Motorola launches three new Android devices

The MING devices from Motorola are touch smartphones, with a transparent flip-screen to protect its touch surface. The devices have run on a home brewed Linux based operating system up until now, but Motorola has just announced three new MING phones, all running on Android.

What’s the story?

These devices maintain the hallmarks of the previous MING devices – they’re full touch-screen smartphones, with the distinctive transparent cover. These new phones are designed specifically for the Chinese market. Each of the three devices is designed to run on one of the three biggest Chinese mobile operators:

MT810 – China Mobile
XT806 – China Telecom
A1680 – China Unicom

In terms of functions, the devices are pretty homogenous. They all have high-res screens, a tonne of apps, quality cameras, GPS and all the other toys you expect on your smartphone.

What we think?

This just goes to show the lengths that a phone manufacturer has to go to for sales in China. While the operators in America take shots at one another about coverage, the fact is that it’s not such a big problem in the US. In both India and China, customers face the very real problem of large parts of the country being totally free from coverage for their chosen operator. Solutions like triple-SIM phones have popped up in India – and for Motorola, it has required launching three slightly different versions of the same phone in order to hit as big a chunk of the Chinese audience as possible.

This also shows the faith of Motorola in both Android and the Chinese market. With the Droid 2 out earlier this month, it highlights just how much Motorola has come to depend on the Google operating system.