Original URL: http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/05/10/moto_pledges_movie_phone/
Motorola will next week take the wraps off a phone capable of showing "full-motion" Hollywood movies, the company's chief said yesterday, though he went some way from promising a true personal media player experience.
Speaking in the US, Motorola CEO Ed Zander said next week's launch would include a Euro-centric 3G handset capable of playing video at 30fps. It will also feature a technology that can squeeze a full-length film onto a 2GB SD card.
The phone will be a "media monster", Zander said.
Of course, nothing he said isn't possible already. If you can compress a typical standard definition movie into the 4.7GB provided by a single-layer DVD, you can squeeze a lower resolution version onto a 2GB SD card. Equipping a handset with a decent LCD isn't exactly a breakthrough either.
Still, Zander's hyperbole points to a new push into mobile media, just as Nokia has been doing for some time and is stressing more and more with its N series of handsets. And as Apple has shown, consumers are willing to watch video on the (very) small screen.
Zander's comments come in a quarter O2 is expected to announce the now-confirmed XDA Flame (http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/03/26/srs_confirms_o2_xda_flame/), a Windows Mobile-based handset with a large, 480 x 640 display, Nvidia graphics chip, SRS Wow 3D sound, 2GB of Flash storage and a TV-out port. The Flame is likely to be pitched as a personal media player.
Motorola lays off another 4,000 (31 May 2007)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/05/31/moto_lays_off_4k/
'Media monster' Motorola mobile hits UK (17 May 2007)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/05/17/media_monster_motorola_mobile/
Motorola sharpens Razr (16 May 2007)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/05/16/moto_revamps_razr/
Alcatel looks forward to retro-styled 'vintage' slider (15 May 2007)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/05/15/alcatel_preps_vintage_slider/
World's smallest mobile phone spotted in UK (14 May 2007)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/05/14/haier_elegance_hits_uk/
Motorola tells developers to think small (11 May 2007)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/05/11/motorola_cross_platform/
Evesham makes compact LCD TV, builds in DVD (10 May 2007)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/05/10/evesham_unveils_10in_lcd/
Moto gives thumbs-up to 'imperial purple' RAZR (2 May 2007)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/05/02/hw_motorola_purple_v3i/
Motorola teases Hong Kong girls with gilt-y pleasures (24 April 2007)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/04/24/hw_motorola_gold_k1/
SRS confirms unannounced O2 media player handset (26 March 2007)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/03/26/srs_confirms_o2_xda_flame/
Motorola revamps StarTAC for Koreans... again (28 February 2007)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/02/28/hw_motorola_revamps_startac/
Motorola 3GSM Gallery (12 February 2007)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/02/12/motorola_3gsm_gallery/
Motorola RIZR slider becomes 'fit-to-face' banana-phone (12 February 2007)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/02/12/moto_upgrades_style_phones/
O2 readies XDA Flame PMP phone (22 November 2006)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/11/22/o2_preps_flame_pmp_phone/