Motorola has lifted the lid on eight mobile phones it plans to release this year. The phones, unveiled at the firm's HelloMoto conference in Shanghai, include the company's first third-generation (3G) handsets and the world's first quad-band phone.
The handsets offer multimedia and instant messaging, polyphonic ringtones, colour displays, personal computer connectivity and run on Motorola's Java-based operating system. The most advanced handsets will be the T725 and A835. Both will probably be on sale in Europe before arriving in Asia later this year.
The T725 will offer next-generation Edge (enhanced data rates for global evolution) support, designed to let global system for mobile communications (GSM) carriers run 3G applications at speeds of up to 384 kilobits per second.
The A835 will be Motorola's first 3G phone, using Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) to give speeds of up to three megabits per second. It will also feature a video camera and up to 256 megabytes of memory. Both phones are due in the second half of the year.
Motorola also announced three 2.5G camera phones, all due for release in the second half. The E365 and V295 are aimed at the younger buyer, the V295 being a budget clam-shell design, and the E365 likely to be more expensive, but with a larger colour display.
The V600 is the first quad-band phone to be announced by any vendor. The phone can operate on the 850, 900, 1,800 and 1900 megahertz frequencies, meaning it can be used in virtually any phone market. It will also feature Bluetooth wireless networking.