Schaumburg (IL) – Motorola will bring the second generation Razr phone to U.S, stores this weekend – and hopes that the device will bring back growth to the cellphone manufacturer.

In Pictures: Motorola Razr 2 ...

There is no other cellphone manufacturer that so desperately needs a winner in its cellphone lineup. As successful as the first generation Razr phone was - the company has sold more than 100 million of the series – so disastrous is the company's current situation of financials and market shares. The company lost $158 million in the second quarter of this year and its market share in the global cellphone arena slipped by 31.6% over the second quarter of 2006 – and Motorola is the only top-5 phone manufacturer facing retreating unit shipments at this time.

In this view, the Razr 2 does not arrive a day too early. The cellphone will be rolled out by Alltel, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, US Cellular, and Verizon Wireless over the next 14 days, with Sprint and Verizon Wireless stores beginning to offer the phone this weekend. Sprint will be selling the device for $250 with a 2-year contract, AT&T and Verizon will be charging $300. Unlocked phones also have popped up around the Internet with prices ranging from the suggested retail price of $799.95 to some stores selling the devices for as low as $470.

The official product names of the phone will be "V9" (3G HSDPA), "V9m" (3G EVDO CDMA) and "V8"(GSM).

The Razr 2 is yet another flip phone, but it is 2 mm thinner than the first generation Razr. The phone has a much more expensive feel to it than the first Razr and introduces a range of new materials. It is built using steel for the internal frame; aluminum, magnesium and plastic parts are visible to the eye on the outside. The company claims that the casing of the phone is scratch-resistant, with the lens cover being made with chemically hardened glass. Motorola has put a lot effort into increasing the subjective value perception of the Razr phone.

At the core of each phone is a 500 MHz ARM11 processor, which Motorola says is about 10 times faster than the original Razr CPU. The feature set also includes a 2.2” QVGA display (320x240 pixel), a 2-megapixel camera with multi-shot capability, 512 MB or 2 GB of integrated memory, a micro USB port support USB 2.0, physical “vibrating” feedback in response to finger taps, Windows Media (Janus DRM) audio playback capability as well as 176x144 pixel video playback at 15 fps. The device runs on a Linux/Java platform with a newly designed user interface that, according to Motorola, allows users to find their contacts faster than before.

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