Motorola has launched its first phone using Google's Android operating system in an effort to revive its becalmed smartphone business.
Along with the phone comes a new Motorola-developed custom interface called Motoblur which is design
ed to provide access to popular messaging web services such as Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and Gmail-all from a single screen. Although initially only available in the US through T-Mobile under the name of Cliq, the phone will be rebranded the Moto Dext and sold in other markets around the world in the near future. In the UK it will be available through Orange-and presumably ultimately through the new Orange JV with T-Mobile UK, in France from Orange and in Spain from Telefonica.
The company says it will be revealing a second Android Motoblur phone in the next few weeks and many more globally during 2010. Motorola is the second manufacturer to bring an Android phone to market after HTC, beating rivals such as Samsung. The new phone was broadly welcomed by industry analysts who saw it as a way for Motorola to regain its momentum in the mobile phone market it once dominated
For more on this story go to The Register and Cellular News
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