Motorola Backflip now official, Cliq promised Android 2.1 and Droid Flash 10.1
By Ross Miller 
posted January 6th 2010 9:04PM
posted January 6th 2010 9:04PM
Update: While it should eventually get 2.1, according to the presser, at launch it'll only have Android 1.5 -- bummer. Thanks to chilko for the heads up!
Motorola Globally Introduces BACKFLIP™ with MOTOBLUR™ - Taking Smart in a Whole New Direction
BACKFLIP bends the smart phone rules with a unique reverse flip design and BACKTRACK™ feature for speeding through MOTOBLUR social streams
January 06, 2010
LAS VEGAS - CES - Jan. 6, 2010 – Today Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT) announced the latest addition to its Android™ portfolio: BACKFLIP™ with MOTOBLUR™. The Motorola BACKFLIP, which combines the social saviness and personalization of MOTOBLUR with the multitasking performance of a smart phone, will be available in North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia beginning in Q1 2010. The unique reverse flip design makes it easy to enjoy videos, music and photos, and the QWERTY keyboard allows you to blast through e-mails, texts, news feeds, social network messages and more.
"Since introducing our first MOTOBLUR-based device, we've remained focused on differentiating the Android experience and bringing it to new carrier partners around the globe," said Sanjay Jha, co-CEO of Motorola and CEO of Motorola Mobile Devices. "BACKFLIP maximizes the multi-tasking and multi-functional potential of MOTOBLUR with its unique design elements, making it as smart as it is social."
MOTOBLUR is Motorola's Android-powered content delivery service created to make phones more personal and socially smart. It is the first and only solution to sync contacts, posts, messages, photos and much more-from sources such as Facebook®, MySpace, Twitter, Gmail™, work and personal e-mail, and LastFM-and automatically deliver them to the home screen. Content is fed into easy-to-manage streams allowing you to spend less time managing your life and more time living it.
BACKFLIP is designed around the MOTOBLUR experience and provides multiple features to keep phone conversations moving. Multi-tasking has never been easier with BACKFLIP's reverse-flip QWERTY keyboard and high-res 3.1" HVGA screen-letting you see more and respond faster. Navigate quickly and easily through menus and features with the new and unique BACKTRACK™ feature. BACKTRACK is a touch panel located on the other side of the device, offering you a new way to scroll through-the Web, texts, e-mails and news feeds without obscuring the home screen.
The truly original design allows BACKFLIP to create new ways to enjoy photos, music and more. In the reverse-flip, tabletop mode, listen to music or view videos hands free. The digital picture frame mode lets you show off your latest adventures. You can even turn BACKFLIP into a bedside alarm clock for your morning wake up call.
BACKFLIP comes fully equipped with the MOTOBLUR features you know and love. The full HTML browser on BACKFLIP's 3.1" high-res, touch display will be sure to impress, and, with 3G speed and Wi Fi access, you will never be out of the loop. Android Market™ gives you access to more than 18,000 apps and widgets, so you are free to customize BACKFLIP to your liking. Capture the moment with BACKFLIP's 5 MP camera with flash and easily upload to your favorite photo sharing or social site. Additional extras such as aGPS and stereo Bluetooth1 make BACKFLIP the complete package.
Finally, MOTOBLUR provides end-users with convenience and peace of mind, as lost devices can be located from a secure personal information portal and even remotely erased if necessary. Then, one user name and password brings back your contacts, messages and connectivity to your previously configured networks and email providers.
BACKFLIP with MOTOBLUR will be available in North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia beginning in Q1 2010. For specific regional availability and pricing, contact your local Motorola representative. To experience BACKFLIP, please visit www.motorola.com/backflip.
For more information, product specifications and images of BACKFLIP, please visit Media Center Fact Sheets. For multimedia assets from CES, visit CES 2010 Press Kit. Also follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
Certain features, services and applications are network dependent and may not be available in all areas; additional terms, conditions and/or charges may apply. Contact your service provider for details.
1 This device supports Bluetooth A2DP, HSP, and HFP profiles. For Bluetooth devices to communicate with one another, they must utilize the same Bluetooth profile. To determine the profiles supported by other Motorola devices, visit www.motorola.com/bluetooth. For other devices, contact their respective manufacturer. Certain Bluetooth features including those listed may not be supported by all compatible Bluetooth-enabled devices, and/or the functionality of such features may be limited in certain devices, or by certain wireless carriers. Contact your wireless carrier about feature availability and functionality.
MOTOROLA and the Stylized M Logo are registered in the US Patent & Trademark Office. The Bluetooth trademarks are owned by their proprietor and used by Motorola, Inc. under license. Facebook is a registered trademark of Facebook, Inc. All other product or service names are the property of their respective owners. © 2010 Motorola, Inc. All rights reserved.
About Motorola
Motorola is known around the world for innovation in communications and is focused on advancing the way the world connects. From broadband communications infrastructure, enterprise mobility and public safety solutions to high-definition video and mobile devices, Motorola is leading the next wave of innovations that enable people, enterprises and governments to be more connected and more mobile. Motorola (NYSE: MOT) had sales of US $30.1 billion in 2008. For more information, please visit www.motorola.com.
BACKFLIP bends the smart phone rules with a unique reverse flip design and BACKTRACK™ feature for speeding through MOTOBLUR social streams
January 06, 2010
LAS VEGAS - CES - Jan. 6, 2010 – Today Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT) announced the latest addition to its Android™ portfolio: BACKFLIP™ with MOTOBLUR™. The Motorola BACKFLIP, which combines the social saviness and personalization of MOTOBLUR with the multitasking performance of a smart phone, will be available in North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia beginning in Q1 2010. The unique reverse flip design makes it easy to enjoy videos, music and photos, and the QWERTY keyboard allows you to blast through e-mails, texts, news feeds, social network messages and more.
"Since introducing our first MOTOBLUR-based device, we've remained focused on differentiating the Android experience and bringing it to new carrier partners around the globe," said Sanjay Jha, co-CEO of Motorola and CEO of Motorola Mobile Devices. "BACKFLIP maximizes the multi-tasking and multi-functional potential of MOTOBLUR with its unique design elements, making it as smart as it is social."
MOTOBLUR is Motorola's Android-powered content delivery service created to make phones more personal and socially smart. It is the first and only solution to sync contacts, posts, messages, photos and much more-from sources such as Facebook®, MySpace, Twitter, Gmail™, work and personal e-mail, and LastFM-and automatically deliver them to the home screen. Content is fed into easy-to-manage streams allowing you to spend less time managing your life and more time living it.
BACKFLIP is designed around the MOTOBLUR experience and provides multiple features to keep phone conversations moving. Multi-tasking has never been easier with BACKFLIP's reverse-flip QWERTY keyboard and high-res 3.1" HVGA screen-letting you see more and respond faster. Navigate quickly and easily through menus and features with the new and unique BACKTRACK™ feature. BACKTRACK is a touch panel located on the other side of the device, offering you a new way to scroll through-the Web, texts, e-mails and news feeds without obscuring the home screen.
The truly original design allows BACKFLIP to create new ways to enjoy photos, music and more. In the reverse-flip, tabletop mode, listen to music or view videos hands free. The digital picture frame mode lets you show off your latest adventures. You can even turn BACKFLIP into a bedside alarm clock for your morning wake up call.
BACKFLIP comes fully equipped with the MOTOBLUR features you know and love. The full HTML browser on BACKFLIP's 3.1" high-res, touch display will be sure to impress, and, with 3G speed and Wi Fi access, you will never be out of the loop. Android Market™ gives you access to more than 18,000 apps and widgets, so you are free to customize BACKFLIP to your liking. Capture the moment with BACKFLIP's 5 MP camera with flash and easily upload to your favorite photo sharing or social site. Additional extras such as aGPS and stereo Bluetooth1 make BACKFLIP the complete package.
Finally, MOTOBLUR provides end-users with convenience and peace of mind, as lost devices can be located from a secure personal information portal and even remotely erased if necessary. Then, one user name and password brings back your contacts, messages and connectivity to your previously configured networks and email providers.
BACKFLIP with MOTOBLUR will be available in North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia beginning in Q1 2010. For specific regional availability and pricing, contact your local Motorola representative. To experience BACKFLIP, please visit www.motorola.com/backflip.
For more information, product specifications and images of BACKFLIP, please visit Media Center Fact Sheets. For multimedia assets from CES, visit CES 2010 Press Kit. Also follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
Certain features, services and applications are network dependent and may not be available in all areas; additional terms, conditions and/or charges may apply. Contact your service provider for details.
1 This device supports Bluetooth A2DP, HSP, and HFP profiles. For Bluetooth devices to communicate with one another, they must utilize the same Bluetooth profile. To determine the profiles supported by other Motorola devices, visit www.motorola.com/bluetooth. For other devices, contact their respective manufacturer. Certain Bluetooth features including those listed may not be supported by all compatible Bluetooth-enabled devices, and/or the functionality of such features may be limited in certain devices, or by certain wireless carriers. Contact your wireless carrier about feature availability and functionality.
MOTOROLA and the Stylized M Logo are registered in the US Patent & Trademark Office. The Bluetooth trademarks are owned by their proprietor and used by Motorola, Inc. under license. Facebook is a registered trademark of Facebook, Inc. All other product or service names are the property of their respective owners. © 2010 Motorola, Inc. All rights reserved.
About Motorola
Motorola is known around the world for innovation in communications and is focused on advancing the way the world connects. From broadband communications infrastructure, enterprise mobility and public safety solutions to high-definition video and mobile devices, Motorola is leading the next wave of innovations that enable people, enterprises and governments to be more connected and more mobile. Motorola (NYSE: MOT) had sales of US $30.1 billion in 2008. For more information, please visit www.motorola.com.
Guess it might go to Sprint and/or T-Mobile as well as AT&T?
it looks like an iPhone with a wider earpiece, android, 2 more buttons and a slide-out keyboard.
@RioRyan
so in other words, it doesn't look like an iPhone.
@RioRyan I agree.
It is obviously influenced by the iPhones design. Would it have this design if the iPhone was never made? Ha ha ha. Not a chance
@RioRyan
I thought it looked more like an Audi TT, except with 4 less wheels, no seats, body or interior, a smaller screen and less buttons.
@geoken I thought it looked like a Quiznos sandwhich... But whatever.
You know, minus the lettuce/meat/ etc.
Kidding aside, nice phone. I do like the design.
@geoken This is Engadget, a phone article. Obviously you have wrote a comment on the wrong blog. Autoblog is for cars :) glad to be of service
@RioRyan The press photos have a more iPhone-like earpiece, so I take that part back. I really like the design, I just think that when it's closed it looks like an iPhone with 2 more buttons.
@RioRyan How many really different designs do you want phones to have? There's only so much you can do with a touchscreen and three buttons. You need an earpiece near the top preferably. The screen bezel ideally needs to be around the outside of the screen and ergonomically shaped (i.e. rounded). It's different in a good few ways though.
bleh....
The form factor is rather underwhelming...I still prefer the DROID style.
Very True
i don't like having all the buttons on the keypad exposed. does it come with canned air to clean all the crap out of the keyboard?
Still not too bad if your stuck on At&T.
Well, it wouldnt be Moto if they didnt follow up their amazing and revolutionary product with something stupid and gimmicky...hooray. another 5 years of krave's and backflips....
Considering one of the buttons on the keypad look like the deathstar of AT&T i don't know how much speculation needs to go into it....
I'm sure it's just a browser shortcut. My Sprint Touch Pro2 has a button that looks very similar
@EGOvoruhk Yes, but if you check the specs on the official site, it supports at&t Bands.
Surprised it's not the motobkflp
Backflip? you mean son of Side Kick.
I like how even though they didn't want to say who was getting this phone, you can see an AT&T logo over on the left side of the keyboard, clear as day.
Great job keeping secrets, Moto.
@herki That is a web button as clear as day...
@mikesly Yup. I looked a little more, and realized it was the other round globe-shaped image that you could put on a button.
I guess Moto can keep secrets after all, and be crafty about it at the same time.
form factor is kinda cool, but I think I'd prefer a slider. Anyway, didn't moto get the note on QWERTY's kind of suffering from the flat keys syndrome? They were fine for RAZRs, but I was surprised how terribly inaccurate I was with the phyical qwerty on the Droid. If I'm going to have a hw kb, I'm going to want good tactile feedback, so visual correction is at a minimum level. With keys that flat, it's too easy to press another key and not know it. This phone looks like it's just as flat.
@Levi
Just copy the Touch Pro 2's keyboard, it is the best on any mobile device.
I like the keypad a lot
look who's coming out the closet. cliq's older brother
I'll be overwhelmingly disappointed and will scream my head off if it has that underpowered Qualcomm 528Mhz cpu.
Color me interested, an Android phone that doesn't suck and has a big keyboard landing on AT&T. Finally I can ditch my unlocked CLIQ and surf the nation's fastes...wait. It crashed.
Enough with this blur crap. Just give me the real android experience on AT&T
Wait... Android 2.1 with Motoblur? Does this mean that us poor CLIQ users will finally get a firmware update? Pretty please.
Yah, now I won't have to root my Cliq to get Android 2.1! Where's my update MOTOBLUR???
The real question should be is whether the poor, forgotten Milestone is also going to see any updates, considering Motorola still haven't released a 2.0.1 update for it after the DROID received it a month ago.
it's running Android 1.5
http://mediacenter.motorola.com/Content/detail.aspx?ReleaseID=12252&NewsAreaID=22
I bought the Motorola CLIQ on release date and this is the announcement I've been waiting on for months! I don't even care about the ambiguous 1st quarter timeline as long as I know my phone hasn't been abandoned. I just hope they really take the time and iron out the numerous infuriatingly annoying quirks about this phone and some speed optimizations.
and in other news, the RIM is still chugging along with the intent of making a usable browser in 2010. This, along with other improvements, will bring RIM into the year 2000 in grand style.
Will the Milestone get 2.1 and Flash 10.1?
@toocou I think the question should be "Will the milestone get an update ever?" Apparently so but we don't know what to. They'd probably upgrade it to 1.6 from 2.0 just to take the piss.
There they go again...
"So hey, there's something you can really look forward to."
How 'bout instead of, "WOW! Check out this latest (in a long, long, boring) line of iPod docks!!", you try, "Hey, check it out! Someone other than the N900 has Flash! Cool!"
Even if you don't like Flash, trying to make the internet a seamless "user experience" is what it's always been about. How many reviews are done on mobile browsers and how close they're getting to their desktop cousins. BlackBerry is always lambasted for having an inferior experience. But, if all I want is text and minimal graphics on my webpages on my phone, I'll use a BB. However, most people aren't looking for a mobile experience, they want the full web.
Kudos to companies making it happen.
Great, now you can have a phone with a keyboard on it's back that will get scratched to hell.
1.5... seriously? Can't we please just have the Milestone?
But, it appears it will have a front facing camera. Skype anyone?
So it has the drawbacks of a flip phone (moving parts), but couples them with the drawbacks of a candy-bar phone (exposed screen and keyboard).
Why...
AT&T: I want an Android phone, but not this Android phone!
what about Milestone in AT&T?????
Milestone to At&t
this phone is way better than the droid and better then nexus tried both phones n motorola cliq is still the best the moto blur is kool