Kevin Restivo, my editor, Ian Karleff, and I just got a sneak-peek at the Motorola "Q", which will be available in the U.S. this week through Verizon, and, hopefully, for sale in Canada within the next few weeks. In a word, it's extremely cool. Okay, that's two words but the "Q" is the closest thing to the all-in-one device that I've seen. The quality of the screen for video is impressive, the MP3 player sounds great, the Web browser is real a Web browser (as opposed to the Blackberry's continued so-so efforts), and it's super-thin. One of the few downsides is the "Q" has pull e-mail, which means you have to fetch e-mail rather than having it automatically delivered but that's not a deal breaker. All in all, the "Q" has few negatives so I expect it will resonate with many consumers who have found the Blackberry too expensive, too geeky or unnecessary. Whether the "Q" can meet Motorola's aggressive sales targets (750,000 units in the first 90 days, 1.5 million in the next 90 days and three million in the three months after that) depends on how it is priced by carriers, the cost of data plans and whether any bugs emerge such as inferior telephone service/quality. So will the "Q" be the next Blackberry-killer? I doubt it because there will be power users that want the reliability of the Blackberry's mobile e-mail and have no need for the frills of the "Q". But I do think the "Q" will do very well because it appears to be very user-friendly - kind of like a Blackberry for the rest of us. For an extensive review on the "Q", check out Geek.com. My column in the National Post about the "Q" can be found here. Update: Here's the Verizon ad for the "Q".
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The "Q" is Cool
by
Mark Evans
on Tue 30 May 2006 12:03 PM EDT | Permanent Link
Comments
Re: The "Q" is Cool
Very interesting post. Do you have any idea about the length of the battery. The challenge I have found with most integrated devices like this, the battery does not have a good charge life.
Re: Re: The "Q" is Cool
that's a bit of a wildcard. i got the impression the Q needs to be re-charged every day - compared with the blackberry, which needs some love every few days. that said, i think the Q could be a battery hog given all the cool applications it runs.
mark Re: Re: Re: The "Q" is Cool
Yeah, it is the challenge I have found with my Treo. If you are a big cell and a big email user, you blow through battery fast. I miss my blackberry for the longer power and the the true push.
Have to admit though I am looking forward to seeing one. Re: The "Q" is Cool
by
Jeremy Maddock
on Thu 01 Jun 2006 06:28 AM EDT | Permanent Link
Looks like it's being priced very competitively ($199 with a two-year contract), and is surprisingly rich in both enterprise and consumer functionality.
I don't see how either Motorola or Verizon could be making much money with this, but it wouldn't surprise me if they have some kind of strategic agreement to seek sustainable market share over short term profit. If they can get the Q popular, then launch a few subsequent models in the future (with even more built-in entertainment features), Motorola could easily go where no BlackBerry has gone before, and pull the wireless email industry out from under RIM. |
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