It would appear that there is a growing trend in the mobility space. Handset manufacturers are making smart phones socially savvy. I have seen this trend in the HTC Aria - Friend Stream, the Samsung Galaxy S - Social Hub, the Microsoft Kin (scuttled) and now the Motorola Charm -- Motoblur. Just like the Kin the Charm is a niche handset. It is geared toward the socially immersed - tweens, teens and even your 20-something's.
While Motoblur offers subscriber's access to your friends, pics, emails, messages and Facebook - it has one clear advantage that the Microsoft Kin did not have -- the Android Market Place. I would argue that this alone may define the success of the Charm.
Although I am not a fan of the physical keyboard - I do appreciate the functionality. This is especially true for those that are heavy text(ers). Unfortunately, I believe that the anemic screen size may be an issue. At 2.8" there is really not a whole lot of real estate for your digital properties. I do appreciate the fact that it's running Android 2.1 -- hopefully it will be in-line for an OTA update to 2.2.
- 2.8-inch QVGA full touch screen display paired with a full QWERTY keyboard and Backtrack pad
- Gorilla glass display with increased resistance to impact and scratch damage
- Seven home screen panels to customize with widgets, applications and more.
- Two finishes: Cabernet or Golden Bronze
- Dimensions: 2.6 x 3.8 x 0.45 inches; Weight: 3.9 ounces
- 3 MP camera with easy uploading of images to Facebook, MySpace, Picasa and Photobucket.
- FM Radio
- Built-in music player that supports: AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, MIDI, MPEG4, MP3, WAV and WMA
- Stereo Bluetooth and 3.5 mm headset jack
- 512MB flash memory, pre-installed 2GB microSD memory card with support for up to 32 GB
- Video capture/playback rate: 24 fps
- Support for T-Mobile's 3G network, EDGE and Wi-Fi
- Full HTML Web browser with pinch and zoom capabilities; GPS capabilities
- Google Web Experience, including Google Search, Maps for Mobile, access to thousands of applications on Android Market
- MOTOBLUR solution automatically delivers and organizes conversations, friends and favorite content from many sources directly to the phone in easy-to-manage streams on the home screen
- Access to personal e-mail including Gmail, Yahoo!, Windows Live Hotmail, AOL, and other POP/IMAP e-mail services; support for corporate Exchange e-mail and contacts
- Support for SMS, MMS and instant messaging (IM)
- Visual voicemail, voice activated dialing including over Bluetooth and speakerphone
- CrystalTalk PLUS for clear and crisp conversations
- Android 2.1
- Battery Manager helps you manage and customize your phone's power consumption.
- Mobile backup
- Up to 12 days of standby, up to 7 hours of talk-time
- Quad-band GSM world phone (850/900/1800/1900/2100 MHz)
- Dual-band 3G UMTS/HSPA (Bands I & IV)
- Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR
- WiFi 802.11 b/g/n