March 27, 2006

The Moto Q, Motorola’s smart phone, will be available in April, missing by a hair the company’s initial forecast for a first-quarter release.

A Motorola spokesperson was not immediately available to comment on the timing of the Q’s release.

The device was announced last year, and is destined to be Motorola’s thrust into the high-end enterprise device market.

The gadget will compete against Research In Motion Ltd.’s BlackBerry device and Palm Inc.’s Treo smart phone.

The Moto Q follows Motorola’s Razr phone design in going slim; the company claims the device is 50 percent thinner than other smart phones.

The Moto Q runs on Microsoft Corp.’s Windows Mobile 5.0 operating system.

Most Treos run on the Palm OS and the BlackBerry runs on RIM’s Java-based OS.

Such devices essentially extend e-mail to the proverbial harried, on-the-move executive.

The Moto Q includes voice-activated dialing, video capabilities, a QWERTY keyboard akin to desktop PCs and Bluetooth connectivity, among other features.

Source: RCR