Motorola has produced several iconic handsets during its storied existence. The DynaTAC, the Vader, the v60 and of course, the Motorola RAZR. What Nokia did for the candy bar-style mobile phone in the 1990′s, Motorola did for the flip phone in the early 21st century. Thin, sleek and stylish, the RAZR was initially brought to market in early 2005. The handset was light, easily fit in the pocket and packed a flat, backlit keypad that proved itself to be a formidable text messaging obstacle. The device was so popular, in fact, that just over 1-year ago we were still talking about the handset — the RAZR3 — before it was scrapped by Moto in favor of Android-based smartphones. During its four year reign of terror, where it retailed for nearly $200 on-contract, over 110 million RAZRs were sold by dozens of carriers the world over. We still have an AT&T V3 lying around BGR HQ for posterity sake, and although its utility is diminished, the handset’s mystique remains. How about it: how many of you cell phone junkies were proud RAZR owners?

BGR’s Throwback Thursday is a weekly series covering our (and your) favorite gadgets, games, and software of yesterday and yesteryear.

Your friends over at AT&T have added a new, full-touchscreen, quick messaging device, based on the Brew mobile platform, to their handset lineup. Say hello to the the HTC Freestyle. The Freestyle sports a 3.2-inch touchscreen display, 3.2 megapixel camera with video recording capabilities, micro-SD card slot (support for up to a 32GB card), 3.5mm headphone jack, stereo Bluetooth, and the HTC Sense UI. The device will cost $99.99 with a signed two-year contract (after a $50 mail-in rebate). The Freestyle will be available in AT&T retail stores and online beginning February 13th. Not sure why you would pay $99 for this HTC set when you can get the Inspire — also launching February 13th – for the same price. Hit the jump to check out the full press release.

HTC Freestyle Available to AT&T Customers on Feb. 13

First AT&T Quick Messaging Phone Based on Brew Mobile Platform

Key Facts

• AT&T* will begin selling the HTC Freestyle™ on Feb. 13.
• AT&T’s first quick messaging phone based on Brew® Mobile Platform, the HTC Freestyle, will cost $99.99 after a two-year contract and $50 mail-in rebate beginning Feb. 13 in AT&T company-owned retail stores and online.
• The HTC Freestyle is the first quick messaging phone to feature the HTC Sense™ experience.
• HTC Freestyle

Previously announced at the 2011 AT&T Developer Summit on Jan. 5, the HTC Freestyle™ is the first of a new generation of quick messaging phones from AT&T designed to run on Brew Mobile Platform. By installing Brew MP™ across quick messaging phones, which traditionally have had operating systems specific to each device maker, software developers will be able to write an application and generally be able to offer it to Brew Mobile Platform-based phones from AT&T. Specifically, Brew MP allows AT&T and developers to more easily offer smartphone-like applications to customers who want a full-featured messaging phone. AT&T plans for future quick messaging phones to operate on Brew MP.

The HTC Freestyle features a premium design with a 3.2-inch touch screen display clad in an aluminum unibody construction. It is also the first quick messaging phone to feature the HTC Sense experience with customizable widgets and FriendStream™ app for social networking integration, a full HTML browser and 3.2-megapixel camera.

Key features
– Dimensions: 4.2 x 2.2 x .5
– Display: 3.2” Full Touch Screen
– Full HTML Browser
– HTC Sense UX with customizable Homescreen widgets and FriendStream
– 3.2 MP Camera with Video Record
– AT&T Navigator (Sold separately)
– AT&T Music and AT&T Radio
– UMTS/HSDPA: 850/1900 MHz
– EDGE: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
– External Memory Support – MicroSD up to 32GB
– 3.5mm headset jack
– Stereo Bluetooth Capable (v2.0)

Price and Availability
HTC Freestyle™ will cost $99.99 after a two-year contract and $50 mail-in rebate beginning Feb. 13 in AT&T company owned retail stores and online. Requires an unlimited messaging plan. Qualified customers only. HTC Freestyle™ is configured to work only with the wireless services provided by AT&T.

Learn more about HTC Freestyle at www.att.com/mobilephones-news.

Quotes
“We are excited to add HTC Freestyle to our popular quick messaging device portfolio,” said Jeff Bradley, senior vice president, Devices, AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets. “Between the HTC Sense experience, a multitude of apps through Brew MP and its top-notch construction, the Freestyle is sure to make a splash with customers.”

“With the HTC Freestyle, HTC is pleased to be supporting AT&T’s drive to bring new, enhanced capabilities to their lineup of customer-friendly quick messaging phones,” said Jason Mackenzie, president of HTC Americas.

1: Limited time offer. Two-year contract required. Qualified customers only. Other restrictions apply. See contract for details. Early Termination Fee up to $150. HTC Freestyle requires an unlimited messaging plan. Sales tax calculated based on price of unactivated equipment. Price for HTC Freestyle before AT&T Promotion Card & with 2 year contract and minimum $20 Messaging Plan is $149.99. Allow 60 days for fulfillment. Card valid for 120 days wherever major credit cards accepted. May be used to pay wireless bill. Not redeemable for cash and cannot be used at ATMs or gas pumps. Some restrictions and other charges apply. See terms at store or at att.com/wirelessrebate. Card request must be postmarked by March 14, 2011 if purchased on or before February 14, 2011 or May 4, 2011 if purchased between February 15 – April 4, 2011 and you must be customer for 30 consecutive days to receive Promotion Card.

*AT&T products and services are provided or offered by subsidiaries and affiliates of AT&T Inc. under the AT&T brand and not by AT&T Inc.

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In an interview with Forbes on Thursday, HTC’s head of User Experience Drew Bamford provided some insight into where the company’s Sense product is headed in the near future. Sense started as a UI overlay placed atop various platforms on HTC devices. While the UI aspects of the product remain a central focus, HTC will continue to expand Sense in several areas off the device. The recently launched HTCSense.com portal is one example of Sense’s departure from phones, though it remains underutilized and confined to just two devices for the time being. Bramford says several services are on their way to Sense, however, including music and video content services as well as access to newspapers, magazines and eBooks. HTC already launched an eBook service in Europe that it plans to expand to other regions in 2011. HTC also plans to launch its own video chat service akin to Apple’s FaceTime, along with several services that focus on home entertainment. These and other services will be made possible by the continued transition to faster 4G cellular data networks. “At some point, you can imagine replacing your home Internet service with your 4G phone,” Bramford said. “I think we’re on the cusp of that transformation where mobile products and living room life collide.”

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It looks like Skype and Verizon Wireless have inked another deal to bring the Skype mobile application to more Verizon devices. In a blog post today, Skype announced they are “expanding the Skype mobile application onto a variety of Multimedia 3G phones with an app based on the BREW platform, including the LG enV TOUCH, LG Chocolate Touch and Samsung Reality.” The post boasts: “The Skype mobile app for Verizon Wireless 3G Multimedia phones works the same way it does on the carrier’s smartphones, letting you make free calls to friends and family on Skype, great value calls to landlines and mobile phones overseas, and send IMs to people on Skype anywhere in the world.” If you’re interested in getting Skype, you can text SKYPE to 2255 or visit the Media Center on your VZW BREW device. We’ve got the full announcement all linked up for you.

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This morning HTC announced that it will be releasing a new BREW powered smartphone dubbed the HTC Smart, perhaps better known by its former name the Touch.B/Rome. The goal of the HTC Smart, and future like handsets, will not be to blow us away with specs but rather to put affordable smartphones, with HTC’s Sense UI, into as many peoples hands as possible with an affordable pricetag — this may explain why the Smart will be running BREW as opposed to the rumored Android. The Smart will be packing a 300MHz processor, 256 MB of RAM, 2.8-inch TFT-LCD touch-sensitive screen with QVGA resolution, 3G HSPA 2100 MHz, Quad-Band GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz, Bluetooth 2.0, 3.5 mm stereo audio jack, and a microSD 2.0 compatible card slot. Look for the HTC Smart in Europe and Asia this spring. We’ve got the official release queued up for you after the break.

HTC Smart^TM Defines a New Category of
Smartphones for the Masses

HTC Smart’s friendly compact design and integration of HTC Sense will
appeal to a broad range of people all over the world

LAS VEGAS, Consumer Electronics Show (CES), – Jan. 7, 2010 – HTC Corporation, a global smartphone designer, today unveiled HTC Smart^TM, a new type of smartphone that creates a new category of easy-to-use, connected smartphones that are accessible by people all over the world.  The HTC Smart will be available this spring across Europe and Asia.

“HTC has always focused on listening to customers and setting the stage for new mobile categories and HTC Smart is the response to customer demand around the world for an easier-to-use, affordable smartphone,” said Peter Chou, chief executive officer, HTC Corporation. “Just adding a touch interface doesn’t mean a phone is a smartphone; The integration of HTC Sense brings an unparalleled smartphone experience for people looking to do more on their phone.”

Bringing HTC Sense To The Masses
HTC Smart begins with a friendly compact touch design and integrates an intuitive user experience that is centered around HTC Sense^TM, an HTC design philosophy that puts people at the center by focusing on three core areas: Make It Mine, Stay Close and Discover the Unexpected.  HTC Smart enables personal customization of each person’s own phone experience.  It also provides a quick and easy way to see what friends are up to via various social networks as well as quickly communicating over the phone, through text messaging or email.

“HTC Smart breaks new ground in delivering the powerful, in-demand smartphone features that consumers want on a more accessible device for global markets,” said Paul Jacobs, chief executive officer, Qualcomm Incorporated.  “We are pleased to be supporting HTC as they utilize the capabilities of Qualcomm’s Brew Mobile Platform open operating system to offer high-end capabilities and a compelling mobile user experience at mass-market price points.”

Qualcomm Brew Mobile Platform (Brew MP)
HTC Smart utilizes Qualcomm’s Brew MP, a popular mobile operating system that enables smartphone devices to be offered at more aggressive price points, providing HTC with the flexibility to deliver smartphone features on devices across multiple tiers.

About HTC
HTC Corporation (HTC) is one of the fastest growing companies in the mobile phone industry and continues to pioneer industry-leading mobile experiences through design, usability and innovation that are sparked by how the mobile phone can improve how people live and communicate. The company is listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange under ticker 2498. For more information about HTC, please visit www.htc.com.

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China Unicom topped the 2 million subscriber mark this month and based upon its recent handset procurement, those wild and crazy China Unicom customers love Symbian and BREW, enjoy Windows Mobile, and, though they are buying the China Unicom-exclusive iPhone, they do not share the same fervor for Apple’s mobile phone as their Japanese counterparts. Speaking At the 2010 Communications Industry Technology Annual Conference in Beijing, China, Zhang Zhijiang, GM of China Unicom’s technology division, revealed that 75% of the carriers recently ordered WCDMA equipment is comprised of mobile handsets with data cards (15%) and netbooks (10%) accounting for remaining 25%. Of the procured handsets, 16% run the Symbian OS, 8% run Windows Mobile, 4% run the Apple iPhone OS and the remainder run BREW or a proprietary OS. The bulk of the order, 63%, is comprised of mid-range handsets (priced below 3,000 Yuan or $439USD) with high-end handsets accounting for a modest 37% of the procurement. The take home message from this brief statistical dump is that China Unicom customers love their cheap BREW phones and the iPhone, which even trails Windows Mobile, has a lot of catching up to do if it wants to be the King of the Hill amongst China Unicom customers.

[Via wmpoweruser]

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On one end of the mobile spectrum, you have smartphone OSes that are feature packed, diverse and almost endlessly enhanceable. On the other end of the spectrum, you have dumb phone OSes that are limited in function but typically well-suited for the average consumer. Somewhere in the middle lies Qualcomm’s BREW Mobile Platform. Some may have been under the impression that BREW was going the way of the dinosaur but the truth is that it’s still managing to garner attention from manufacturers and carriers alike. Back in July, HTC reportedly let it be known that it has plans to release a BREW-powered handset some time in 2009. Now Sprint has jumped on board with this morning’s announcement that “it is planning to offer its customers additional device options by launching devices running Qualcomm’s Brew Mobile Platform™ (Brew MP).” No word yet on who might manufacture said phones, though HTC could certainly be among the companies currently working on a BREW-based Sprint handset. Whether or not the addition of BREW MP will be welcomed by Sprint subscribers remains to be seen but more options are never a bad thing, we suppose.

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As the world gets ready for what will hopefully be a series of page-turning events for Windows Mobile — the releases of 6.5 and then 7 — HTC is seemingly looking to move its business in a different direction. According to a report from DigiTimes, HTC seems to be pretty happy with the performance of its Android offerings to date. In fact, HTC reportedly plans to push shipments of Android-based handsets from 30 percent of total devices in 2009 to 50 percent in 2010. Perhaps a bit more shocking, DigiTimes’ source also states that HTC will launch a new handset in September or October of this year based on Qualcomm’s BREW platform:

The BMP-based handset will come with a touchsreeen, HTC’s in-house developed TouchFlo 3D technology and HTC Sense interface as found in the HTC touch-enabled smartphone lineup, and yet the device will be available as an entry-level model.

Zany. While we’re definitely curious about the potential for some BREW-based HTC kit, we’re much more interested in seeing what the future holds for HTC handsets running Google’s mobile OS. If we were betting men (and women), we’d wager most BGR readers feel the same.

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In with the new, out with the BREW — Sun Microsystems has just announced that Verizon Wireless is among several new partners to jump on the Java bandwagon. The nation’s largest carrier has long used BREW as its mobile platform of choice but times they are a’ changing. Moving forward, VZW will deploy Java Platform Micro Edition-based services and apps. From Sun’s JavaOne conference keynote highlights:

Lowell McAdam, president and CEO of Verizon Wireless, who will outline his company’s strategic decision to deploy Java Platform Micro Edition (Java ME) -based services in its network and offer Java-based services and applications to its subscribers.

While Big Red has not confirmed that Qualcomm’s BREW platform will be phased out, maintaining two separate platforms doesn’t make much sense. Crazier things have definitely happened though, especially where carriers are concerned. We’ll have to wait and see what the future has in store for BREW though we highly doubt anyone would really miss it. Verizon has yet to issue any public statement regarding its Java ME adoption.

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Here we go again. On the one hand, rumorsville is buzzing with speculation surrounding the Evoke QA4, a rather intriguing touchscreen slider reportedly headed to US Cellular, MetroPCS and/or Cricket. On the other hand, you’ve got the VE465.

• CDMA 800/1900/1700/2100 connectivity
• 1.9 inch TFT internal display with 176 x 220 pixels and 65k colors
• 1.05 inch CSTN external display with 96 x 80 pixels
• Brew OS
• Stereo Bluetooth
• Music player
• Video player
• MMS, SMS, Instant Messaging, E-mail
• 1.3 megapixel camera
• USB 2.0
• MicroSD up to 4GB
• Talk time: up to 4.5 hours, Standby time: up to 12 days
• 1.8 x 3.9 x 0.7 inches, 3.8 ounces

We’re not sure exactly how this handset carries ruggedized devices forward but apparently Moto did something right as it has already been picked up by two known carriers, Alltel and TELUS. Release timing and pricing are still unknown but we’re hoping carrier subsidies take it down pretty low. Any of you outdoorsy types out there looking forward to snagging one?

[Via Unwired View]

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Adobe, ARM, and Qualcomm, among a host of several other players in the telecommunications and entertainment industry, are teaming up to develop and launch the Open Screen Project. If you aren’t familiar with the OSP, we’ll brief you on what it is and what it means for both developers and consumers. It is going to change the future of rich Internet content and media and how it will be delivered to consumers. With the OSP, users will be able to see and share videos, pictures, and other content across all devices and platforms from set-top boxes, computers,to mobile devices. The project is spearheaded by Adobe, but it will certainly be no small feat. Several big players will be joining the software giant, notably ARM, Qualcomm, Cisco, Intel, NTT DoCoMo, Verizon Wireless, and all the major mobile device manufacturers. Major content providers such as MTV Networks, BBC, and NBC Universal will also be supporting the project. For more information and a video explaining the Open Screen Project, hit the jump.

This week, Adobe will be announcing the project and its future at the Max Developers Conference. They will be teaming up with ARM to optimize Flash 10 for devices beyond desktops and notebooks, such as mobile phones. The focus is to enable a runtime environment that will break down barriers that have plagued developers in the past. Adobe’s aim, with Flash and Adobe Air, is to create a development environment that will allow the publishing of content across multiple devices and browsers. In addition to Adobe and ARM’s joint effort in doing this, Qualcomm will be releasing the BREW 1.0 SDK and will integrate Flash technology. Those familiar with BREW will see just how large a role Qualcomm will play as BREW is their current solution for developing and delivering rich content through wireless data.

The Max Developers Conference will also feature a demonstration of Flash 10 on an ARM smartphone! Currently, ARM supplies processors and hardware for almost 90% of mobile phones on the market. Many consumers have complained that several applications and websites are incompatible with their phones, and that will all soon change. ARM is also working to make sure that Flash optimization will include battery-life performance, as it is going to be one of the primary concerns of most consumers.

The Open Screen Project has launched May 1, 2008 with the likelihood that BREW and Flash 10 devices will be available in the second half of 2009. In addition to the launch of the OSP, software and applications will be developed enabling users to share their videos, pictures, and music, such as Photoshop Mobile (which we will be providing an in-depth review of very soon). Ultimately, the goal of the Open Screen Project, with the collaboration between Adobe, ARM, Qualcomm and the several companies supporting the project, is to deliver an interactive and universal user experience across all devices. With the tremendous amount of support for the Open Screen Project, and the teaming of major software and hardware companies, expect the future of rich media to change dramatically.

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