Friday, May 6, 2011

Motorola intros dueling portrait QWERTY Android options for Sprint: XPRT and Titanium

It took 'em long enough, but it seems as if The Now Network has managed to snap up Motorola's Droid Pro... just seven months after Verizon Wireless did so. For whatever reason, Sprint's dubbing its version the XPRT, with the same 3.1-inch HVGA touchpanel, full QWERTY keyboard, 1GHz CPU and Android 2.2 loaded. It'll go for $129.99 on a two-year contract starting June 5th, but giving that the Pro hit the bargain bin long ago, we're having a hard time believing anyone will pony up for Sprint's iteration. Moving right along, the Titanium gets off on the wrong foot by shipping with Android 2.1, and while it's hailed as the first iDEN device to combine Nextel Direct Connect and Eclair, the G'zOne Commando has somehow managed to show its brawn while stepping up to v2.2. For those interested nonetheless, there's a 3.1-inch touchscreen and a chassis that's built to MIL-SPEC 810G for dust, shock, vibration, low pressure, solar radiation, high temperature and low temperature. She's unpriced for the moment, but the full release can be found just after the break.

Motorola XPRT and Motorola Titanium press shots

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Sprint and Motorola Unveil Two Android Devices for Business: Motorola XPRT and Motorola Titanium

New Android smartphones target professionals with enhanced business-class experiences; Motorola XPRT offers enterprise-grade security and enhanced MOTOBLUR experience on an Android World Phone; and Motorola Titanium pairs best-in-class Nextel Direct Connect with Android

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (BUSINESS WIRE), May 05, 2011 - To meet the growing demand for mobile devices with industry-leading enterprise features, Sprint (NYSE: S) and Motorola Mobility, Inc. (NYSE: MMI) will launch two new smartphones with enhanced business-ready capabilities, built on the Android™ platform. Motorola XPRT™ is the first Android smartphone from Sprint to deliver enterprise-class security, personal productivity enhancements and international roaming. Motorola Titanium™ leverages Sprint's industry-leading Push-to-Talk capabilities as the first Nextel Direct Connect® smartphone built on Android 2.1.

"We are pleased to extend our portfolio of products directed at business-users with these two powerful and versatile Android devices," said Paget L. Alves, president – Sprint Business. "Motorola XPRT delivers the security features enterprise customers demand without scrimping on the latest in technology, while Motorola Titanium is a rugged Android smartphone with Nextel Direct Connect's sub-second Push-to-Talk."

Motorola XPRT will be available on Sunday, June 5, in Sprint Stores, Business Sales, Web sales (www.sprint.com) and Telesales (1-800-SPRINT1), for $129.99 with a new line or eligible upgrade and two-year service agreement. Pricing and availability for Motorola Titanium will be announced at a later date.

"Motorola XPRT and Motorola Titanium blend feature-packed consumer experiences with an optimal set of productivity and security tools," said Jeff Miller, corporate vice president of sales, Motorola Mobility. "We are pleased to partner with Sprint to deliver each of these unique business-ready devices to their continuously growing enterprise customer base."

Packed with Productivity Tools

Designed for business users, Motorola XPRT offers a sleek, compact design built on Android 2.2, Froyo. This full-feature world phone is equipped with a pinch-to-zoom capable touchscreen, 3.1-inch HVGA display, full QWERTY keyboard and 1GHz processor with Adobe Flash 10 web browsing.

Enterprise managers and workforces across field service, field sales, healthcare, retail, utilities, manufacturing and transportation/distribution industries will benefit from its feature-rich capabilities, enterprise-class security and data encryption. Motorola XPRT delivers business-class security features with 256-bit AES data encryption and controls the IT department will appreciate, including the ability to remotely handle functions like enabling pin or password lock, password recovery and data wipe on both the phone and SD card if lost or stolen.

Motorola XPRT comes loaded with MOTOBLUR™ offering personalized content, including email and social media updates, delivered right to the user's home screen. It enables convenient viewing of news feeds, updates and messages from social media sites from a single screen.

Additional key features of Motorola XPRT include:

* Android Market™ for access to more than 150,000 applications, widgets and games available for download
* Google™ mobile services, such as Google Maps™ with Navigation, Google Talk™, Gmail™ and YouTube™
* Corporate email (Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync®) and personal (POP & IMAP) email
* Worldmode – CDMA (EVDO Rev. A), GSM/UMTS (HSPA) – international roaming service available in more than 200 countries
* 3G Mobile Hotspot capability, supporting up to five Wi-Fi enabled devices simultaneously
* 5-megapixel camera with camcorder and dual LED flash for low-light performance
* microSD slot, with a 2GB memory card included, supporting up to 32GB
* Bluetooth® 2.1 + EDR
* Wi-Fi® b/g/n
* 1860 mAh Lithium-ion battery

Motorola XPRT requires activation on one of Sprint's Everything Data plans, plus a required $10 Premium Data add-on charge for smartphones. Sprint's Everything Data plan with Any Mobile, AnytimeSM includes unlimited web, texting and calling to and from any mobile in America while on the Sprint Network, starting at just $69.99 per month plus required $10 Premium Data add-on charge (pricing excludes surcharges and taxes).

Sprint also offers great value with international service add-ons for Motorola XPRT. For just $4.99 per month, the Sprint Worldwide Voice Add on offers discounted rates while traveling in more than 100 countries. For only $2.99 per month, you can make local calls in Canada, call back to the United States and even receive calls in Canada for just $0.20 per minute. That's a savings of $0.39 per minute over standard roaming charges. While roaming in Canada, Mexico, China, and other destinations data rates start as low as $0.002 per KB (on CDMA networks).

To sign up to learn more about Motorola XPRT, please visit www.motorola.com/XPRT.

Leading in Push-to-Talk

As the successor to the popular Motorola i1 launched by Sprint last year, Motorola Titanium is sleek and attractive, yet durable. It is the first iDEN device to combine Sprint's best-in-class Nextel Direct Connect and Android 2.1, Éclair, for a feature rich business-class experience. It features a full QWERTY keyboard and 3.1-inch touchscreen display. Built military-grade tough, Motorola Titanium is certified to Military Specification 810G for dust, shock, vibration, low pressure, solar radiation, high temperature and low temperature.

With more than 17 years of expertise, Sprint is the industry leader in Push-to-Talk, serving the world's largest Push-to-Talk community with millions of Nextel Direct Connect subscribers on the fastest national Push-to-Talk network. Nextel Direct Connect has set the industry standard for Push-to-Talk worldwide. More U.S. workers communicate in less than a second with Nextel Direct Connect than with any other Push-to-Talk service.

Additional key features of Motorola Titanium include:

* Support for Nextel Direct Connect Services, including Direct Connect, Group Connect®, International Direct Connect®, DirectSendSM, Group Messaging and NextMail®
* Android Market for access to more than 150,000 applications, widgets and games available for download
* Google mobile services such as Google Search, Gmail, Google Talk, Google Maps with Navigation, syncing with Google Calendar™ and YouTube
* Corporate email (Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync) and personal (POP3 & IMAP) email
* 5-megapixel camera with camcorder, 4x zoom and flash
* Wi-Fi b/g
* Stereo Bluetooth
* GPS navigation
* microSD slot, with a 2GB memory card included, supporting up to 32GB
* 1820 mAh Lithium-ion battery

To learn more about Motorola Titanium, please visit www.motorola.com/titanium.