Motorola Inc. announced the U.S. release Tuesday of its Razr V3, the ultra-thin cell phone that it has promoted heavily as the star of its portfolio of 20 new handsets.
Available at Cingular Wireless LLC, the color-screen camera phone has built-in Bluetooth wireless technology for e-mail and offers video playback and a speakerphone in a half-inch-thick clamshell design.
The price is $500 with a two-year contract -- below the $900 cited earlier this year in industry reports but still the priciest new Motorola phone.
The company took out full-page color ads in U.S. newspapers Tuesday to showcase the fancy new flip phone.
Ron Garriques, head of Motorola's Libertyville-based cell phone unit, told analysts last week that the Razr was doing "extremely well" following its introduction in Asia and Europe, although he declined to cite numbers.
Its release in time for the holiday shopping season comes a year after Motorola lost key holiday sales because of a parts shortage and resulting shipment delays that kept some of its first camera phones from being available during the biggest season for cell-phone sales.
