Meet Motorola’s CLIQ

The new phone promises networking excitement, but can it pull it off on a three-inch screen?

Meet Motorola's CLIQ

The new phone promises networking excitement, but can it pull it off on a three-inch screen?

Name a phone CLIQ and you can be sure that journalists will write articles that have headlines like 'Why the CLIQ will click', and this is the main reason why we will not ask the question.

But major publications in the world have already done so. Saul Hansell, writing for the NYT, says that "The Motorola Cliq is a provocative telephone, and that's the best thing about it." Tony Bradley, writing for PC World, says "Integrating information from various messaging and social networking sources into a single interface is a great idea, but it is hard to pull off on a 3-inch screen."

>> Will social networking succeed? This is critical because this phone revolves around social networking. While social networking has attracted thousands around the globe, ultimately, it will succeed only if it is sustainable from a revenue standpoint. Here, there is some reason to cheeru2014comScore in September 2009 says that social networking sites accounted for more than 20 percent of all display ads viewed online, with MySpace and Facebook combining to deliver more than 80 percent of ads among sites in the social networking category.

>> Do people need a phone to do this? This is a dicey question. A lot of people tend to look at the phone as a method for voice communications, preferring the PC to do stuff like mail. But this said, many want to access everything on the go, and this is one reason why the CLIQ may have some takers.

>> What impact will it have on Motorola? If one looks at the most recent quarter (April - June 2009), then Motorola is in bad shape. It commands less than 6 per cent market share, and with the exception of Sony Ericsson, has the lowest market share of the lot. Among losers it is the biggest one, having lost a staggering 47 per cent market share over the past year. This is a do-or-die situation for Motorola.

Consider this

Desperation could be seen as the father of genius, and Motorola has every right to feel troubled. In some ways, while Android will give CLIQ a boost, MOTOBLUR could also make a big difference. This is because MOTOBLUR (according to Motorola's press release) is said to manage and integrate communications, from work e-mail to social networking activity. A video of MOTOBLUR on Motorola's site says that it allows users to manage all their various social networking sites from one point, thereby saving time.

Motorola is probably hoping that, just as you buy a PC to compute and a mobile to communicate, you will buy the CLIQ to network. And though we won't ask 'Will CLIQ click?' many at Motorola will be praying that it will.

How they stack up

Vendor	2008	2009	Change
Nokia	40.40	38.30	-15.40
Samsung	15.20	19.40	14.20
LG Electronics	9.30	11.10	6.00
Motorola	9.20	5.50	-47.00
Sony Ericsson	8.10	5.10	-43.40
Others	17.90	20.70	3.10
Total	100.00	100.00	-10.80

Source: IDC Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, July 30, 2009; figures in per cent ages; data given for Q2 (AMJ quarter)

Tech specs
>> Social Messaging Service: MOTOBLUR
>> Operating System: Android v1.5
>> Physical Resolution: 320 x 480
>> Number of Colours: 64K - 262K
>> Camera Resolution: 5MP
>> Image Capture Resolution: 2560 x 1920
>> RAM: 256 MB
>> Flash ROM: 512 MB
>> User Storage Available: 256 MB
Source: motorola.com

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