14 DAY TRIAL // A new Motorola featurephone has been caught in the wild on the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) website, tagged Motorola WX404. The handset features a full QWERTY keyboard, an optical trackpad and is running on Qualcomm's BREW platform. This is supposed to be a low-budget device, and should target “texters” and instant messaging users mostly.
Motorola WX404 looks like a cheap Blackberry device, but gets only low-end features. Nevertheless, without being too sarcastic, I think that each phone has its target and WX404 will probably have its own small market success. The phone seems to be CDMA (850/1700/1900 MHz) compatible, which narrows the number of possible carrier that could pick it for distribution, to only two, Cricket and MetroPCS.
While technical features of the device haven't been disclosed yet, the FCC documents reveal some bits of information. Besides its QWERTY keyboard, Motorola WX404 comes with a camera, Bluetooth connectivity, headset jack, media player, support for microSD cards, and USB port. There's no info regarding its launch date nor about its price tag, but we will probably see it given for free for a mid-level contract.
It's pretty weird that Motorola still bother to manufacture such devices that look like they're coming from 1998. Especially, that they had some problems with their mobile division in the past. Motorola always had a greater success with its handsets, on US market than in Europe, so it's no wonder it continues to launch low-end devices for smaller carriers. As the device is only CDMA compatible we won't be seeing this candybar in EU, not that we would be anxious to get it.