More Android phones to hit Aussie shores in the next few months..

This month sees the launch of a new wave of Google phones in Australia. Most run the much-improved Android 2.0 OS.

First in Android's new wave is Motorola, which hopes its Google phones will spur a return to the glory days of the stylish, slim RAZR and, a decade before, the original Star Trek-style flip phone.

This week sees the launch of the Motorola Dext and Backflip on the Optus network.

Both complement the now-mandatory touchscreen with a compact QWERTY keypad. The Dext is a more conventional slider, while the Backflip uses a hinge to position its screen at a lean-back angle suitable for watching videos or even using as a bedside alarm clock.

Despite using a mid-range 530MHz processor and running last year's Android 1.5 operating system, the Dext and Backflip are snappy performers with their own appeal beyond the Android OS itself.

That's because both sport a customised interface known as Motoblur. This puts the social networking services of Facebook, Twitter and MySpace right on to the phone's home screen.

Instead of having to log into individual apps for each service to read messages, post updates and browse uploaded photo galleries, widgets on the Motoblur home page provide live feeds that are updated constantly over the 3G network.

Motoblur also integrates messages from these social networking sites, plus emails and SMS texts, into a single view.



This month Telstra will release its first Android smartphone, the HTC Desire, which will use its Next G network. The Desire ticks every box on the techno-lust list. There's a powerhouse 1GHz processor, the over-fresh Android 2.1 operating system, a five-megapixel camera, FM radio and a brilliantly crisp 9.4-centimetre AMOLED (active-matrix organic LED) screen. Unlike the iPhone and some other smartphones, the Desire supports Flash, so you don't have to miss out on most of the streaming video clips on news and entertainment websites.

HTC has also planted its own Sense user interface onto the Desire. Sense comes with dozens of classy widgets, integrates each contact's Facebook and Twitter details into your address book and includes a Friend Stream app that combines feeds from Facebook, Twitter and Flickr.

Also sitting on the Android launch pad is Sony Ericsson's Xperia X10, which will arrive on Vodafone and Three in early May.

The Xperia X10 matches the HTC Desire with its 1GHz processor but ups the digital camera to eight megapixels, with snaps and video clips shown to best effect on the 10.2-centimetre screen.

Sony Ericsson's Timescape user interface ties together social networking updates with emails, phone calls and text messages but it's more akin to the Motoblur home screen than the top-to-tail experience of HTC Sense.

By mid-year we'll also see the palm-sized X10 Mini, which has a 6.3-centimetre touchscreen and, in the X10 Mini Pro version, a tiny slide-out keyboard.

Also poised for a likely mid-year release is Samsung's second-gen Android handset, the Galaxy S. This is another phone packing a 1GHz powerplant and a 10.2-centimetre screen but the enhanced Super AMOLED screen has to be seen to be believed. It's not just brighter but the colours have more density and punch, while also less reflective of sunlight and drawing less power (which means longer battery life).
Things are really starting to heat up!

Presenting the Motorola Devour

Key features:

• Touch-sensitive navigation pad


• 3.1” capacitive touch screen


• Pre-loaded applications such as Gmail, Google Talk™, YouTube™, Google Search™ and Google Maps™ with Google Maps Navigation.


• Android Market™ gives users access to more than 20,000 applications.


• Happenings Widget – MOTOBLUR automatically pushes status updates, wall posts and photo updates from popular social networking sites to the Happenings Widget on the home screen. Customers can flick through the latest updates and fire back responses using the slide-out full QWERTY keyboard.


• Universal Inbox – MOTOBLUR gathers texts, social network messages and e-mails into one home screen widget for quick response.


• Back-Up and Security – Contacts, log-in information, home screen customizations, e-mail and social network messages are backed up automatically on the secure MOTOBLUR portal. The portal also allows customers to use the phone’s fully integrated aGPS to help locate the phone if misplaced. Remote wipe easily clears information from a lost device.


• 8 GB microSD™ card pre-installed


• Bluetooth® profiles supported: A2DP, HID, HSP, HFP, AVRCP and GAP

Motorola Calgary pics

Not too many details on this device available yet, but here's what we know so far:

There’s three touch-sensitive Android keys on the display, an optical joystick which we’ve been told performs really well, a workable QWERTY keyboard, and it sounds decent as a phone.

The Motorola Calgary also features a 3 megapixel camera, 3.5mm headset jack, GPS, digital magnetometer, Wi-Fi, microSD card slot, and spring-assisted slider.

No hard release date at this stage.

Motorola Cliq Android Phone : Extensive Preview

We all know that Motorola is nowhere near the dominating force in the cell phone industry as it has been in the past. There are so many other competitors these days, so it’s harder than ever for Moto to rise back to the top. The Motorola CLIQ is supposed to be one of the biggest new offerings in quite some time, but how does it stand up to scrutiny?

The Boy Genius Report was lucky enough to get a review unit, even if it may not be the final production version. While it’s not nearly as groundbreaking as the RAZR was in its day, the CLIQ is said to be a “decent phone with a great concept.” Unfortunately, the execution of this concept isn’t as good as it could have been.

Rather than appealing to business users and high-end consumers who are eyeing devices like the HTC Hero, the Motorola CLIQ could be more suitable to a “young teen market” that may have otherwise chosen something like the LG Voyager or T-Mobile Sidekick. That left-aligned d-pad could be great for gaming.

Going through the hands-on preview by BGR, we learn that this phone is kind of clunky and annoyingly slow at times, but the “connected lifestyle” concept is certainly attractive. It may not be a huge boon for Moto, but the Cliq could represent a quantum leap in the right direction for the StarTAC-maker.

Motorola unveils 'Cliq' Android Phone, Aims at Social Networks

Motorola today introduced the Cliq, the company’s first phone based on the Android mobile operating system. The device will have a custom interface called Moto Blur that will bring together e-mail messages, text messages, Facebook and Twitter feeds, and photos into a single interface.

The phone has a touch screen and a physical slide-out keyboard, a 5-megapixel camera, Wi-Fi, 3G connectivity, the ability to shoot video at 24 frames per second, a standard headphone jack and GPS capability. The phone will be available on T-Mobile’s network in the fourth quarter. Motorola officials did not disclose the price for the phone and would not let any attendees at the Mobilize conference, where they announced the phone, examine it closely.




“This is the first phone with social skills,” said Cole Brodman, chief technology officer at T-Mobile. “Cliq and Moto Blur is the start of the next chapter of Android and shows significance of the platform.”

The phone will also be available internationally under the name Moto Dext.

Motorola also plans to introduce another phone in the next few weeks, in time for holiday season sales.

Motorola needs a hit. Financial problems over the last two years have forced the company to slash its workforce. The company has said it will focus on creating Android-based handsets but this is the first glimpse of what the company has been working on.

The Cliq also helps establish momentum for the Google-designed Android operating system. Last October HTC and T-Mobile released the first phone based on the new OS. Since then HTC has announced three more phones that run Android OS. Other handset makers such as Sony and Samsung are also reportedly working on Android phones.



The new Motorola phone’s biggest asset will be its custom-designed user interface, Moto Blur.

“The Blur makes text, e-mail, Facebook, Twitter feeds and photos from sources like MySpace, Gmail, Yahoo and corporate e-mail appear in a single stream and sync them together with no different logins,” says Sanjay Jha, co-CEO of Motorola. “This means you can focus on what people have said instead of how and where they said it. ”

The Blur also backs up user contacts, log-in information, home-screen customizations, e-mail and social network messages on Motorola’s Blur servers. If you lose your phone, Motorola says you’ll be able to locate it through their online portal using the integrated GPS, and you can even wipe its data remotely. Both features are similar to what Apple offers iPhone users through the Mobile Me service.



Motorola is not the only handset maker that’s seeking to piggyback on the popularity of social networking sites among consumers. While Apple may have kicked off the mobile apps trend, the iPhone puts different services into different buckets and fails to offer its users a smooth and easy way to access all information. For instance, the iPhone makes it difficult for users to get their Facebook and Twitter feed in a single screen.

Apple’s rivals see that lack of integrated social media features as the iPhone’s Achilles heel. And they are trying to fight back by integrating information and add social context for their customers.



Earlier this year, U.K.-based INQ released a phone designed around Facebook. Palm has also designed the user interface in its recently introduced Pre phone around integrated contacts, messaging and Facebook feeds.

But the Moto Blur and Cliq goes one step further. “The phone is really cool,” says Sean Galligan, vice-president, business development at Flurry, a mobile analytics company that has partnered with Motorola.

“We have seen apps and other handsets take on content aggregation and deliver personalization to users but the Blur offers a level of deep integration that is not available in other devices,” says Galligan.


Motorola is also counting on the success of the Android apps marketplace to attract customers.

“By the year end we will have a really good idea of what the consumer thinks. The Android apps are there and growing and social aggregation is clearly the new trend in mobile phones,” says Galligan. “But the true test will be when the consumer decides whether to buy these devices or not. ”

Banking on Android

Motorola Inc., whose phone business has lost more than $4 billion since 2007, is devoting most of its investment in smart-phone software to Google Inc.'s Android, aiming for a larger share of the market for Web-surfing devices.

'We're doing an entire business based around this platform," Christy Wyatt, Motorola's vice president in charge of software platforms, said in an interview yesterday. 'If you talk about the mid- to high-tier portfolio, the only platform-level investment we're making at this point is in Android."

The company, which hasn't released a bestseller since its Razr handset five years ago, said it will unveil the Android devices on Sept. 10 and expects to have two phones ready for the holiday season. Its Android line may account for half of handset revenue next year, predicts Matt Thornton, an analyst at Avian Securities LLC in Boston.

Motorola is one of at least five companies expected to introduce Android-powered units in the next 12 months to tap consumer demand for smart phones. Sales of the Web- and e-mail-equipped devices climbed 27 percent worldwide in the second quarter as mobile-handset sales overall dropped 6.1 percent, according to Stamford, Connecticut-based Gartner Inc.

'Android will be the dominant platform for these guys over time," said Thornton, who has a 'neutral" rating on the stock. 'They're thinking about Android in not just the traditional sense of smart phones but at all price points."

'Not Five Guys and a Web site'

Thornton predicts Android handsets will climb from zero to 30 percent of devices Motorola sells in 2010, accounting for 51 percent of revenue. How quickly Android grows beyond that depends on its popularity with customers and the success of future versions of Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Mobile operating system, used in some Motorola phones, he said.

Motorola, based in the Chicago suburb of Schaumburg, is interested in the 7.0 version of Windows Mobile expected next year, Wyatt said. 'We never want to close off an option."

Motorola, which also makes walkie-talkies and TV set-top boxes, spent $1.6 billion on research and development in the first half of this year and generated one-third of revenue from mobile-phone sales. The company's commitment to Android means it probably spent disproportionately on the phone unit, said Thornton.

Wyatt declined to say how many employees are working on Android devices or how much the company is spending to do so.

'It's not five guys and a Web site," Wyatt said. 'The team is probably as significant an investment if not more so than the likes that I've had when I've been at Apple or Palm."

Challenging IPhone, BlackBerry

Motorola is developing smart phones that run on Google's open- source program to help it take on Apple Inc.'s iPhone, Research In Motion Ltd.'s BlackBerry and Palm Inc.'s Pre, and to reverse a 37 percent sales drop in the past two years. Google started Android in 2007 as part of an industry effort to devise free software for phones open to programmers who want to create games or other features for it.

Android should add more applications as new handset makers come on board including Motorola, said Andy Rubin, vice-president of mobile platforms at Mountain View, California-based Google.

'That gives a bigger market opportunity for third-party developers to build their applications," Rubin said in an interview last week.

He said Android doesn't have to match the number of applications available for the iPhone. Android's marketplace has more than 8,000 applications for download, up from 6,300 about three months ago.

Palm offers 41 applications to users of the Pre, RIM offers more than 2,000 for the BlackBerry. More than 65,000 are available for the iPhone. Spokespeople for both companies declined to comment. Natalie Kerris, a spokeswoman for Apple, didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

The market for smart phones is still new, said Rubin.

'Market-share wise, we all have a long ways to go," he said.

Still, Motorola's bet on Android technology may give it an edge over RIM and Palm, which vet developers, as it challenges Apple for users, said Charlie Wolf, an analyst at Needham & Co. in New York.

'The name of the game is going to be applications going forward in terms of which smart phones sell best, and the two contenders are the iPhone and Android," Wolf said

The Motorola Sholes Android phone

The Motorola Sholes was recently spotted and is rumored to be equipped with the following specifications:

• 3.7″ touchscreen display at 480 x 854 resolution,
  
• 512MB internal memory,
  
• 256MB RAM,
  
• microSDHC memory card slot,
  
• 5-megapixel camera with autofocus,
  
• GPS navigation,
  
• USB,
  
• Bluetooth 2.0
  
• Wi-Fi connectivity,
  
• Multimedia playback support,
  
• CDMA and EVDO Rev A supported .

Estimated start of sale - October 2009 with an 8GB Micro SD card.

Motorola Morrison pictured in the wild

As rumoured, Motorola's first Android phone appears to be the QWERTY sliding Morrison. No further details at this stage, according to the previously released HTC 2009 roadmap, it's due to land between November 4th and December 31st.