Verizon Will Offer Android-Powered Motorola Devour

Verizon Wireless said Wednesday that it will launch another Android-based smartphone from Motorola next month. The Motorola Devour will be the first phone on Verizon's national network to feature MOTOBLUR -- an application and service suite that provides users with dynamically pushed Internet content via a unique user interface.

The unveiling of the Motorola Devour is the latest sign that the struggling handset maker will continue to fiercely contend for a sizable slice of the lucrative smartphone market. Motorola's first Android smartphones -- the Droid and the CLIQ -- have been "very well received by consumers, resulting in shipments of two million smartphones in the fourth quarter to more than 20 countries," Motorola co-CEO Sanjay Jha told investors last month.

Gartner analysts argue that the majority of Motorola's smartphone sales were Droids, and a good indication that Android helped boost the company's performance in the quarter. "What I would say, though, is that considering the tremendous push from Verizon, those results are somewhat underwhelming," said Gartner Research Director Carolina Milanesi.

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Sporting a touch-sensitive navigation pad and 3.1-inch capacitive touchscreen, the Motorola Devour integrates a slide-out QWERTY keyboard; Bluetooth, GPS and Wi-Fi radios; a USB 2.0 port and DLNA interface for wirelessly sharing content with other compatible devices; and a motion-sensing accelerometer. The new handset, which ships with an 8GB microSD card, also offers support for to 32GB of storage.

On the software side, the Devour integrates an Android-based web browser featuring Adobe's Flash Lite player. Other preloaded applications include Gmail, Google Search, Google Talk, and YouTube, together with Google Maps and Google Maps Navigation. Additionally, users will be able to select and choose from among the 20,000 applications available at the Android Market.

Featuring an extruded aluminum case, the 5.89-ounce Motorola Devour integrates a native music player. According...