Motorola is hoping smartphone consumers will flip out over its latest wireless handset. The company’s newest device in its Android-powered comeback is the FlipOut.
The FlipOut is a small, square phone that centers on individualism. The device offers up to seven customizable home screens, live wallpapers and enhanced security for Exchange Server users. The FlipOut is available in licorice, fairway green, raspberry crush, brilliant blue, poppy red, saffron and white.
Running on Android 2.1, the FlipOut’s design opens to reveal a five-row QWERTY keypad with a separate row for numeric keys. With amped-up MOTOBLUR features, Motorola says the FlipOut makes it easier for users to follow who and what matters to them on popular social networks.
A Polarizing Design
When analyst Avi Greengart of Current Analysis thinks of the FlipOut, he’s reminded of Motorola’s Backflip, which offers what he calls a similarly interesting form factor.
“The Backflip’s form factor does help the phone stand out at retail. It’s a different-looking kind of phone than everything else out there,” Greengart said. “So polarizing form factors like this one are sometimes good. If you are polarized, that means some people hate it and some people love it. It’s not vanilla.”
The FlipOut offers multi-touch pinch and zoom for web and photo browsing, as well as a connected media player with full-screen lyric support, integrated song ID, and a social solution so users know what other people are listening to.
The new device also comes equipped with a three-megapixel camera with digital zoom and a gallery mode for tagging and labeling photos. FlipOut users get one-touch uploads to Facebook, MySpace, Picasa and Photobucket.
Updating MOTOBLUR
When Motorola launched MOTOBLUR, its take on the Android experience, the company hailed it as a major competitive differentiator. Now the company is making improvements. Greengart said it was time for an upgrade…