Images of an unannounced Motorola device called the EX225 have turned up on the Bluetooth SIG’s site. They say it’s a 3G phone with a 2.4 inch screen, full QWERTY keyboard, dual SIM capabilities, and that it’s a “product for [the] trendy generation”. The folks at Unwired View, who made this discovery, have blown up the images of said handset and have concluded that due to a lack of dedicated Android buttons, the EX225 will likely run Qualcomm’s BREW operating system, which is something we’ve seen on several of the company’s latest dumbphones, most notably the Wilder. There’s not too much else to say about this device, we’ve frankly haven’t got a clue as to when it’ll come or how much it’ll cost, but it does leave us scratching our heads a little since we can’t figure out who would want this thing?
Earlier today IDC published some figures that show smartphones have finally surpassed featurephones in Western Europe. It’s not that people are buying more expensive mobile phones, the economy on that side of the pond is just as bad as it is in the United States. It’s thanks to the fact that manufacters such as Huawei, ZTE, and more recently Samsung, have introduced smartphones at price points many folks can finally afford. Why would you want to spend 150 Euros on a featurephone when you can have something that runs Android? Now said 150 Euro Android smartphone isn’t going to deliver the same kind of experiance the Samsung Galaxy S II will, but so what? Email, Facebook, Maps, even on a small screen are still impressive to use compared to the old talk and text only device that’s been lurking in the pockets of most folks for the past few years.
What say you, is it time we put featurephones to rest?