comScore released data from the comScore MobiLens service, reporting key trends in the U.S. mobile phone industry during the three month period between October 2009 and January 2010.

The report found Motorola to be the top handset manufacturer overall with 22.9 percent market share, while RIM led among smartphone platforms with 43.0 percent market share.

Motorola announced a global alliance with Microsoft to deploy Bing services on Motorola devices powered by Android. This new offering, launching in China on smartphones in Q1, will provide consumers a choice when using search and map functions on their Android-based devices.

A recent Motorola Enterprise Mobility Solutions annual research study of holiday shoppers identified that more than half (51 percent) of consumers across 11 countries used their mobile phones for in-store activities such as comparison shopping and getting peer feedback, product information and coupons.

Motorola's analysts think it signals the increasing importance for retailers to adopt mobile shopper technology strategies to remain competitive.

The FCC has revealed the currently unannounced Motorola i680 rugged clamshell.

The phone features multimedia functionality such as a media player, 2.0 megapixel camera with video recorder and flash, microSDHC expansion slot, Bluetooth, Push to X functionality, GPS and speakerphone.

The phone’s bodyshell is also M810F certified against shock, vibration and dust. Neither Sprint nor Motorola have announced the phone as of yet.

“Android provides differentiation today, but may not tomorrow,” says recent Canalys report on Motorola’s market strategy.

During its Q3 earnings call on 29 October, Motorola’s Co-CEO Sanjay Jha announced the company’s quarterly profit of $12 million, up from a $397 million loss a year ago.

Canalys claims the quick rollout of DROID following the CLIQ demonstrates that the company is moving in the right direction, having suffered from portfolio stagnation following the earlier tremendous success of the RAZR.

It is now official and will completely change the mobile and PND navigation market. Google announced Google Maps Navigation for Android 2.0 devices.

It comes with 3D views, turn-by-turn voice guidance and automatic rerouting, but unlike most navigation systems, the Navigation was built from the ground up to take advantage of the phone's internet connection, as Google claims.

The first phone to have Google Maps Navigation is Motorola’s Droid. It hits the U.S. market next week (Nov. 6th) for $199 on contract.

“Your entire social life now in a single streem!” – announced Motorola at GigaOM’s Mobilize ‘09 conference, unveiling the company’s first Android phone, “the first phone with social skills”. But all that buzz was not much about the new device, it was more about the new innovative interface solution.

Developed by Motorola, MOTOBLUR is a solution that manages and integrates communications: it syncs contacts, posts, messages, photos, etc. - from sources such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Gmail, e-mail - and automatically delivers it to live widgets on the home screen. There is no need to open and close different applications or menus.

Mark your calendars, because September 10th will see a huge announcement regarding Motorola's unveiling of their own Android phone line.

Sholes will be a high end phone focusing on the professional power user focusing on high processing speeds and a 5 megapixel camera. Morrison will be a more economically based Android phone which will end up on the T-Mobile network and support 3G.

Blockbuster, a provider of in-home movie and game entertainment, announced plans to feature the BLOCKBUSTER OnDemand movie download service in select Motorola phones. Through the agreement next generation Motorola phones will feature the OnDemand application, providing on-the-go download access to Blockbuster's digital library of current movies.

Motorola announced successful completion of its joint Over-the-Air (OTA) trial with operators as part of the collaborative Time Division Duplex Long-Term Evolution (TD-LTE) commercialization.

The FCC has revealed the first images of the forthcoming Motorola i856 slider. The i856 features a 1.3 megapixel camera with video recorder, microSDHC expansion slot, microUSB port, dedicated media player key, 3.5mm headphone jack, Bluetooth,...

(Continue reading at the link above, or visit PhoneNews.com directly)

Boost Mobile has officially launched the Motorola Clutch i465 messaging device.

The Clutch features a portait display, QWERTY keyboard, speakerphone, VGA camera, MMS support, email client, Bluetooth, and threaded SMS support along with the distinction of M810 Mil-Spec certification for dust, vibration and harsh enviroment longevity.

The phone is now available for $129.99 from Boost Mobile online and via retail stores and dealers.

Numerous blog posts in the last 24 hours indicated that Google gave away a HTC Magic, the Tmobile G2, to developers who attended the Google I/O Conference this week. Digging thru the posts, I ended up reading through the Android Developer Challenge and indeed saw a sentence indicating that all attendees would receive a device.

Interesting ploy by Google.

Interesting that Apple, of course, did nothing of the sort when ramping up for the App Store launch, or since.But, Apple has a device where Google does not, more importantly has an exclusive contract with AT&T, and thus has far more control over the number of devices in the hands of consumers. Google, beholden to OEMS such as HTC and Motorola and carriers like TMobile, thus lacks the ability to have qidespread use of its application marketplace. So, keep the engine humming with give aways (assuming their adwords/adsense revenue continues to be able to fund every other business unit :)

Motorola has officially announced the Motorola i465 iDEN messaging and multimedia device, which is now branded as the Clutch. The Clutch features a portait display, QWERTY keyboard, speakerphone, VGA camera, MMS support, email client, Bluetooth, and...

(Continue reading at the link above, or visit PhoneNews.com directly)

Motorola has launched a product page for the forthcoming i9 Stature detailing features and specifications along with a registration page for more information via email.

This follows up the joint announcement made earlier this week detailing launch and pricing information for Sprint and Boost Mobile.

Motorola is considering reducing the workforce in its mobile devices group by as much as 50 per cent.
The company is reportedly set to start major layoffs this week that would reduce staff levels by half and is said to be dramatically scaling back its phone development as a whole.

Happy New year everyone! 2009 is already shaping up to be a great year in the Smartphone world. As every company not named Apple is gearing up for application store sales, I bring you my list of 10 predictions. And these predictions are very mild, not earth shattering. Basically, realistic predictions that I can brag about in one year.

1. Palm will release a new OS meant for a super slick new device: a Palm touch screen iPhone killer
2. The Blackberry Storm will miss all projected sales numbers
3. Apple will add cut, copy & paste to the iPhone
4. Microsoft will continue to have little presence in the Smartphone world
5. HTC will solidify itself as the top Smartphone OEM for Android and Windows Mobile, and represent the only true competitor to the iPhone
   
6. Motorola will fail to launch a successful Android based smartphone
7. Samsung will launch a successful Android based smartphone
8. Rumors will be flying about iPhone Nanos and sliders again this time next year
9. The Android Market will have no more than 20% of the sales action of the Apple App Store
10. RIM (Blackberry) and Apple (iPhone) will end 2009 as the top two sellers of Smartphones (repeat of 2008)

Good luck on all your 2009 resolutions.

Motorola [NYSE:MOT] is apparently dropping its support of the Symbian operating system and all of its internal engineering resources will be redirected at a revamped lineup featuring 3 operating systems: Windows Mobile for the smartphone lineup, Motorola's home-grown OS for all 'dumb' devices and finally Android for brand new multimedia (superphone?) devices launching in 2009.

Motorola has been struggling to survive in the mobile phone manufacturing business. After numerous attempts to keep momentum flowing following the ridiculous success of the RAZR phone (still the #1 phone in the U.S.), Moto has fallen flat in the race to have the best Smartphone. The Q series has never had a huge impact, and it falls short in most areas when lined up against the Blackberry models (and even Palm). With Samsung, LG, Sony and Nokia sucking air out of its efforts, it looks like Moto should either reenter with something earth-shattering (hello Moto, why not release the real iPhone killer based on Android??) or sell off its phone business all together.

HTC is is quickly (and quietly) becoming the dominant Smartphone OEM in the US marketplace, taking off where at the interesection where Moto is waiting to figure out its next moves. I, for one, have been a long time fan of Motorola, having been a real Timeport fan, and would be sad if they went away.

Motorola is to discontinue making phones for Symbian and will instead concentrate on two new platforms: Windows Mobile and Android.
Sanjay Jha, CEO of the Mobile Devices group at Motorola, confirmed what had until now been rumors to Michael Oryl of MobileBurn.

Apple's iPhone has overtaken Motorola's Razr to become the best-selling consumer cellphone in the US in the third quarter of 2008.
The iPhone's success is all the more impressive considering it costs upwards of USD $199, while the RAZR has been virtually free with a signed contract for the past few years.

Motorola has announced the pending availability and current presale of the most expensive example of the manufacturer’s R&D experience.

The Motorola AURA is the spiritual successor to the venerable V70 first introduced in 2002 on T-Mobile and AT&T (Cingular) but adds a spate of new features and improvements over the older model.

The phone features a swiveling cover finished off in mirror-finish stainless steel that features a Swiss-manufactured main bearing in concert with hardened gears and ball bearings, on top of a sapphire crystal lens.

The complete featureset for the phone includes a 300 dpi 16 million color display, quadband GSM/EDGE, CrystalTalk noise reduction, speakerphone, Bluetooth with stereo audio support, microSDHC expansion slot, media player, 2.0 megapixel camera with video recorder, email client, and unnamed HTML browser.

The phone is now available for pre-order ahead of its December 4th worldwide release for the princely sum of $1,999.99.

Pre-Order the Motorola AURA from MOTOSTORE

Motorola and Verizon today announced the VU30 “Rapture,” and VU204 handsets that should both be available on October 14th.

The VU30 Rapture is a clamshell with a touch-sensitive external display to aid in controlling V CAST Music with Rhapsody supported by Verizon.  The device also features a 2MP camera with a dedicated shutter button, expandable memory of up to 8 GB via microSD, and support for VZ Navigator.

The VU204 is a similar clamshell that features a VGA camera with 4x digital zoom with dedicated camera key, as well as stereo Bluetooth, Verizon’s Media Center and VZ Navigator service support.

The VU30 will be available for $129.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate with a two-year agreement, while the VU204 will be available for $29.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate and two-year agreement.

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Target has broken the information embargo on the Motorola i776, posting a complete product page for the Boost Mobile offering of the device. While short on the specifications, it does offer the first official pictures for the phone.

Target.com Electronics - To find the product page, type B001DE4BF2 into the search box on the resulting page…

The US smartphone market grew 67.3 per cent in the first half of 2008 with RIM’s Blackberry the firm leader with nearly half of all sales.
However, even with Q2 shipments dropping in anticipation of the new 3G iPhone, Apple retained the second place spot for the first half of the year with Motorola a close third.

Motorola has sued a former executive for allegedly violating a non-compete agreement and threatening to reveal its trade secrets by taking a job with Apple’s iPhone division, the mobile phone maker said in a lawsuit.
Michael Fenger accepted “millions of dollars in cash, restricted stock units, and stock options” in exchange for agreeing not to join a competitor for two years after leaving Motorola, where he oversaw mobile devices in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, the lawsuit said.

The Apple 3G iPhone will change the mobile behaviour of users and alter consumer expectations for phone capabilities.
That’s according to a report by analysts Nielsen Mobile which looks at the worldwide state of the mobile web.
The study says that its growth is due to a combination of increasing numbers of user friendly handsets, higher speed networks and unlimited data packages.
It then goes on to describe the mobile web as having reached a “critical mass” of users this year.
But it singles out the iPhone – despite being the second most popular device among mobile users in the US after Motorola’s RAZR – for special mention.

South Korean regulations requiring handset applications to be based on a homegrown technology are largely why the country’s mobile phone market is dominated by Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics.
As a result of the WIPI ruling – the acronym stands for wireless internet platform for interoperability - foreign companies have found it too expensive to produce handsets tailored for South Korean consumers.
Nokia is virtually absent in the country and Motorola is a minor competitor with less than 5 per cent of the market. Apple has kept its iPhone out of the market because of the WIPI rule.
Yet international handset makers are keen to enter South Korea, one of the world’s most technologically advanced and expensive telecoms markets.
Now President Lee Myung-bak’s newly elected government has expressed a willingness to soften the WIPI rule, potentially opening the door to foreign handset makers.

In today’s press release, Motorola and Kodak have announced the 5MP MOTOZINE ZN5 making it the first device in the MOTOZINE series which, like the N-Series, will consist of multimedia focused devices.

According to Motorola, the ZN5 has one of the fastest click-to-click times available. The 5MP camera on the phone is complimented by the Xenon flash, auto focus and an external memory supporting up to 4GB microSD card. The 5MP camera has Kodak’s Imaging Technology built in and when combined with the Perfect Touch Technology, the pictures come out brighter and more vivid.

Photos can be uploaded to KodakGallery.com by a simple click and through ShoZu, one can upload photos to various social networking sites. Kodak’s EasyShare software makes it a breeze to edit, find and store pictures. The phone itself consists of Bluetooth, WiFi, Motorola’s CrystalTalk Technology, Class 12 Edge, 850/900/1800/1900 MHz for GSM, TV out, Windows Media Player and a HTML browser.

The phone will first be launched in China in July and will be available in other markets later this year.