Motorola’s touchscreen offering for Verizon - Motorola Blaze isn’t an iPhone fighter

Verizon Wireless, lacking a focused strategy to battle Apple (NSDQ: AAPL)’s current iPhone and upcoming iPhone 3G, has been flooding their CDMA market with touchscreen handsets of all sorts for the better half of the past year. With a dizzying array of almost-there touchscreen handsets aimed at Verizon (NYSE: VZ) customers looking for a good iPhone-compromise on America’s “most reliable network,” Verizon has just shed some light on yet another touchscreen offering.

The Motorola (NYSE: MOT) Blaze, as it’s called, sports a haptic-feedback touchscreen in a form-factor that reminds us of Motorola’s MING lineup. A transparent plastic cover keeps the touchscreen protected, but also allows for the touchy-feely handset to be used with the flip-cover closed.

A custom Verizon OS powers the Motorola Blaze, making sure that the company’s woefully clunky software kills off any chance that the Blaze could actually be a hit. But, if things like a seriously squishy touchscreen and barely acceptable user interface aren’t deal-killers, Verizon customers might be impressed by the 2 megapixel camera, EVDO Rev. A, GPS, Bluetooth, and mobile TV features that lie beneath the full-body touchscreen.

As a potential iPhone 3G alternative, the Motorola Blaze looks to fall short of delivering the shelf-appeal required to battle Cupertino’s handset offering. But, don’t count the Motorola Blaze out just yet, July 11 is still a couple weeks off.

We’ll have to wait and see if Visual Voicemail makes the cut on the Motorola Blaze, but in the meantime, head over to Boy Genius Report to peruse their Motorola Blaze photo gallery. We promise, it’s almost worth the effort.

[Via: BGR]