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Motorola introduced a smartphone to compete directly with Palm, Inc.'s Treo and Research In Motion's BlackBerry devices a few months ago. Called Q, the handset purports to be the world's thinnest (4.6 x 2.5 x 0.45 inches) & lightest QWERTY thumb-keyboard phone.

The mobile phone vendor recently revealed a CDMA edition of the tablet-style Q would be the first version released, with carrier Verizon Wireless set to launch the device in the U.S. Whether that will occur during the first quarter of 2006 - as previously thought - or over the next couple of weeks to take advantage of the holiday shopping season isn't clear.

Verizon will also offer Motorola competitor Palm's Treo 700w smartphone sometime early next year. As Windows Mobile 5.0 devices, both smartphones offer BlackBerry-like 'push' e-mail—delivered as part of a Messaging and Security Feature Pack for the handheld platform a couple of months ago.

Like the Treo, the RAZR-thin Q support the carrier's high-speed EV-DO network for average connection speeds of 400 to 700 kbps. Verizon's coverage area for EV-DO currently includes 171 metropolitan areas.

Motorola plans to follow the CDMA Q with a GSM edition, so operators in Europe and Asia—let alone customers of carriers like Cingular Wireless and T-Mobile in the United States (perhaps)—will eventually get their chance at the new smartphone.

Additional features of the Motorola Q include a 320 x 240-pixel screen, dual speakers, Bluetooth for personal area networking (connecting to headsets, printers) and a 1.3 megapixel camera with photo lighting for picture and video. There's a miniSD slot for storage expansion, 64 MB of RAM plus 128 MB of Flash ROM, as well as a 5-way navigation button and thumb wheel.