Motorola W7 Wants You to Shake Things Up

Motorola's new W7 phone invites people to launch apps, decline calls, stop music, and switch tunes by shaking, flipping, or flicking the phone, Just hold on tight.

Struggling handset maker Motorola has announced its W7 Active Edition mobile phone, which it hopes will appeal to active types and fitness buffs by offering a range of accelerometer-based controls to users can perform common phone functions with simple gestures, rather than having to poke around for buttons. Users can launch their favorite app just by shaking the phone twice, decline calls or snooze an alarm by turning the phone face-down, or simply flick the phone right and left to move between songs and images.

“For those who are always on the move, the MOTO W7 Active Edition is designed to keep up with the pace,” said Alain Mutricy, senior vice president, Motorola Mobile Devices. “The accelerometer technologies put a new spin on the traditional relationship we have with our phone by not only simplifying how you use it, but making it more fun in the process.”

The W7 also features fitness features, including a pedometer and a personal trainer application that lets users set workout goals and monitor their fitness regimes. The phone also features an FM tune, a 2 megapixel camera (with a second VGA camera for video calls), a 2.2-inch QVGA display, up to 30 MB of user memory with up to 8 GB available via a microSD slot, and stereo Bluetooth A2DP wireless connectivity.

Motorola hasn’t announced handset partners for the W7, but plans to launch it in Asia and Latin America this quarter in licorice (essentially, black) and “alpine white.” The W7 Active edition supports quad-band GSM and UMTS/EDGE connectivity, so if the phone ever makes it to the United States AT&T and T-Mobile are the likely partners.