Nail in the candy bar coffin?
Back in February, I was muttering to myself with worry after seeing news of the Motorola MPx100, which I thought was an serious foray into the space now dominated by the Nokia Series 60 phones. Since then, however, Motorola hasn't said much about the phone, and finally officially cancelling it.
Again, since this phone was powered by Windows Mobile and had the same form factor as the S60 phones, this is a really interesting move by Motorola. To get far enough into development to announce the phone only to cancel it a few months later? There's two answers, either Moto decided to concentrate their efforts on the flip (the style they created and are known for), or they decided not to try to take Nokia on in its own turf (candy bar smart phones). Or maybe a combination of both.
The market is already moving in the direction of flips, and many analysts have blamed Nokia's lack of flips as a reason for their dismal performance in the past couple of quarters, but this seems to be the final nail in the coffin, no? Now the American and Asian manufacturers are developing flips and the Europeans are the ones holding out with the candy bar phones, though that seems to be shifting quickly as well.
I think from a strategic sense, it could've been good for Moto to have continued production of the MPx100 just to be able to show that they have an answer to Nokia's high-end models. But I guess with Samsung catching up quickly with Moto to take over the number two spot, that Nokia isn't really their concern at the moment... ;-)
-Russ