Don't you dare die on me now, Motorola, you hear! (part 3)

3.2 Better design and controlled range
I suppose this a continuation of the former point, but I think among other things the form factor is important to mention as well.

At the rate Motorola spurts out phones, you have to wonder if their strategy is: "If we just spit out enough phones, something has to stick". But my best guesstimate is that the rapid growth of do nothing phones that Motorola calls the W-line, isn't exactly a pot of gold. A big line up doesn't have to mean failure, Nokia does something of the sort too, but in Nokia's case it seemed to be more controlled.
An interesting example is the 3110 Evolve. Nokia took a low level phone and turned it into an eco-phone. That is one clever thought, in this green day and age.

The Motorola F3 is a really great idea. Core function(s) made cheap and effective. Had it been better at messaging, I would have bought one just to have one. Using eInk and getting fantastic hours out of a compact device is something that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside, whilst muttering brilliant under my breath. But shortcomings prevent it from being a louder and fuller uttering of brilliant. If it had better text functionality and quadband gsm, it would have been a go-everywhere device. Great battery time and a size that would fit like a snug, just about anywhere you'd like to stick it. What self respecting backpacker or globetrotter could be without it?

But enough about the F3, has anyone seen the ROKR W5? No seriously, has anyone? Me, neither.
"Let's take a RAZR and not dramatically improve the music capabilities.. then it's a ROKR".
I'm all for clamshells, and a music clamshell; oh yes! But why make something 3 steps from useless and let it slide into anonymity?

It has been said before by many, but I'm not above being part of a crowd:

- GET OVER the RAZR!! -

When the V3 came out, it became an icon for the day. Today it's still an icon, just an icon of yester-year.

This makes it tragic comic that the remedy for Motorola was saying "You know how we've overstayed our welcome with the RAZR, and squeezed every drop out of it we could? OK, yeah, well here's the RAZR2!"
That doesn't mean they are terrible phones, but it does mean that I get pissed off by their lack interest in keeping their products interesting. Instead they get stuck in a form factor, and only half heartedly deviate from that.

Why not start by laying out flagship devices.
- What form factors do we have to work with: Clamshell, Slide, and Candybar - T9 & QWERTY (maybe even touch based such as iPhone, 5800 tube, LG Prada, Samsung Omnia etc).
- What centrics do we have to work with: Music, Camera, Gaming, Movie/Media, All-in-One, Business/Productivity.

- Pick a centric, and find out where the goal posts are at the moment. Then place the goal posts where they will be when this device will be coming out. Now go about technologically achieving that goal.
- Find a form you like for that purpose, and design it so it meets its centric.

Of course there is always room for double devices like Nokia with E71 and E66. Same centric, different form. Motorola already did this, albeit with limited success. Remember the SLVR? RAZR's cousin in bar form. The trick is always asking, what is the motivation for having sibling devices?
One bigger with QWERTY and one smaller with T9, makes sense, right.

When you have the flagships, make it dripple down. Substract, and make lines of more affordable phones.

But having competetive phones is a key element.

Take the RIZR Z10, which is a movie phone.
- So why was the screen only 2.2" and 240*320?
- Expensive flagship phone, but where was the WiFi?

Here you can get the Nokia N95 for almost half the price of a Z10. Guess which one I would rather buy?


Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4