“Motorola rode high for a while on sales of its slim, stylish Razr phone. When its competitive edge started to dull, the company set its hopes on the Q, a BlackBerry-like e-mail phone, which it initially thought would sell as well as the Razr,” Peter Svensson reports for The Associated Press.
“Now, with Motorola’s position as the world’s No. 2 cell-phone maker in jeopardy, it has brought out a thoroughly reworked Razr, and jazzed up its Q with more music-oriented features,” Svensson reports. “Unfortunately for Motorola, neither of the new phones feels like a winner that’s going to bolster the company’s stock price, which is down 35 per cent from its high of $26.30 set last year.”
“I tested samples of the MotoRazr2 and Moto Q music 9m for a few weeks,” Svensson reports. “With the Razr2… the touch-sensitive buttons are vexing to use, and poorly programmed… the rest of the interface is clunky, but works.”
“The Q9m is only available on Verizon, and costs $200, though there’s an additional $50 mail-in rebate available. It has a very tough act to follow: Apple Inc.’s iPhone launched two months ago and, as far as I’m concerned, slapped the smart-phone category silly with its large screen and fantastic interface,” Svensson reports.
“The Q9m lacks a touch screen and instead relies on a side-mounted BlackBerry-style scrollwheel. Combined with the sluggish Windows Mobile software, this makes the phone just too slow, clunky, and confusing. Important features are hidden and screen space is wasted… After the iPhone, everyone really needs to work a lot harder to impress with a smart phone,” Svensson reports.
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader "Ian" for the heads up.]
Expect to see a lot more of this sort of thing over the next few years from honest reviewers, as the mobile handset makers have done little to nothing in the way of innovation for years. Apple has thoroughly embarrassed an entire industry with their iPhone. And now, in honest reviews, the Motorolas of the world will pay the price for their years of complacency and laziness.
5 Day Most Commented