• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, October 12, 2007

Motorola's marketing message to consumers this holiday season focuses on fun, music and entertainment. The Schaumberg, Ill.-based wireless handset maker Thursday released the U9 and the special-edition Razr2, along with new additions to the W series handsets. The phones aim to make music and entertainment "a multi-sensory experience" that lets consumers rock out and look good.

The U9 offers stereo Bluetooth, CrystalTalk Technology for better call clarity, external touch-sensitive music controls, and animated screensavers that appear on the external display. It also has one-touch transition from phone to music and back again, along with controls that pause the tunes as calls come through.

Microsoft Windows Media Player 11 makes the U9 ready to use directly out of the box. The phone supports up to 25MB of memory on the device, along with an optional microSD memory card that enables storage of 4GB of music, pictures and other media. A 2.0 megapixel with 8x zoom camera, multi-shot feature, video capture and playback, and light and landscape viewfinder delivers quality, printable and sharable images are features, too.

Motorola chose Grammy-winning artist Fergie to promote the U9 to emphasize the edgy style and expressive qualities. In select markets through an exclusive agreement with the recording artist, Motorola will provide music content on the phone, promotional activities in major cities, and TV and print ad campaigns. The phone should go on sale throughout Asia, Europe and Latin America this month.

Mark Sue, RBC Capital Markets director and research analyst, calls 2007 a challenging year for Motorola and says the company needs more innovation to catch up with Apple and Nokia. "We've seen some marketing messages resonate with consumers, but in North America we need Motorola do more joint-marketing with carriers; for example, Verizon and AT&T," he says. "So far, the big marketing push has been solely by Motorola."

In the past year and a half, Motorola has been losing market share to rivals Apple, Nokia and Samsung--although demand for phones worldwide has increased. Sue admits that Motorola's market share has picked up a bit, and believes some of the new phones consumers got a look at this week should boost sales.

Along with the U9, Motorola launched a special edition of the new Razr2. The phone, bathed in gold and imitation snakeskin, comes with a Bluetooth headset and 18k gold-plated accents. It includes touch-sensitive music controls, picture caller ID, album art and self-portrait camera display.

Razr2 gives consumers up to 2GB of storage to archive about 1,000 songs, and the ability to download the latest music from more than 200 music stores onto the device from a PC using USB 2.0 for speedy transfers and data access. A 2.0 megapixel camera with 8x digital zoom records the moment with high-resolution pictures and also provides up to 2 hours of video capture and playback.

Motorola will market its W series of phones to the everyday communicator, the consumer who wants a reliable phone with mobile entertainment features.

For instance, the W377 has an integrated FM radio and MP3 ringtones so users can personalize their mobile music experience. This handset also features an integrated VGA camera, Bluetooth wireless technology. It also comes preloaded with popular video games.