ZNDR: "Ignore the Numbers, Look At The Recycled Phone Announcement!"

So it turns out that the "media monster" capable of 30fps "superb video" hinted at by Mr ZNDR as he tried to cover Motorola's ailing financials was pure smokescreen.

This new killer phone, who's major selling point is having the same video performance as various other phones already on the market (I think they call feature-matching "innovative" in marketing circles), is actually just the Sendo - sorry, Motorola - RIZR Z8 officially announced at 3GSM back in February.

Today's press release also rather ingenously includes some airbrushing to exagerate the phone's specs a little - first there's a quote from Gartner on the size of the mobile TV market in 2010, even though the Z8 does not in fact feature any of the technologies usually referred to as Mobile TV. In common with most high-end phones, it just plays videos stored on SD cards or streamed over the network, not really the same thing - but you wouldn't know that if you skimread the release.

Secondly, the release talks about how it can expand to 32Gb of memory - before slyly admitting later in the sentence that "On today's 4GB microSD...": yes that's right, 32Gb is just the theoretical maximum size of a microSD card, but you can only buy 4Gb versions today. However in a few years time, if you haven't already upgraded the phone and forgotten about it, you'll be able to use 32Gb cards - assuming microSD hasn't been replaced by another format by then. Lovely.

So this leaves us with two conclusions we can draw: ZNDR doesn't know what is going on in his own company (a theory which might find favour with some investors), or he was just trying to distract from the dismal sales figures generated under his leadership - he managed to preside over a 15% drop in mobile revenues last year, which account for 57% of Motorola turnover.

To leave on a positive note though, it might actually become my first Motorola phone. Despite the rather poor efforts of the Moto CEO and PR warren (bunnies live in warrens if I remember right) the Sendo team appear to have done an excellent job, and I kind of like it. Unlike the RAZR2.