Could Moto Mess Up the Cliq?
8:15 PM -- At first glance, Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT) seems to have gotten a lot of things right with its first Android phone, the Cliq, which will debut on the T-Mobile US Inc. network in time for the holiday buying season. (See Motorola: My First Android.)
The phone's software will pull together multiple social-networking apps in a graphical "skin" and allow the user to view updates and post one status to multiple sites. Although it mostly appears to be aimed at a younger crowd, the phone will also synchronize with Exchange servers making business email easier.
Under the hood, it has support for multiple flavors of GSM-based 3G and WiFi, including High-Speed Packet Access 7.2. T-Mobile hasn't even revealed its roadmap for the 7.2 Mbit/s standard yet.
There are three main things that could go wrong as far as I can see:
— Dan Jones, Site Editor, Unstrung
The phone's software will pull together multiple social-networking apps in a graphical "skin" and allow the user to view updates and post one status to multiple sites. Although it mostly appears to be aimed at a younger crowd, the phone will also synchronize with Exchange servers making business email easier.
Under the hood, it has support for multiple flavors of GSM-based 3G and WiFi, including High-Speed Packet Access 7.2. T-Mobile hasn't even revealed its roadmap for the 7.2 Mbit/s standard yet.
There are three main things that could go wrong as far as I can see:
- The device needs to be $200 or thereabouts to compete with other Android offerings. Much higher, and it probably won't sell.
- The "Motoblur" social-networking software skin needs to run well and fast. No point building all this integration in if it makes the machine hang.
- The applications processor on the machine needs to be good and speedy. (See The Power Behind the Palm Pre for more tech talk on this topic.)
— Dan Jones, Site Editor, Unstrung