We had a nice long talk with one of Motorola ninjas, and they let us in on some pretty big secrets. Most of our conversation is below, and we’ve got a good grasp on Moto’s whole ’08 lineup!
- The Motorola Z10 should be out by Christmas this year.
- Motorola is reducing their Linux support and transitioning to UIQ (since they now own 50% of UIQ, it makes sense, huh?)
- There will be a 3G QWERTY entry-level smartphone that runs Windows Mobile 6, it might possibly be called the Q10, and it will have a touch screen. The first for a Motorola Windows Mobile device, not counting the ill-fated MPx.
- One of Motorola’s more high-end phones will feature an NVIDIA chip processor for smooth 3D gaming and video playback. This processor will be superior to the Nokia N95’s ARM 11 processor. This device is said to be their flagship ’08 model
- The ELBA device — well, it’s 3G running UIQ, has a 3.2 megapixel autofocus camera, and that oh-so-cool-but-possibly-crap morphing keyboard. In addition, there is a new version of ELBA which is codenamed KEYWEST. That device uses the updated MOTOMAGX platform of 7.3, compared to the RAZR 2 that runs 6.2.
- There’s a touch-screen slider in the works with a 5 megapixel autofocus camera, GPS, 16 million color screen with a 320*240 size which is rumored to be 2.8 inches, running UIQ 4.0 — this is the Nokia N95 competitor, people! We’re told to expect an announcement on or before 3GSM and a June ’08 release.
To recap: there will be 9 UIQ devices next year from Motorola, 2 of them with 5 megapixel cameras, and the remaining 7 with 3.2 megapixel cameras. The first 3G-packing MOTOMAGX phone might be the KEYWEST device mentioned above. It looks like Moto has their hands full…
