from the thinner dept
Motorola continues to struggle as it hunts for a device to follow up the success of the RAZR. Last week, the company's CEO, Ed Zander, intimated that big things were in store from the company, and would be announced at an event today -- in particular, he talked up
a movie-playing phone. So what's the company announce today for its renewed attack on the mobile handset market?
Four products it had already announced, and the next-generation RAZR, creatively titled the
RAZR 2. The idea is that consumers will flock to the update and pay a premium price for it, but it's hard to see people paying a high price for 2005's fad. While Zander proudly talks up how the RAZR has sold almost 100 million units, he leaves out how many of those sales came only after deep price cuts. Featurewise, the device isn't particularly exciting, and it's hard to explain the reannouncements of the other four products. The company says
it has more high-end, feature-rich devices in the pipeline, but they're nowhere to be seen. It's hard to see today's event as much more than Zander trying some smoke and mirrors to polish the company's image -- and his own, which has taken a hit lately. But while he's showing off new products that aren't really new, Nokia's
taking market share from slow-moving Motorola.
