Motorola's Android Phone Coming "Soon"

Information Week is reporting that Motorola is feverishly working on its own Android phone.

An excerpt:

The unnamed Android-powered smartphone from Motorola will be like HTC's G1 in that it sports a touch screen and slide-out QWERTY keyboard, according to BusinessWeek. But the Motorola Android smartphone is expected to cost around $150 and will reportedly feature heavy social network integration.

While it hasn't been confirmed, more than likely this means the handset will have information from a user's Facebook and MySpace contacts integrated into the address books without having to launch a separate application. Adding credence to the report, Motorola even had a job posting on Monster.com, now removed, looking for software engineers for an Android "social smartphone."

Motorola definitely needs a souped up smartphone. Their share of new handsets has been in a nosedive for two years. I gotta say that a good phone at a $150 pricepoint might be just what it needs. Though I do wonder what sort of margin they'd have at that pricepoint, given that the phone will be touch screen and all tha'.

Date for the launch is unknown.

Naturally, this is also good news for the Goog. More handsets are essential to their open platform strategy.

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Future Sales Prospects Bleak for Motorola Cellies

According to a recent Changewave study, Motorola is not the phone of choice for future buyers. In fact, the number who are planning to buy a Motorola celly in the next 6 months is down to 7%. A far cry from 34% just two years ago.

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