On the razr edge of cool

With the launch of five new products, Motorola has gone high fashion.

The wildly successful MotoRAZR cellphone, which sold 50 million units worldwide, was the height of techno cool, but with two new cellphone designs (plus matching wireless headsets), Moto has gone deep into accessory territory, with jewel-like finishes, tattoo graphics, and a clutch of functions that’ll make you want to carry these phones everywhere.

Another thing: ever since the RAZR’s success, the launch of each new Motorola product is surrounded by the secrecy of a James Bond mission.

The assignment? Go to Cape Town, South Africa. The targets: the Canary and the Capri. The meeting place: Resolution.

Did the code names Canary and Capri refer to David Beckham and Bono, who recently launched the telecom giant’s anti-AIDS Red campaign? Moto wouldn’t say, of course.

After flying 15 hours via Singapore and Johannesberg, I arrived in wintry Cape Town. "Winter" in South Africa is definitely on the mild side – there are a lot of gray, foggy days, but no snow unless you’re high on a mountaintop. And Cape Town certainly has its mountaintop. Dominating the skyline of what would otherwise be a typical modern European city is Table Mountain, a granite monolith with a flat top that forms a stunning natural backdrop.

After ingesting copious amounts of spicy Cape Malay food to fight off the jetlag, on the big day, we were driven to Camps Bay, on the other side of Table Mountain. Camps Bay is Cape Town’s affluent version of Italy’s Amalfi Coast or the French Riviera, with clifftop houses facing the sea in front and the spectacular Twelve Apostles mountains in back.

Resolution turned out to be a $5-million white modernist house used by a wealthy British gent as his second home – not the typical convention center used for product launches, but then Motorola does few things by the book.

Tellingly, Moto chose South Africa to make their announcement because their potential "next billion" cellphone subscribers could very well come from Africa alone, and they chose Cape Town in particular because it’s emerging as a new design capital. When we arrive, Fashion Week has just concluded, and there’s jubilation in the air: Nelson Mandela – South Africa’s first black president – is celebrating his 88th birthday, and Cape Town was recently selected to host the 2010 World Cup.

"We’re in Africa because it’s very important to us – it’s a massive continent of a billion people, a lot who’ve never made a phone call," says Neil Stewart, Moto’s marketing director of high-growth markets, "and we’re in Cape Town because it’s a place that’s reinventing itself as a center of fashion, design, and style."

Moto gave the hundred or so journalists from all over the world a taste of that style by furnishing the mansion with art from the Cape Town Gallery. Amid rock cushions by Ronel Jordaan, zebra and impala light sculptures by Michael Methven and Zimbabwean Batonga stools by Design Afrika, Jim Wicks, Motorola’s head of global design, finally unveiled the mysterious Canary and Capri – the new MotoKRZR and MotoRIZR cell phones. Judging by these two products, which ride an industry-wide trend that says a phone isn’t just a phone anymore, but a lifestyle accessory and object of self-expression, all the secrecy wasn’t for naught.

In the cellphone wars, where nearly every mobile device has a digital camera, MP3 player and video capture, the battle will be won by design. Moto knows this, and in its brave new world of design, a phone can never be too rich or too thin.

Building on the innovative (if vowel-challenged) legacy of the RAZR is the KRZR (pronounced "crazer"), a clamshell handset that takes the best of the PEBL and RAZR designs and combines them into one product. The KRZR will come in three varieties: a quad-band GSM model, an American CDMA model and an Asian CDMA for Korea and China.

The GSM model features a high-resolution 2.0 megapixel camera, stereo Bluetooth audio, an updated phone directory and new messaging applications. While both the KRZR and RIZR offer integrated music players and expandable memory up to 1 GB, the CDMA KRZR has dedicated external music keys and 3G high-speed data access.

As thin as the RAZR, the KRZR is even narrower, with over a centimeter shaved off its width to make it easier to grip. The soft-touch feel on the back of the phone was inspired by the PEBL, with a near-ceramic finish that makes it non-slip. The warm, organic feel of the back is a direct contrast to the front, which is covered in a solid piece of vacuum-metallized glass through which you can see Moto’s external display. Colored a deep sapphire blue, this glossy surface is as reflective as a mirror or a pair of aviator shades, and whoa, are those tiny jewels studding the hinges?

"The innovative finishes on the outside have never been seen at this level on mobile devices," says Wicks. "People love the RAZR, but they also wanted to see a little bit better fit to their hand, something a bit narrower.

We wanted to create something more human, something that references other objects in your life, like cosmetics, sunglasses, fine jewelry – things that have a whole different kind of finish and feel to it. It inspired us to get to the slim, narrow, highly reflective feel that resonates with other products that are close to you, in your handbag, on your shelves, in the home."

Everyone who sees the KRZR says it looks like jewelry, and shutting the clamshell emits the same satisfying sound as the click of a 24K cosmetics compact or the slam of an expensive car door. Recalling that other fashionable lifestyle accessory, the iPod, the keypad has a track wheel, but you have to press it to move around, not spin it. The keypad is flat and backlit like the RAZR, but Moto used a new technology called electrophoretic deposition to give it a richer, almost rubberized feel. Consequently, the KRZR is a tactile feast for the hand. You find yourself compulsively playing with it, polishing it, stroking it… like some deranged cellphone molester. But it’s all good.

"We’re continuing to win in thin, continuing to drive innovation and quality, with real exquisite detailing reminiscent of precision products like watches," says Wicks. "The RAZR continues to be the most successful product in the world right now, and we’ve taken the best of it, brought it into a narrow form factor, layered in a rich experience in unique finishes and innovated on top of it."

To emphasize that the KRZR is a glamorous accessory that won’t look out of place on a fashionista stalking the red carpet, Moto commissioned matching couture from South African designer Amanda Laird Cherry. Echoing the way Moto loves to layer componentry and finishes, Cherry layered organza and taffeta into structured gowns. Rich jewel tones in teal, maroon and black also matched the colors of the phones.

But if the KRZR is the higher-end, special-occasion phone to match your designer wardrobe, Moto has also created a hip, everyday phone that you can wear with your denim and pearls.

To diversify the company’s product lineup, Moto also launched the MotoRIZR (pronounced "riser"), the very first global slider product in GSM. Also quad-band with EDGE, if you’d rather slide than flip your phone open, the RIZR is for you. Its slider optimizes on-the-go imaging with a full-screen landscape viewfinder (on the KRZR it’s a portrait display), 2.0 MP camera and programmed point-and-shoot keys. Video capabilities plus a built-in music player that supports a wide variety of formats complete the package.

The RIZR’s spring action opens the phone smoothly and solidly, revealing a nice surprise on the back – a swirling pattern Wicks calls "tattooing." Driven by Moto’s "simple but rich" principle, the handset also boasts a more human feel, with the tri-coat soft touch popularized by the PEBL and the sleek, bonded-glass finish on the front.

The keypad is slightly wider than the RAZR, which makes it easier to dial and text. Switching from your old Nokia has never been easier. The keypad layout is essentially the same, with minor differences such as the space key located on the bottom left instead of bottom center. Texting on a new Moto is not like learning a new language – more like adding words to your vocabulary.

Features include improved phonebook design for both handsets, multi-letter search, advanced text entry with improved next-word prediction and word completion (a plus for us speedy texters), and the highly integrated landscape viewfinder. In one touch you can take the picture in landscape mode and automatically store the image if you don’t send it or use it as a wallpaper first.

"Consumers want color and unique finishes in their product," observes Wicks. "Color is the thing you first see, and finish – the feel of the device – is the thing you fall in love with over time."

Both phones will be launched later this year in a wider range of colors. The initial models come in cosmic blue, but in Asia, a palette of "very, very deep, saturated colors" will follow, like licorice black, smoke gray, and hopefully more feminine shades like the RAZR’s hot pink.

In Cape Town, Moto also introduced the H601 and H800 Bluetooth headsets, which echo the new cellphones’ look and feel. To match the new KRZR, the Motorola H601 is similarly sleek and shiny. And like its partner, the RIZR, the H800 has a unique sliding mechanism, matching colors, and laser-etched tattoo graphics. Both offer easy-pair software that reduces the number of steps needed to get them working together, plus better talk time and sound clarity.

"Sometimes when people think of design they think of styling," notes Wicks, "but the way we produce designs at Motorola is designing with no compromise."

Like a good tote bag with deep pockets and many compartments, Moto’s new cellphones have the capacity to contain your whole life. You’ll want to keep them close, and carry them with you everywhere.

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The MotoKRZR, MotoRIZR, H601 and H800 will be available in the third quarter of this year.