Wednesday, June 07, 2006

The Motorola Q released in the US - Blackberry destroyer?

Launched this week in the US the Motorola Q.
Not disimilar to a gadget given out by Q In the bond movies or is it?
The Motorola Q is Motorolas attempt to take on BlackBerry and Palm Inc.'s Treo 700 as a way to get corporate e-mail on the go.
The Motorola Q only costs $199.99 with a two-year commitment to Verizon Wireless in the US. Thats $100 less than the Treo range from Verizon, how everT-Mobile has cheaper BlackBerries.
To run this business mobile PDA with unlimited data usage on the carrier's high-speed BroadbandAccess network, its $109.99 a month, similar to high end business tariffs.
So is it all its propecises about?
Well the Q has a lot going for it. It's thin and light enough to be only slightly uncomfortable carried in a shirt pocket, lighter & smaller then the Treo. However slightly wider than a Treo (though not quite as wide as some BlackBerries), this provides the space for a QWERTY keyboard with comfortably spaced keys.
Comes with Bluetooth for wireless connection to a headset and works as a speakerphone.
4 hours talk time and 9 days standby.
It's predominantly designed for e-mail, but doesn't go the whole way.
The Motorola Q is the first mobile to combine the smartphone version of Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Mobile with an alphabetic keyboard, others have number keys.
The Motorola Q has coped well with email but like other smartphones, lacks in basic text-editing: cut and paste. The BlackBerry, which has a similar button layout, does cut and paste.
The Motorola Q doesn't do Direct Push e-mail, at least not as stock. Upgrades will be avaiable, in the meanwhile, the Motorola Q is to set it to refresh the Exchange server every 10 minutes or so.
The Motorola Q can be used to direct mail instantly from servers running software enabled to do this, or you could install the Motorla Q software included on your PC. This will forward e-mail as it arrives, however your PC has to be on for this to work.
Motorola has high hopes for the Motorola Q, the super-slim clamshell phone, is similar in design to the RAZR series. Time to wait and see if it stands upto Motorolas expectations.

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