Motorola Inc. released a trio of new phones featuring digital music players, although the company’s long-anticipated iTunes-capable device was not in attendance.
Motorola executives have said the company will unveil its iTunes phone in the first half of this year, shortly before it is commercially available.
Although the iTunes phone was nowhere to be seen, Motorola’s new music phone line-up includes several other offerings. First, the company’s new E725 works on CDMA EV-DO networks and is scheduled for release in the North American market in the second half of this year. The sliding-style phone features a digital music player, VGA-quality camera, 16-mm stereo speakers and support for BREW technology. Motorola boasts that the phone can store up to 1 gigabyte of music through removable mini SD cards.
Motorola also announced its high-end E680i personal digital assistant-style phone, scheduled for release in the Asia-Pacific region in April. The phone features a digital music player, built-in FM radio, Bluetooth, stereo speakers and up to 2 GB of storage through a removable SD card. Finally, Motorola’s CDMA E685 is aimed at the Chinese market and is scheduled for release in the first half of this year. The device features a digital music player and camera.
Motorola also boasted of its iRadio technology, its Near Field Communications efforts and its new limited series of MTV-branded phones. The “Highjacked by MTV” phones will feature MTV-branded short message service templates, wallpapers, screensavers, interchangeable skins, games, ringtones and alerts.
In other phone news, Rogers Wireless will sell the SMT 5600 Windows Mobile smart phone from UTStarcom Inc. for $300 with a three-year service contract.
