Motorola Atrix 4G Will Launch at the End of Next Month

Motorola's CEO didn't exactly announce the launch date for the Atrix 4G, but Sanjay Jha did say that this cutting-edge Android OS smartphone is going to be out around the end of next month.

The Atrix 4G was officially unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show early this month. It has drawn attention for a pair of innovative accessories that will be able to turn this phone into either a netbook or a desktop.

In a conference call with investors, Jha promised that this product is going to debut at "the end of February". Previously, Motorola had only said that the Atrix 4G will be available in the the first quarter of this year.

When discussing this upcoming smartphone, the Motorola CEO also said, "You will see our diversity in the retail channel as well as with other carriers in the U.S." This raises the possibility of the device might be released by other carriers than AT&T.

Jha also said the the Motorola Xoom Android OS tablet is going to debut at about this same time, or possibly in March.

Overview of the Motorola Atrix 4G
When functioning on its own, the Atrix 4G will have a tablet shape and a qHD (960 x 540) touchscreen.

It is going to run Android OS 2.2 on a 1 GHz NVIDIA Tegra 2 dual-core processor, and have 1 GB of RAM, 16 GB of internal storage, and a microSD/HC memory card slot.

This smartphone is going to be one of the first able to connect to AT&T's 4G HSPA+ network, plus it will have Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and a GPS receiver.

An optional laptop dock will offer an 11-inch display, keyboard, and trackpad, but no operating system. The Atrix 4G will provide this. When plugged in, this smartphone will switch to a version of Linux that offers a full desktop version of the Firefox web browser, while also still providing all the features of the Android OS.

In addition, Motorola is also producing a desktop dock that will have three USB ports for a keyboard and mouse, as well as a HD video-out port.

The version of Firefox that will run in dock mode will offer a near desktop experience, with multiple windows, Adobe Flash support, etc.