If these fine specimens look familiar, well, they should -- one's already been announced (albeit on a different carrier) and the other two have been thoroughly scooped. Motorola's CES haul includes the eco-tastic Renew W233, a simple candybar destined for T-Mobile that features a neutral carbon footprint and components made of recycled water bottles; the Tundra VA76r, a rugged 3G flip with push-to-talk that previously launched on Rogers and has its sights set on AT&T this time around for a January 13 release; and the headliner of the bunch, the SURF A3100. The WinMo 6.1-based SURF -- alias A3000, alias Atila -- features a full 2.8-inches of touchscreen adorned with a custom skin designed by Moto, 7.2Mbps triband HSDPA, a 3-megapixel autofocus cam, AGPS, and support for microSD cards up to a purely theoretical 32GB in size. Though the radio is fully equipped for North American action, no stateside launch is in the cards just yet; for now, you'll find the SURF in Asian markets before the quarter's out.

[Via Phone Scoop]

A quick glance at this positively anonymous Moto candybar isn't going to stir any emotion, but a closer look reveals something pretty important -- as its name implies, the W233 "Renew" is made from a lot of renewable stuff. Both the packaging and the phone itself are made of materials designed to reduce impact on our lovely planet, a trend picking up a nice head of steam in the mobile biz these past couple years. Rumor has it this low-spec (and hopefully low-cost) handset will be launching on February 4 -- much to Mother Nature's relief, we're sure. Good to see that whole environmental crisis is solved now, eh?

The words "job security" and "Motorola" haven't coexisted in a non-sarcastic manner for quite some time, and things just seem to be deteriorating by the day. Not even two full months after the flagging company announced that 3,000 employees would be sent packing, a new Reuters report has it that the axing process in Q4 will be accelerated. Specifically, some 1,900 (versus 1,500 as originally predicted) will be cut in an attempt to save $800 million in 2009, though there's no word on how damaging the inevitable productivity losses will be given the markedly low morale. To no one's surprise, most of the Q4 cuts will be in the mobile devices segment; we're beginning to think Sad Moto Face™ here will never, ever vanish.

[Via UnwiredView]

RIM has seen Moto's recent misfortunes as a great opportunity to ramp up its Chicago office and bring in some fresh talent that would otherwise be out of work, but in the process, they've allegedly been poaching folks that are still on the payroll -- and that's where things start to get a little complicated. Motorola didn't like that terribly much and went all legal on 'em a few months ago, but RIM is now countersuing on the claim that Moto's going a little too far in blocking RIM's job offers to prospective employees. Turns out the two companies had an agreement in place at one time that they'd not solicit each others' staff, but RIM says that agreement expired in August, making it open season in Schaumburg. Let's put it this way: if the Storm suddenly gets rebranded the "RIMSTRM" next year, we think we know why.

Now that you've already gone and unboxed all of your latest acquisitions, what better to make you feel neglected and uncared for than watching an unboxing of Motorola's latest CAPS LOCK-loving clamshell -- the MOTOJEWEL. Mobile-review got their hands on one of these glossy devices and managed to take it for a spin. The reviewer praised the keyboard and external screen, and found the "Midnight Quartz" (read: purple) housing to be a nice touch. We'll let our translation tools handle the bottom line for us -- "If you like, you can even buy, I do not mind." Hit the read link for even more pics of the unboxing or to read the whole review. Go ahead, we do not mind.

[Via iTech News Net]

We're not really sure where to begin with this one, because the awesomeness is so thorough and so intense that we're basically at a loss for words; we'll see what we can do here, though. In brief, a HoFo poster has thrown up what appear to be slides from a Rogers event detailing the carrier's release plans for the better part of 2009, and seriously, if you name a badass handset, odds are it's here. Samsung will apparently be bringing the 8.1-megapixel Pixon, for starters, and Sony Ericsson will be throwing its name into the huge-cam hat with the C905. Turning our attention to Windows Mobile, the X1 is scheduled for release "around August if not sooner," Motorola brings the lowly Q11, and HTC adds the Touch Pro, the Touch Viva (an unusual choice considering HTC's intention to send it to emerging markets), and possibly the Touch 3G. Nokia will be offering the 5800 XpressMusic in the middle part of the year, Moto will be bringing a pair of 5-megapixel phones in the VE66 and ZN5, and finally, it seems RIM is signed up to bring the all-GSM 9520 Storm with WiFi -- a feature sorely missing from the Verizon and Vodafone versions -- and a 3G remix of the 8200 Pearl series flip that'll have a front-facing cam for video calling (yeah, no joke, they offer it up there). So look, AT&T, you have two options here: either crib off this presentation and make it happen, or we hope you get bought by Rogers. Your choice.

[Via Engadget Spanish]

The rumor out of Spain (and a totally plausible rumor at that) is that Motorola's abandoning Symbian altogether to put most of its eggs in the Android basket. Moto never had a lot of stake in the Symbian game to begin with, and what little it did have was in the UIQ camp -- the camp being killed off in Symbian's transition to an open platform -- and what's more, the company has made no secret of its ambitions to become an Android powerhouse. The scary part of the rumor, though, is that Moto will go through one heck of a launch lull in 2009 so that it can get Android stuff into the marketplace in time for the '09 holiday season. Now, if that means we don't have to worry about any more V3 colors, more power to 'em -- but can Motorola really afford to go the better part of a year without any blockbuster phones at this point?

[Via Engadget Spanish]

Update: Michael Oryl of MobileBurn points out that co-CEO Sanjay Jha has already announced that Motorola doesn't intend to make new Symbian-based handsets -- but the company is still on the Symbian Foundation's board. This may indicate a desire to ditch the platform -- and the Foundation -- altogether.

There's no doubt that Motorola's Krave ZN4 has oodles of sex appeal, so it's no shock that Moto's introducing a lookalike in the South Korean market. The interestingly named MOTOPRIZM looks pretty much exactly like the aforementioned ZN4, packing a 2.8-inch WVGA touchscreen, an S-DMB tuner, 3-megapixel camera and Bluetooth connectivity. Details beyond that are scant, but you can find one more shot just down there in the read link.

We've suspected for a while that LG would be bringing a version of its ultra-thin, 5-megapixel Secret slider to AT&T, and now, we've got some hard evidence to back it up. The latest rebate form for the carrier -- dated December 26 to January 24, though that definitely doesn't guarantee the phone will launch in that timeframe -- lists a $50 discount on the CF750 Secret along with the Motorola VA76r "Tundra," a rugged flip that has already launched on Rogers and will be coming to do battle with Samsung's beefy Rugby. Exciting times to be on AT&T, eh?

[Thanks, Kal]

Apparently the Motorola leak-fest begun yesterday hasn't come to a halt. After witnessing some compelling renders of smartphones the company has headed to Verizon, we're now privy to a set of featurephone / dumbphone mockups -- all courtesy of the Boy Genius Report. The new images show off a device supposedly called the "Niagra" (pictured), a slider in the vein of yesterday's "Calgary" QWERTY phone, a dowdy looking number called the "Fairbanks" (a PTT device), and a clamshell called the "Harmony." The latter two phones could hardly stoke much excitement, but the Niagra definitely gives us some hope for Moto's big comeback. Now -- these will all be powered by Android, right?

Motorola was already in the hurt locker well before this latest economic crapstorm went into overdrive, so it stands to reason that pennies are being pinched and belts are being tightened across the board out in Schaumburg. 'Course, all sorts of jobs have already been cut, so what else can you do? For starters, you can trim a few bucks off the salaries of two of the companies' more well-paid individuals -- co-CEOs Greg Brown and Sanjay Jha -- both of whom will "voluntarily" take 25 percent pay cuts in 2009 (don't worry, they'll still be able to make ends meet). Additionally, Brown will skip out on his 2008 bonus while Jha will have his bonus reduced by the total amount of Brown's forfeited bonus, and he'll take the remainder as restricted-sale stock instead of the cold, hard cash that might be a little more valuable than shares of Motorola should the company go south. For employees without seven-figure salaries, they're looking at frozen pension plans and an elimination of the company's match into retirement accounts for '09. Sign of the times, eh?

[Thanks, Joe M.]

Our first thought when we saw Boy Genius Report's alleged shots of Moto phones that'll find a home on Verizon in 2009 was, "holy cow, these look fake." And yes, granted, they're all renders -- but what really set off the alarms for us was the fact that they look... well, nothing like Motorolas. At all. But then we thought about it for a second and realized that hey, you know, when you're a once-great cellphone manufacturer losing market share hand over fist and you're looking for the Next Big Thing, you probably want to try something a little new, a little fresh, and a little crazy. So on that note, Verizon can apparently expect a "Rush 2" early in the year that continues Moto's contribution to the low-cost messaging phone trend; the "Calgary" (pictured), looking like a high-end Sidekick Slide minus the Sidekick; the "Inferno," presumably succeeding the ZN4 (which was coincidentally codenamed "Blaze"); and finally the gorgeous "Flash," which -- as far as we're concerned -- should just take the A3000's place. So yeah, these could be an elaborate hoax, but for Motorola's sake, we hope they're not.

Really, it's not even fair. A recent look at Q3 2008 smartphone sales in China has found that together, Nokia and Motorola encompass around 90% of all handsets sold in the nation (real ones, we presume). The CCID Consulting report also points out that Nokia's share alone is a dominating 69.3%, with its wide range of choices spanning from low-end to ultra-luxurious helping it to hook consumers from all walks of life. Picking up the silver is Moto with a respectable 19.9%, while Dopod snags the bronze with just 4.7%. Overall, handset sales in China were practically flat from Q2, which -- in today's world -- isn't particularly awful. For the number lovers out there (you know who you are), check the read link for even more statistics.

[Via mocoNews, image courtesy of SymbianWebBlog]

Rumors were rampant that Motorola's touchscreen-based Atila would be launching somewhere in the wide world next quarter, and said whispers are shaping up to be right on target. The typically reliable iDNES has it that the A3000 (same device, people) has been certified for use by China's telecommunications authority, which pretty much signals that it'll be on sale in the not-too-distant future. Specs wise, we're told to expect a 528MHz processor, Windows Mobile running the show, Bluetooth, a microSDHC card slot and a QVGA display. It's not certain the cost nor the exact release date, but we'd say that should all be much clearer at CES. Hear that Moto? Much clearer at CES.