Motorola Cliq – A guide to Android

[1]Motorola Cliq
Announced: Sept. 10, 2009. T-Mobile will launch it Nov. 2, 2009.
Carrier: T-Mobile USA
Vendor: Motorola
Price: $199.99 with a two-year contract

Pros: The main differentiator is Motorola's new software platform, MotoBLUR, which lets users customize their device home page so they no longer have to open and close applications. MotoBLUR also allows users to synch their various social networking activities. For example, users can post one status update across a range of social networking services. Another widget will allow them to see messages from various sources--including emails, text messages and social networking messages--on the home screen.

"The Cliq is unremarkable relative to the competitive field," Jackson said. "But Motorola didn't announce the Cliq, they announced the Cliq with MotoBLUR. Motorola doesn't want you think about this is a device, but as an experience and a family of devices."

Cons: Bajarin said that the biggest knock is the keyboard, which may be difficult to use.

Impact: The key element is MotoBLUR, and how it is deployed across other Android phones from Motorola. Rubin said that MotoBLUR highlights the promise of a customizable Android, particularly for communications and social networking applications. "Really, Motorola is playing upon again all of the themes that Palm had mentioned with the Pre," he said. "This is an idea of information from various cloud services being woven throughout the local user interface."

Bajarin said he applauds Motorola for going after a social networking-driven demographic. "It's probably the only category they would have had a shot to do this in," he said. "To start there is great. I just feel like we'd probably all be shaking our heads if they went anywhere else."

However, Greengart said that social networking focus may stretch across a range of market segments. "I don't think the demographic that will be interested in this product is as limited as some think," he said. "Facebook has 300 million users, and they're not all teenagers."