixel count isn’t show anywhere, so it could be anyone(or someone who knows Korean)’s guess. And speaking of guesses,

  Can any company force you to forego your natural right to sell your used mobile phones through second-hand channels like eBay? Word on the street has it that Motorola might be trying to do just that with their Motorola AURA. A “source close to [Motorola]” has apparently told Register Hardware that Motorola will require any Motorola AURA buyer to sign a contract that prevents them from hocking their luxury handset on the secondary market. The contract makes provisions for selling the unwanted handset back to Motorola directly, but it’s unclear how much Moto will pony up for a used Motorola AURA. The move to lock down the Motorola AURA strictly to retail channels is said to be an effort to preserve the Motorola AURA’s air of exclusivity. The luxury handset market is a fiercely competitive market ripe options. Forcing customer to pay the expected retail price of $2,000 for the handset ensures that the AURA projects an image of wealth and privilege. We’re not sure how Motorola would prevent eBay sales or how Moto would enforce such a contract. But, if true, this could set a precedent for contract-tied handsets that goes beyond the multi-year wireless contracts we already have to deal with. The Motorola AURA isn’t

  Inspired by luxury watches and handcrafted design, AURA™ is a unique handset that breaks convention and re-establishes artistry in mobile device design and manufacturing. Combining superb craftsmanship and a distinctive interface, AURA delivers a sensory experience that is second to none for those with refined tastes. From the moment AURA owners pick up their devices, they elevate their own experience in luxury and unmatched quality. 16 Million Colors World’s first 16 million color, circular display with 300 dpi resolution in the mobile phone industry 62 Carat Lens Created from Grade 1 62-carat sapphire crystal, one of the most scratch-resistant materials on earth Meticulously Crafted Stainless steel housing with chemically etched textures and patterns takes nearly two weeks to sculpt, etch and polish Swiss-Made Main Bearing At the center of the mechanical heart is a Swiss-made main bearing, which serves as the foundation allowing the blade to rotate with seamless precision Custom-Engineering Custom-engineered rotating mechanism has 130 precision ball bearings that drive the assisted-opening blade — like opening the door on a high-end luxury car. On the 100,000th opening, the blade glides with the same fluidity and grace that it

  As the wireless world awaits the Oct. 22 debut of the first phone based on the Google-backed Android software, engineers at Motorola (MOT) are hard at work on their own Android handset. Motorola's version will boast an iPhone-like touch screen, a slide-out qwerty keyboard, and a host of social-network-friendly features, BusinessWeek.com has learned. Motorola has been showing spec sheets and images of the phone to carriers around the world in the past two months and is likely to introduce the handset in the U.S. sometime in the second quarter of 2009, according to people familiar with Motorola's plans. Building a phone based on the highly anticipated Android operating system is part of Motorola's effort to revive a loss-making handset division that has forfeited market share amid a drought of bestselling phones. Motorola stock, which on Oct. 17 rose a penny to 5.62, is hovering near a 16-year low. The phone will appear among a new class of social smartphones designed to make it easy for users to connect quickly and easily to mobile social networks such as Facebook and News Corp.'s (NWS) MySpace (BusinessWeek, 10/10/08). Such phones let users message in-network friends directly from phone contact lists, for example. A Facebook representative declined

Motorola announced its new model of industrial CPC VC6096-based operating system Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional. This, with increased protection to external shocks, the device manufacturer positioned as a mobile computer to use it in cars to help their owners during their frequent visits. For this purpose, Motorola VC6096 is equipped with all modern features including work in the GSM and 3G networks, support for Wi-Fi wireless networking, Bluetooth technology and telematics.  Brief specifications Motorola VC6096: Dimensions: 242x235x49, 5 mm Weight: 2.2 kg External keyboard: 65-Key QWERTY Display: 6.5-inch color with a touch panel, resolution VGA (640x480) Interface: 2 USB1.1 host TYPE A, USB 1.1 Type mini-B, 10/100 Base-T Ethernet, 50-pinovy port with the support of SAE J1708 or SAE J1939, RS-232 digital input / output, analog input Slot under the SD Memory Card Processor: XScale PXA270 624 MHz Operating System: Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional Edition Memory: 128 MB SDRAM/256 MB Flash Protection: IP64, MIL-STD 810E, Method 514.4, Ground Mobile (VIII), MIL-STD 810E 516.4, MIL-STD-810E, 516.5 Proc VI, MIL-STD 810F, MIL-STD 810E, Method 505.3 Support for mobile networks: GSM, HSDPA