Razr+

iPhone Passes the RAZR to Become Best Selling Phone in the US This Quarter

Just days after supplanting the BlackBerry in customer satisfaction among business wireless smartphone users, Apple’s iPhone has taken down another cellphone icon, Motorola’s Razr, in terms of total sales for the quarter. According to NPD (the leading wireless research firm) the iPhone outsold the Razr in the 3Q—representing the first changing of the guard in…

Motorola Insider Blame Game: Engineers Shoved Designers Aside

These days, most in-the-know folks would sooner eat glass than carry a Motorola phone. The company has shredded its reputation by failing to address basic interface design issues: freeze-prone software, head-scratching menus, keys that demand Herculean strength. It’s baffling that such a venerable company could build such frustrating phones, considering the zillions presumably spent on…

Sprint’s New Flip Phones: Sanyo Katana Eclipse and Motorola RAZR VE20

As revealed in that leaked Sprint roadmap from last month, Sanyo’s Katana Eclipse and the RAZR VE20 become real phones today. The Eclipse is replacing the DLX, and it’s headline gimmick feature is that the sides light up, rave style. And the VE20 is an, um, RAZR, but slightly less loathsome than usual. They’ve both…

Blurred Photos Show Latest Motorola RAZR VE20 Coming to Sprint

Over at PhoneArena they’ve got a bunch of pics that show the upcoming new Motorola RAZR phone, the VE20. Through the blur you can see the phone is mirrored, features the classic laser-cut keypad and has a touch-sensitive pad on the outer shell like the V9m. The cell has a 2-megapixel cam, a QVGA main…

Moto Sues Former Exec For Jumping Ship To Apple

Motorola, upset that one of its former executives might be violating a no-compete clause in his contract, has sued him for going to work at Apple with the iPhone as an executive in sales. The contention isn’t just sour grapes, says Moto, but that the exec, Michael Fenger, has intimate knowledge of Motorola’s “trade secrets…

Wired Editor Drops, Destroys RAZR on Live TV

Wired Senior Editor Nick Thompson was on the Today Show this morning talking about why the N95 and iPhone are the best high-end phones and the RAZR is the best cheap phone. OK, fair enough. Unfortunately for Nick, when he dropped the RAZR to the floor to demonstrate its durability, it ended up getting destroyed…

Alas, Poor RAZR, I Knew You Well

Yetro is something so unfashionable it has yet to be retro—and probably will never be. Example: my RAZR. I’ve had it for almost three years now. I hate it. Actually, hate is too strong a word. I pity it. My mobile phone with its nauseous blue-painted interface, its ability to change its ring tone to…

Motorola Firing Half its Designers at a UK Facility

Say you’re a company that had a hit design about three years ago and have been banking on variations of that spec ever since. What’s the best way to improve your designs so that people will buy them and turn your company around? Is it firing half of them at one of your UK facilities?…

Moto Knocked Out of Handset Business?

From the bestselling cellphone in history to the most ignominious departure of a CEO not related to any criminal behavior, Motorola’s had a hell of a slide, but still, the latest speculation comes as a punch to the chin. Richard Windsor, an analyst with a firm called Nomura International, says that Moto may exit the…

Zander No Moto: The RAZR King Steps Down

Ed Zander—the celebrity CEO who made Motorola’s RAZR an Apple-like sensation then somehow spoiled it with all them spinoffs—will step down on Jan. 1. Does this mean we won’t get the POOPR, the SHTR or the TFSU? Does this mean that Motorola might recover from its slip to third place in the world cell phone…

Motorola Drops to Third Place Behind Samsung, Nokia – Nobody Wonders Why

In news that surprises no one, Motorola’s dropped to third place in global cellphone sales behind Samsung and Nokia, thanks to inventory issues and “an unremarkable product lineup”. That’s code for too many RAZRs and RIZRs, in case your decoder ring’s in the shop. In comparison, Moto’s down from 21% to 13% of the market…

Motorola Responds to Penis Clock Allegations

The MOTO PNIS clock image we found yesterday caused such an uprising over at Motorola, they felt the need to respond to any possible penis allegations today. https://gizmodo.com/motorola-penis-easter-egg-312016 They said: The image that you see is actually the result of shading applied to the clock background graphic to give it more of a three-dimensional appearance,…

Motorola Penis Easter Egg

Do you see the penis? Howard forum users discovered a penis image in the default Motorola analog clock in at least the V9M, the K1M and various other phones. Of course this Moto PNIS could just be a weird shadow, but it’s a bit too penisy to just dismiss. Check your Moto, and if you’ve…

Motorola promises new phone announcements next month and that they won’t “ride one horse to the bitter end again” like did the RAZR. Guess we’ll see. [NYT]

Motorola RAZR2 On Sale Now

As expected, that hot damn RAZR2 just went on sale for $250 little green doggies at Sprint. This is a far cry from the $500 that the original RAZR went for at its launch. Expect other carriers to be following suit now or later with their RAZR2 variants. [Sprint] https://gizmodo.com/sprint-launches-motorola-razr-2-288282

The Unknown Differences Between the RAZR2, Carrier to Carrier

Apparently, every major carrier is getting a RAZR2. But that doesn’t mean they’re identical. Between the stores, network technology, and the custom UIs, each is different…and some better than others. Here’s a brief guide to which RAZR2 has what, which hasn’t been documented at all until now: •The RAZR V9m is the CDMA version, and…

Sprint Launches Motorola RAZR 2

After Verizon announced its launch of the RAZR 2 this morning, now Sprint jumps on board, saying it will also launch the new Motorola clamshell. Sprint’s touting its RAZR2’s ability to watch videos on its 2″ external screen, even when the flip is closed. But just like Verizon, the company says little about the phone…

Motorola’s Revenues Down 4 Quarters in a Row, May See Early Termination Fees For Ed Zander

Motorola’s revenues were down 19% from a year earlier, reporting a second quarter loss of $28 million. You’d think making the same phone 19 times would guarantee big money, but we guess not! As we said around the RAZR2 launch, the phone is just another RAZR design evolution, not something drastically different enough to make…

Wireless WildCharger for RAZR and iPod Nano Coming This Month

WildCharge has finally announced their first production unit—the Motorola RAZR. For $89.99, you get the starter bundle including charging pad and phone adapter. The adapter is really a back plate replacement for the RAZR that has a “charging arm” that plugs into the phone. In other words, wires are involved, just not between the charging…

iPhone May Sell Fast, But Not RAZR Fast

Click to viewIt’s no wonder Steve Jobs got into the phone business. He introduced the iPod in October 2001, and by April 2006, he had sold over 50 million of them. Now, 50 million units in less than five years is good, but Motorola sold 50 million RAZRs in less than two. It took Motorola…