In the summer of 2007, Motorola will release four new high-end cell phones, each with its own distinct focus. The Motorola RAZR2 aims towards style-conscious users, while the ROKR appeals to music aficionados, and the Moto Q 9 to cell phone users who are passionate about messaging and enterprise software. Perhaps the most impressive of these four Motorola offerings, however, is the Z8, a self-styled "multimedia monster" intended to bring an unprecedented level of mobile entertainment to the cell phone.
The Moto Z8: Breaking the Multimedia Curse
In terms of its promise, the Moto Z8 has a lot to live up to. Previous attempts to bring all-in-one devices to the marketplace have often met with mixed success, especially when gaming enters the picture. Nokias regrettable N-Gage, for example, promised an integration of gaming and multimedia with the traditional features of a cell phone, but was a critical and financial disappointment -- although it continues to be sold in Asia, the N-Gage is no longer available in the United States. Motorola, however, seems determined to learn from Nokias mistakes, aiming the Moto Z8 squarely towards the mobile gamer and multimedia enthusiast with a tighter focus and a powerful suite of features, designed to integrate music, video, blogging and photos in one slick package. (And, as an added bonus, it also happens to be a cell phone.)
Moto Video
Everything in the Moto Z8s design is geared towards heavy multimedia use. The Moto Z8s vivid 16-million-color TFT screen can display video in portrait or landscape mode, making it ideal for gaming, Internet use, or watching movies. To show off the Moto Z8s powerful multimedia features, Motorola is shipping the cell phone with a full-length copy of the feature film The Bourne Identity, presumably to wet users whistles for more movies-on-the-go. Fortunately for them, the Moto Z8s high-speed Internet access will make it easy to get ones hands on more media, as the cell phone comes equipped with a blistering 3.6 Mpbs broadband download rate. In addition, Motorola is smartly capitalizing on the burgeoning mobile TV market, as they estimate having close to half a billion subscribers by 2010. As such, the Moto Z8 has a big screen for downloading mobile TV services to the tune of 30 TV channels, including content from CNN and BSkyB, as well as other news, entertainment and sports channels.
For the mobile gaming enthusiast, the Moto Z8 will also come shipped with a mobile demo of EA Sports Bigs fast-paced snowboarding game "SSX3," with a promise of more Electronic Arts titles to come. Like The Bourne Identity, the inclusion of SSX3 seems intended to get users excited for what will no doubt be a great deal more content to come.
Storing all this high-resolution media goodness, of course, will take a lot of memory, and the Moto Z8 delivers on that front as well. The Moto Z8 comes with 80 MB of internal user memory, promising expandability up to a whopping 32 GB with a high-density microSD memory card. To give a rough example of just how much media that is; a modern 4 GB card can store about twelve full-length movies or 70 hours of music, meaning that at the top end, the Moto Z8 could potentially store 96 full-length movies, a dizzying 560 hours of music, or some combination of both, making it a serious contender for any cell phone or multimedia device currently on the market.
The Moto Z8s Mobile Lifestyle
Although intensely focused on multimedia, the Moto Z8 has plenty to offer any cell phone user. Keeping up with the demands of an increasingly mobile lifestyle, the Moto Z8s onboard camera can take photos or record video, and the Moto Z8s software allows one-click picture and video sharing, promising easy integration with Flickr, MySpace, YouTube, and other social networking sites. The Motorola Moto Z8 also comes with Bluetooth, of course, and a set of MOTOROKR S9 wireless stereo headphones for your listening enjoyment. Finally, in case movies on-the-go arent your thing, the Moto Z8 will come with easy access to Podcast.com, allowing customers to easily download audio or video podcasts directly to their cell phone.
Though it remains to be seen whether the market is really ready for full-length movies and high-end gaming on a cell phone, it sounds as though well soon find out. The Moto Z8s tightly focused design and impressive features may mean that the multimedia cell phone has finally "arrived." The Moto Z8 will be available for purchase in Europe and Asia this June, with availability Stateside coming soon thereafter.
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