AT&T's Motorola Z9, updated V9 due in January?
By Chris Ziegler 
posted Dec 3rd 2007 2:29AM
posted Dec 3rd 2007 2:29AM
Alright, Motorola faithful, listen up: AT&T's got a few goodies in store for you. Nothing we didn't already know about, really, but in light of the recent upheaval, it's a little reassuring to hear that stuff is still on track. It turns out that the Z9 -- a phone we heard about merely once before returning to the ether to mature for many, many more months -- is apparently on track for a January release alongside the updated V9 that will bring GPS and Video Share to the RAZR 2 formula. Oh, and that V365 replacement we'd mentioned a while back? Yep, it's still cookin' (with the code name "Hurricane," we hear) and may be billed as a higher end handset with crazy signal strength and some sort of industrial-grade metal housing. Anyone getting excited about that one?[Thanks, anonymous tipster]
I waited over a year for the v9, reading blogs everyday, trying to get as much info as I could. I was really excited about it. Then the hidious mahogany drops for $299 with lots of missing features and still remains today. A long time moto fan, I started looking at other brands. Not motos fault, but at&t,s In defense of the passing ed who once said, he loved his job, but hated his customers.(he meant u.s. carriers)I agree. I think moto lost a lot of fans because of the carriers. they really are the ones who control it all, fair or not.
I'm not shedding any tears for Motorola. They're the biggest American handset manufacturer, and if they can't swing their weight around in the USA, they're not allowed to boo-hoo their way out of it.
Why didn't they open up unlocked shops for T-Mobile, AT&T GSM and Cingular customers? Why didn't they aggressively market their unlocked products instead of bitching about carrier branding when they love to make each phone in 5 million marginally different versions?
Moto had full control over their destiny and they fucked it up big time.
Reply to Tim,
Tim stop taking their hand me downs and by unLocked Phones. As long as you take their Free/Subsidized Phone and pay them three time their worth in inflated rate plans, we all suffer! Do like we do take their free phone and buy a unlocked. Either give the free phone to charity, sell it on eBay, or keep it as a back up. The US carriers make more money off the subsidized phones then they make of the phone plans.
a) Something tells me this is not true: "The US carriers make more money off the subsidized phones then they make of the phone plans."
b) Where can you buy a SIM free, never locked V9? It is not on the Moto store web site.
Jordan
Here is part of an article from November 7, 2007. "AT&T is forking over a hefty $18 a month (to Apple) for each iPhone user which, as CNET points out, is an amount that exceeds the actual price of the iPhone." And then the user also pays $399.00 for the phone. So on Motorola phones who making the ±$18.00 a month? Just a rehetorical question? Sound like Bottom Line as it is not service related. And YES, we can on blame ourselfs as we think we're getting something for FREE!