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Between the Lines

Larry Dignan, Andrew Nusca and Rachel King

CES: Motorola looks to bridge PC, smartphone experiences with new product lineup

By | January 5, 2011, 5:38pm PST

Summary: LAS VEGAS - Motorola Mobility has raised the bar on mobile computing, announcing four new Android-based products during a presentation at the Consumer Electronics Show today. The company showcased three new smartphones - the Atrix 4G for AT&T, the Cliq 2 with MotoBlur for T-Mobile and the Droid Bionic for Verizon Wireless. Each of the devices [...]

CES 2011

LAS VEGAS - Motorola Mobility has raised the bar on mobile computing, announcing four new Android-based products during a presentation at the Consumer Electronics Show today. The company showcased three new smartphones - the Atrix 4G for AT&T, the Cliq 2 with MotoBlur for T-Mobile and the Droid Bionic for Verizon Wireless.

Each of the devices is a potential game changer, not necessarily because they’re the latest and greatest in smartphones but more because the company seems to have listened to consumers about what the features, the tools and the specs they’re looking for these days. “Innovation is the key to differentiating ourselves,” he told a standing room only crowd at the company’s late afternoon press conference here.

Sure, we still refer to these devices as “phones,” but company Chairman and CEO Sanjay Jha repeatedly referred to them as devices for mobile computing.

That’s probably a better description, seeing how the key features being played up were the advanced features such as 1080p HD video, HDMI outputs, dual core processors for improved multi-tasking and most importantly, a powerful and secure platform for enterprise applications.

Most impressive was the Atrix, which is compatible with a laptop dock station that turns the phone into an actual laptop computer. During the demo, the phone was attached to the rear of this laptop - which has no on-board processor, memory or hard drive but does include a full keyboard and display - and magically transformed into a full laptop experience. He said:

This is like nothing you’ve seen before… the integration between smartphone and computing environment is one in the same.

Jha wrapped up his presentation with the introduction of a fourth product - a 4G tablet computer called Xoom, which will run on Google’s Android 3.0 operating system, known as Honeycomb. The company was quick to acknowledge that the tablet, as well as Honeycomb, aren’t quite ready yet (which means we won’t have a hands-on experience at the Motorola booth on the expo floor later this week.)

The company offered a peek at what the Xoom will look like via a nicely produced video. And while it looks promising, it’s hard to give a thumbs up or thumbs down to a product we can’t touch and tap yet - just like the announced launch of Research in Motion’s Playbook tablet. Still, calling it “our most competitive device in the marketplace,” he said it will be available as a 3G product in the first quarter and upgradable to 4G in the second quarter.

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Sam has been a technology and business blogger for more than 18 years.

Disclosure

Sam Diaz

Sam Diaz has nothing to disclose.

Biography

Sam Diaz

Sam has been a technology and business blogger, reporter and editor at ZDNet, the Washington Post, San Jose Mercury News and Fresno Bee for more than 18 years. He's a member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and a graduate of California State University, Fresno.

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really interesting!!!!!!!!!
AnujGupta01 6th Jan 2011
Would like to see this device in the market soon ... just want to own one computing device and get rid of the all the wires around them.
expect it to do more that just a docking device .. connect wirelessly to HD TV, Home theatre, car entertainment system, video calling, etc ...
and hope it has a good battery life as well..
dont care what OS is works on .. must be easy to use, loads of apps, and easy to upgrade.
with Windows 7!!!!!!!!!!!!!
charging pad and WiDi so I could just lay my phone on the pad on the desk beside me and not have to put it in a retarded hw dock.
just connect via a cable.

But, this is still a first in computing.
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Atrix is a game changer
Uralbas 5th Jan 2011
companies will have to buy just the keyboard and the monitor, you do the same at home. At VMs to the mix, and your phone will be your laptop as much as your phone as your personal laptop.

That is the future, and that is a game changer

First with Android, Apple forgot to bring this one to the table.

Kudos to Motorola on this one. This is the future and its a real game changer.
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this isn't for charging
dgurney Updated - 6th Jan 2011
It's for using the processor in the phone and adding a bigger display and keyboard. RTFA.

And a single cable isn't going to do it, because there are numerous I/O lines needed here. You have the keyboard and then you have the video output to the monitor.

That dock doesn't look all that secure, though.

This is the first interesting thing seen from Motorola in at least a decade. Too bad they dragged their ass so long in jumping on Android.
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@james347
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Don't respond to retards.
dgurney 6th Jan 2011
Anyone who ever thought "FAIL" was clever, let alone is still using it, doesn't really have the mental power to carry on a conversation or deliver insight.
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We're sooo sorry you failed. Don't try again. Thanks.
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Palm had something like this something like 2 years ago. This isn't not a new or innovative technology. It basically is a hardware update to a concept that has been around for a while now. Palm didn't have the dual-core hardware and the application store to attract customers but they did have a working model out for this type of computing.
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really interesting!!!!!!!!!
AnujGupta01 6th Jan 2011
Would like to see this device in the market soon ... just want to own one computing device and get rid of the all the wires around them.
expect it to do more that just a docking device .. connect wirelessly to HD TV, Home theatre, car entertainment system, video calling, etc ...
and hope it has a good battery life as well..
dont care what OS is works on .. must be easy to use, loads of apps, and easy to upgrade.

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