Motorola Announces New MC55 Business Phone

Motorola's consumer handheld business may be perpetually struggling, but the company also has a successful line of hard-core business handhelds that were formerly sold under the Symbol brand name. Motorola's EDAs (Enterprise Digital Assistants) are ubiquitous on stock floors, in the hands of FedEx deliverymen, and even among the salespeople at Apple stores.

The latest addition to the EDA family, the MC55 line, was announced Monday. The MC55 is a Windows Mobile 6.1 device that's rugged enough to drop on a concrete floor or accidentally spill cleaning fluid on.




Importantly for enterprise buyers, it comes in several different configurations. The MC5590 is Wi-Fi only, for use within your warehouse or retail store. If you need to make calls, the 5590 supports VoIP. The MC5574 includes a 2.5G GSM modem that works on AT&T and T-Mobile. The MC5590 has been on sale for a few months now, but the MC5574 is new. Both phones can come with standard numeric, QWERTY, QWERTZ (that's German) or AZERTY (French) keypads, as well as a cursor-key-centric layout for the 5590 model only.



Both models have 520 Mhz processors, 3.5" 320x240 color touch screens, a MicroSD memory card slot, Bluetooth and about six hours of talk time. As with all of their EDA models, you can get a comprehensive service and support package that includes coverage for accidental breakage, right down to the stylus and screen protector.