Slvr seeks to build on Razr's edge

The Chicago Tribune reports that Motorola will launch the "Slvr L7, a phone featuring the Razr's blade-like styling and the Rokr's link to the iTunes music service," on Cingular Wireless shortly. Roger Entner at Ovum said, "The Slvr is redefining the candy bar in the same way that the Razr redefined the flip phone."

John Jackson at Yankee Group added, "You want to carry forward the design language that made the Razr so popular. Extending design leadership goes hand-in-hand with cementing the brand as a style and technology leader." While demand for the Razr is still strong, its product lifecycle is on a downward slope. "You can only milk these things for so long," Jackson said.

Pointing out the growing competition from Razr look-alies, Ed Snyder at Charter Equity Research said, "Razr's success wasn't lost on other phonemakers."

Regarding the Slvr being very different to the maligned Rokr iTunes phone, Entner at Ovum siad, "This phone makes a statement. This is the phone they should have come out with (initially) if they wanted to make an impact in the market."

Rumor is the Slvr will have the same 100-song storage capacity as the Rokr, which Snyder thought was a liability noting "competing music-playing phones hold more songs, especially models that include a slot for media cards that can hold up to 1 gigabyte of storage--roughly 250 songs." Snyder said, "If they make it just 100 songs, you can forget about it."