informa
/
2 MIN READ
Commentary

Motorola's CTIA Handset Lineup Spilled On YouTube?

A promotional video, purportedly made by Motorola, has appeared on YouTube that shows off a number of existing and unannounced mobile phones from Motorola. The mystery phones, which include a Windows Mobile 6.1 smartphone and 5-megapixel Kodak-branded shooter, could be the cards Motorola plans to reveal in a few weeks at CTIA.
A promotional video, purportedly made by Motorola, has appeared on YouTube that shows off a number of existing and unannounced mobile phones from Motorola. The mystery phones, which include a Windows Mobile 6.1 smartphone and 5-megapixel Kodak-branded shooter, could be the cards Motorola plans to reveal in a few weeks at CTIA.Let me start by saying that Motorola needs to get these phones to market badly.

The video, which was professionally shot in the style that Motorola is known for, was posted to YouTube recently. No one has heard of the person who posted it, nor is any information available from Motorola about the video, but it appears to be genuine. Perhaps these were the phones meant to be announced at Mobile World Congress. Perhaps not. Whatever the intended announcement date, the line-up is the best I've seen from Motorola in a while.

The most obvious winner is a phone with Kodak branding on the screen. Motorola has long been working with Kodak to bring a 5-megapixel cameraphone to market, The handset seen is this video is probably it. It looks sharp. Let's hope (for both Kodak and Motorola's sakes) that it is a hit. At first glance, it looks stylish. If it performs as well as it looks, it could be the beginning of a resurrection for Motorola.

Next up is a new Q-type smartphone. The close-up screen shots seen during the video indicate that it is running Windows Mobile 6.1, which hasn't been officially announced by Microsoft. This could be the Q10 or some other Q variant. Motorola hasn't announced a new smartphone in almost a year. It needs to add another one to its stable.

There's another music-based Rokr phone tossed into the mix as well. The one seen in the video sports revised styling, which looks much better than the current line-up of Rokr slider-type phones.

Lastly, there's what appears to be the MotoMing2, which is a Linux-driven handset. All good stuff.

Let's keep our fingers crossed that this preshow video isn't another no-show like the one that preceded MWC.

Take a look for yourself:

Editor's Choice
James M. Connolly, Contributing Editor and Writer
Carrie Pallardy, Contributing Reporter
Roger Burkhardt, Capital Markets Chief Technology Officer, Broadridge Financial Solutions
Shane Snider, Senior Writer, InformationWeek
Sara Peters, Editor-in-Chief, InformationWeek / Network Computing
Brandon Taylor, Digital Editorial Program Manager
Jessica Davis, Senior Editor
John Edwards, Technology Journalist & Author