Motorola Inc.’s advanced V600 camera phone suffered its second major delay, with AT&T Wireless Services Inc. pushing back the phone’s introduction to late April or early May. The phone is now scheduled to ship almost five months later than initially planned, and likely won’t register in Motorola’s first-quarter revenues for the U.S. market.
“We just needed to do more testing on it,” said Ritch Blasi, an AT&T Wireless spokesman. Blasi declined to elaborate on the reason for the delay.
Motorola and AT&T Wireless announced at the Consumer Electronics Show that they would begin selling the device in February. The companies initially planned to launch the V600 in December, in time for the critical holiday shopping season, but software problems forced the companies to delay the device until February.
Indeed, several other Motorola camera phones were delayed until after the holiday season, news that angered Wall Street. However, Motorola’s V400 camera phone is now selling through Cingular Wireless L.L.C. for as low as $100, and its V300 camera phone is selling through T-Mobile USA Inc. for as low as $150. Motorola has blamed component shortages for its camera-phone delays. Phone delays have become a common occurrence in the always-changing wireless industry.
Motorola’s clamshell V600 features quad-band GSM support, video-clip playback, an integrated digital camera with 4x zoom and Java technology. It will sell for $300 through AT&T Wireless with a two-year contract.
In other camera-phone news, International Parkside Products Inc. said it will begin selling a lens cleaner for camera-phone lenses. The company’s new Cell Klear product will be available for $5.
