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Shortly after Motorola President & CEO Ed Zander revealed his company's Q communicator would be announced this week (last week), a Verizon Wireless rep reportedly denied this long-awaited event would not happen so soon after all. He was wrong.

Today, Verizon announced the thinnist smarpthone with a QWERTY thumb-keyboard - just 11.5 millimiters thick - yet will be available online on May 31st and in stores on June 5th. First demonstrated by Motorola last summer, the smartphone was supposed to ship this past January, but didn't; reportedly because Motorola needed time to improve its keyboard/software integration.

The heavily-subistized Windows Smarpthone will cost only $199.99 after a $100 instant rebate when purchased with a qualified Verizon voice and a data plan with two-year service agreement. Those plans - as is often the case with these things - will set you back a bit.

There are three calling and unlimited data access plans to chose from, with pricing ranging from $79.99 for 450 anytime minutes to $169.99 for 4,000 anytime minutes. All include all-you-can-eat IN calling and nights and weekends.

Verizon President & CEO Denny Strigl said, "Enterprise technology, consumer electronics and mobile are converging to create major productivity advantages for the work world. But those advantages have only been available to a select few -- until now. The Motorola Q offers power, style and ease-of-use in a cool ultra-thin format, giving Verizon Wireless customers an uncompromising experience in one device."

The Q has been one of the most conspicuous unreleased smarpthones of the last year. Built on Windows Mobile 5.0, it is built in the mold of RIM’s BlackBerry and Palm’s Treo. Like the Palm Treo 700w and new 700p, the RAZR-thin Q will be offered first by Verizon for its CDMA network, with support for high-speed EVDO (Evolution Data Optimized) broadband, which averages data connection speeds of 400 to 700 kbps.

Motorola plans to follow the CDMA/EVDO Q with a GSM/UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) 3G (comparable performance to EVDO) edition, so operators in Europe and Asia—let alone customers of carriers like Cingular Wireless and T-Mobile in the United States—can get their chance at the new smartphone, by the end of the year, according to Zander.

A HSDPA (High-Speed Downlink Packet Access) version of the Q, the next step in GSM 3G beyond UMTS, may even be in the cards as well.

The Motorola Q measures 4.6 x 2.5 x 0.45 inches and supports Microsoft's Direct Push technology for push e-mail support with Microsoft Exchange, as well as Pocket Office for access to Microsoft Office documents.

Additional features of the Q include a 320 x 240-pixel screen, dual stereo speakers, Bluetooth 1.2 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, 128 MB of Flash ROM, as well as a 5-way navigation button and thumb wheel.