(Associated Press via NewsEdge) Motorola will start selling the next generation of its popular and ultra-slim Razr cell phone next month in South Korea ahead of a global launch in July, the president of the company's South Korean operations said.
'Korean consumers are tech-savvy and leading the pack in terms of design,' Gill Hyun-chang, president of Motorola Korea, told Dow Jones Newswires in an interview. 'The launch of our latest phone in Korea first shows we're confident about this product.'
The new phone, called Razr 2, boasts a slimmer frame, larger screen and improved call quality compared with its predecessor.
It will be available via SK Telecom, South Korea's largest wireless carrier, Gill said.
He wouldn't comment on pricing.
Motorola, the world's second-largest maker of cell phones, unveiled the new phone in a bid to resurrect its ailing handset business.
Motorola has sold nearly 100 million Razr phones, but has struggled to find a successor to it.
The Razr's popularity bolstered Motorola for the past two years.
The company then aggressively cut prices of Razrs and other high-end phones, especially in emerging markets, to boost market share. Profit fell sharply.
Last month, the company posted its first quarterly loss since 2004 and Motorola has lost about a third of its market value since October.
Homegrown names such as Samsung and LG are the two biggest suppliers of mobile phones in the 41 million-strong South Korean mobile service market.
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