Motorola's pathetic MWC showing: Z6w, W161, and W181

Oh my, when you roll into Barcelona for Mobile World Congress you'd best be packing your A-game. Instead, troubled Motorola makes the trans-continental jump with a pair of updates to existing units and a duo of affordable low-enders. The niche DH01n GPS navigator and Mobile TV we already peeped. That leaves the Z6w -- a WiFi version of the Z6m -- and a pair of affordable, low-end handsets dubbed the W181 and W161. The new W-series gear ship in dual-band GSM 900/1800 or GSM 850/1900 configurations with built-in FM radio, USB 1.1 (yes, 1.1), and 128 x 128 pixel display which brings 65k colors on the W181 or black and white on the W161. Damn Moto, we can feel your embarrassment from here. You too, apparently, since you pulled your MWC teaser video.

[Mark @ Feb 11th 2008 4:12AM]

Motorola's phones were never that great to begin with imo.

[A @ Feb 11th 2008 4:13AM]

The Q9 is still better...

[ByronGman @ Feb 11th 2008 4:15AM]

I want to see more of that TEXEL thing that was floating around awhile ago...

Hopefully Moto is just cutting their losses right now before introducing some better stuff...

[Johan S @ Feb 11th 2008 4:23AM]

Motorola sucks. At least Sony and the others are trying.

[NightBlade @ Feb 11th 2008 4:34AM]

[sarcasm]Way to go, Moto![/sarcasm]

[sk8rpro @ Feb 11th 2008 4:35AM]

I like the radio idea. I haven't even known of features like that before for a cell phone.

[Cactus @ Feb 11th 2008 5:08AM]

You're referring to the low-end phones' FM radio? It's hardly an 'idea' at this point... it was a fairly common feature even on low-end phones -- like my old T-MobileToGo Nokia 6030 (which sold for $30 with no contract) -- before those phones started featuring MP3 playback.

I'm sad to see Motorola kind of end up like an electronic version of Ford -- for the longest time was at the forefront as one of the biggest innovators, but is now struggling to catch up to more nimble and dynamic foreign competitors...

[sk8rpro @ Feb 11th 2008 5:11AM]

It's prob'ly a new feature to me because Verizon doesn't do it on their phones. Verizon locks their phones like hell.

[Ian @ Feb 11th 2008 5:15AM]

ok dont get me wrong i dont mind the occasional phone being put on here.. but 5 different phones on the front page?? wtf i thought that was for the mobile site..

[Dan @ Feb 11th 2008 6:17AM]

Um, that might have something to do with today being the start of the Mobile World Conference in Barcelona. Check every other tech blog.

[Ian @ Feb 11th 2008 2:13PM]

ahh see i did not know this.. that makes sense

[GaryZ @ Feb 11th 2008 12:47PM]

Z6w is wifi version of Z6, not Z6m; Z6 is GSM & based on linux platform (so does Z6w) while Z6m is CDMA & based on synergy platform.

[Tim @ Feb 11th 2008 3:34PM]

Coming to Tracfone...