Motorola Inc.’s long-awaited V600 camera phone will finally hit store shelves this month through AT&T Wireless Services Inc., the companies announced. The phone suffered from software glitches and had been delayed until after the holiday shopping season.
“Just as the ground-breaking Motorola StarTAC and Motorola V60 were the coveted communications accessory of their time, the Motorola V600 is demanding similar attention for its elegant blend of design and technology,” said Joe Woods, vice president of product operations for Motorola. “The new model V600 exemplifies our commitment to enriching consumers’ lives with compelling, easy-to-use wireless experiences-sharing moments with photos and video, simplifying connections with Bluetooth wireless technology and globetrotting without missing a beat.”
The phone works on GSM 850, 900, 1800 and 1900 MHz bands, features Java, multimedia messaging service and video playback support, and includes Bluetooth short-range wireless technology.
Motorola also plans to sell an EDGE version of its popular T720 mobile phone. The upcoming T725 features support for EDGE networks, Java applications and MMS. It will be available sometime in the first half of this year. Motorola did not name a carrier that will sell the device, but AT&T Wireless recently announced the launch of its EDGE network.
In other Motorola news, the company made a strategic minority investment in Magic4 Ltd., which provides messaging software for mobile-phone makers. The amount of the investment was not disclosed.
In other mobile phone news, Audiovox Communications Corp. launched its new PPC 5050, a CDMA device running Microsoft Corp.’s Pocket PC operating system. The phone supports CDMA 1x EV-DO networks and includes an MP3 player, an Intel Corp. 400 MHz processor and 64 MB of memory. Audiovox did not name a carrier that will sell the device, although Verizon Wireless recently launched EV-DO networks in San Diego and Washington, D.C.
