Motorola apparently planning another year of existence with claimed 2009 lineup for Verizon

Our first thought when we saw Boy Genius Report's alleged shots of Moto phones that'll find a home on Verizon in 2009 was, "holy cow, these look fake." And yes, granted, they're all renders -- but what really set off the alarms for us was the fact that they look... well, nothing like Motorolas. At all. But then we thought about it for a second and realized that hey, you know, when you're a once-great cellphone manufacturer losing market share hand over fist and you're looking for the Next Big Thing, you probably want to try something a little new, a little fresh, and a little crazy. So on that note, Verizon can apparently expect a "Rush 2" early in the year that continues Moto's contribution to the low-cost messaging phone trend; the "Calgary" (pictured), looking like a high-end Sidekick Slide minus the Sidekick; the "Inferno," presumably succeeding the ZN4 (which was coincidentally codenamed "Blaze"); and finally the gorgeous "Flash," which -- as far as we're concerned -- should just take the A3000's place. So yeah, these could be an elaborate hoax, but for Motorola's sake, we hope they're not.

[Flashpoint @ Dec 16th 2008 11:07PM]

wow.... now that's hot.


and on verizon too....

[David Van (Cool Prizes Inc.) @ Dec 16th 2008 11:27PM]

That phone is kickass... now only if verizon had a better coverage!

[Sofunnytom @ Dec 16th 2008 11:29PM]

@David

Where do you live that you don't have Verizon coverage?

[brandon @ Dec 16th 2008 11:39PM]

Hot, but sure to be an absolute bitch to type anything on

[Techie @ Dec 16th 2008 11:54PM]

Huba huba! That is sexy! Too bad the keypad is going to be a pain in the butt to type.

[Sean @ Dec 17th 2008 2:10AM]

I guess David's parent basement is the only place without Verizon coverage.

[thedesolate1 @ Dec 17th 2008 3:16AM]

Agreed. However it isnt practicle to have a flat keyboard for typing. For that we would rather have a touchscreen only. The reason we have keyboards is because we want tactile feed back when we type. If the keys are flat they are a useless. Somebody please pull motorola's head out of its ass before they lose even more cash.

[Mr. S. @ Dec 17th 2008 3:22AM]

Wow... now thats an X1! :-\

[daPrinz @ Dec 17th 2008 5:49AM]

I would freak out with that screen. I looks to me as if it's upside down. Why would you put the screen on the bottom half of the phone anyway? Every time you reach to push a botton you cover the display!

[Mobius_1 @ Dec 17th 2008 7:48AM]

David, please don't tell me you live in the UK or something...

[Tarnation @ Dec 17th 2008 8:22AM]

Huba Huba Huba is right. That Calgary is got some serious hawtness goin' on.

@David The only place I don't have Verizon coverage is in large concrete structures with metal roofs, but no one else I know has coverage in these buildings either.

@thedesolate1 If you bothered to read the article and check the link the Moto Flash is touchscreen only and who said there isn't some kind of tactile feedback to the Calgary it is a flat render obviously hold your big judgment hammer off until we get some real shots of this thing. Engadget readers who don't read how unique.

[David Van (Cool Prizes Inc.) @ Dec 17th 2008 8:13PM]

lmfao... It's obviously Verizon is dieing...

[SimbaDogg @ Dec 18th 2008 1:04AM]

first of all, to the writer of this article...its hand of FIST not "hand over first".

secondly...does the phone really look all that different from the KRZR, SLVR or the RAZR v3, 3M, 3000GT, vr4, C3P0 etc. i mean...i know the FORM FACTOR is very different, but where the hell do you think they got the idea for the keyboard?

[thedesolate1 @ Dec 19th 2008 3:19AM]

Listen I call it like I see it. The KEYS ARE FLAT just like on a Razr and all the reiterations of it. I dont think that would be very good to type on. I want bulging buttons i can feel when pushing down like a typical keypad.

[Jeremy K. @ Dec 16th 2008 11:07PM]

Android anyone?

[Shadow08 @ Dec 16th 2008 11:47PM]

If Android made it to that phone, it would be one big win for Motorola.

I'm really glad to see Motorola trying to get back on track here.

[Brendan @ Dec 16th 2008 11:07PM]

That looks really sexy.

[Najakwa @ Dec 16th 2008 11:20PM]

wow. another design whored off the razr. truely inventive. i know that the razr is still a great selling phone, but motorola obviously needs to get off their ass.

[1234321 @ Dec 16th 2008 11:08PM]

well actually it does look like a smartphone with a RAZR V3 style

[wyatt @ Dec 17th 2008 12:09AM]

i thought so too. they don't seem like that far of a departure from the razr design language. especially in the keypad. it looks like they're doing the same backlit, etched metal, living hinge kind of thing for the calgary phone that they did on the razer.

[CoolMoeG @ Dec 16th 2008 11:08PM]

that looks great

[bill cant fart @ Dec 16th 2008 11:11PM]

That looks a little too pointy for my taste

[Einhanderkiller @ Dec 17th 2008 1:16AM]

That's what sh

[i.c. weiner @ Dec 17th 2008 4:23PM]

e said

[midimasta @ Dec 16th 2008 11:11PM]

ok, now when will the picture on the screen rotate when you wanna text???



LOL!

[PyRo1509 @ Dec 17th 2008 12:07AM]

ZING!

[Johan S @ Dec 16th 2008 11:12PM]

Huh? How are those great? .. nothing great about the form factor. Unless they are priced super low. Or the screen is maybe the LCD is Half HD.

[wjowsa2000 @ Dec 16th 2008 11:13PM]

this may be verizons best looking (functionally & estheticly) from moto, lets give moto a bailout so they can produce this now

[yopladas @ Dec 16th 2008 11:16PM]

Woa! Best Version Phones I've seen in quite a long time....

[Montusama @ Dec 16th 2008 11:16PM]

"Motorola apparently planning another year of existence"

Nice engadget!

[Dustin @ Dec 16th 2008 11:17PM]

The Calgary phone looks the best, Verizon has shitty phones that all try to be an iPhone clone. they all fail too. I either want to get the blackberry storm, or drop Verizon and either get the iPhone or go G1 android. Verizon is over riced and has a lack of good phones.

[Brent @ Dec 16th 2008 11:19PM]

It's a nice looking phone, but I'd hate to type on the flat keyboard like that. I need actual buttons.

[KezMondo @ Dec 16th 2008 11:28PM]

I'd Tap it.

[XIYL @ Dec 17th 2008 2:17AM]

...With a chisel.

[Mikeo @ Dec 16th 2008 11:32PM]

OR-(ga)-SUM.

[Delorean2006 @ Dec 16th 2008 11:33PM]

that is a freakin awesome looking phone

[Joe @ Dec 16th 2008 11:33PM]

Check out the keyboard. VERY much like typical Motorola styling there, but slightly different from older designs, giving it a sci-fi retro futuristic look. Hot. I might be inclined to wait on picking up a Samsung Saga to see where Motorola goes with these.

[who? @ Dec 17th 2008 12:04AM]

Nah, don't bother. I went through three Motorolas (v180, v190, and an L7) in 1/2 the time I've had my (still fully functional) Samsung slider (D807, 3yrs old). It was battery/charging issues for the first two and software problems for the last one, so it wasn't like it was due to negligence on my part. Based on my experience with them, Motorola's sales are only so high because people need to buy replacements all the time :P

Spend your money wisely and go with the Samsung.

[Patriks7 @ Dec 17th 2008 1:41AM]

Hmm.. never knew something can be futuristic and retro at the same time.. AND sci-fi..
BTW @ Engadget.. the majority of the world (i.e the people that don't read Engadget) probably have no idea Motorola might be doing badly and probably won't so soon due to the RAZR or w/e still selling..

[Josh @ Dec 17th 2008 10:40AM]

@who

agreed on the battery issues, moto is crap...the best thing they came out with was the hello moto ad campaign

i've had a nokia, 2 lgs, bb, and iphone and while there weren't all the greatest phones ever, each lasted more than 2 years without problems, my roommate had 3 krazrs that lasted about a month each, and then he went with samsung

[Mehul @ Dec 16th 2008 11:34PM]

Where is the camera??

[PyRo1509 @ Dec 17th 2008 12:13AM]

In your avatar...

[Bill @ Dec 17th 2008 1:25AM]

By god, it is!

[chefgon_ign @ Dec 17th 2008 7:04AM]

PyRo1509 = detective of the day

[soccerpro100cn @ Dec 16th 2008 11:37PM]

too bad none of them will be smart phones, just feature phones. i need motorola or rim to introduce something that evolves touchscreen operating systems so apple will introduce a new iphone with amazing features (and hopefully the basic ones they forgot). and by evolves, i don't mean a stupid clicky sceren, i mean something that will make you say wow. motorola's dumb phone os sucks, so if they did like a cool touch flo 3d thing with new features (all while completely hiding win mo) maybe they will all be successful. and the sidekick like phone, what is with its flat keys? I understand the sleekness and coolness of it, but if your going to add a hardware keypad, at least make it easy enough to text rapid fire on.

[Sofunnytom @ Dec 16th 2008 11:54PM]

If you actually read the article on BGR, you see that the FLASH has a Windows icon on the front, thus symbolizing Winmo (obviously).

[poematik14 @ Dec 16th 2008 11:43PM]

god that phone looks haaaawwwwt

[Orappa @ Dec 16th 2008 11:48PM]

sutter max

[Sketh @ Dec 16th 2008 11:58PM]

Now, these are all just renders, I'm assuming the phone would of course have a camera, as the most basic phones these days do, and also, the form factor seems to be inspired by the AT&T Quickfire (http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/16/atandt-quickfire-gets-reviewed/) but with a slightly less useful keyboard. I for one thought that typing on the Razr was hard enough due to the flush keys only outlined with thin translucent blue lining, but trying to get a qwerty experience out of the same thing? I hope that these concepts.... have room to grow.

That being said, if these are real, I know what my next phone will be. I've been waiting for just this kind of phone on verizon for quite some time.

[wyatt @ Dec 17th 2008 12:12AM]

i know, totally over riced