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Motorola Cuts Costs As Leaked Phone Pix Hit The Web

Motorola today announced a host of cost-cutting measures, including putting the kibosh on raises for 2009 and dropping some 401(k) contributions. This dour news comes on the same day that leaked pictures of (dare I say "sexy"?) new phones splash across the Internet.

Motorola is taking steps to reduce costs. Most of the cost-reduction measures are focused on employee compensation and benefits.

The list includes:

• Effective March 1, 2009, Motorola will permanently freeze its U.S. pension plans, eliminating future benefit accruals.
• Effective Jan. 1, 2009, Motorola also will temporarily suspend all company matching contributions to the Motorola 401(k) Plan.
• Employees in many of the markets in which it operates will not receive a salary increase in 2009.
• Motorola co-chief executive officers, Greg Brown and Sanjay Jha, will voluntarily take a 25% decrease in base salary in 2009.

In some more positive news, images of a handful of new phones from Motorola have appeared on various Web sites. The four phones, named the Flash, Rush 2, Calgary, and Inferno, are all headed to Verizon Wireless, according to reports.

Looking at the pictures (here), the phones are some of the best to come from Motorola's design studios in ages. Two of them offer full QWERTY keyboards for messaging as well as touch screens for user input.

If and when these products will be announced or hit the street is unknown, but sources suggest early 2009 as possibilities. Until they are officially recognized by Motorola and Verizon Wireless, we'll have to be satisfied with the spy shots and hope that their good looks are matched by equally impressive specs.

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