Motorola Announces Blue-Collar Phone

The new MC35 is designed to be a rugged phone that will support Windows Mobile 5, and that will come with the Good Technology application suite.

ORLANDO, Fla.—Motorola and AT&T said today that the two companies are teaming to introduce a new mobile device aimed at people who "do actual work."

The new MC35 is designed to be a rugged phone that will support Windows Mobile 5, and that will come with the Good Technology application suite.

According to a Motorola spokesperson, the device is intended to work as a GSM phone; it will support Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and wide area networking.

The MC35 will come equipped to read bar codes, and it includes GPS as a standard feature.

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The new device joins previous products from Symbol Technologies, which was acquired by Motorola last year, such as the MC50 and MC70. The company has already arranged for a variety of applications including sales force mobility, field service and location-based services.

The MC35 supports push e-mail, and the applications it works with are also supported by the new Motorola Q2, which will be introduced in the U.S. shortly.

The device will be available exclusively from AT&T/Cingular initially.

Pricing is set at $650 to $720, depending on the configuration. The device is not subsidized by AT&T, so no minimum contract is required.

An AT&T spokesperson said that his company does not expect consumer sales for this device. It will be available in April.

The Motorola spokesperson said that the device was specifically not targeted at the BlackBerry device, despite the fact that it does basically the same thing; he said BlackBerry devices are not as rugged.

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