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Motorola, as part of its on-going campaign to market the Q, has setup a wiki devoted to the smartphone. Wikis are collaborative Web sites that make it simple for many people to edit, delete and modify content through a browser. The most famous one is the mother of all wikis, the Wikipedia encyclopedia.

The Q wiki is an attempt to create an ever expanding 'ideal' user guide, according to the phone maker. Motorola gives an example of a Q user loading a new application to his smartphone, then posting instructions on how it was done on the wiki for the advantage of all Q owners.

Contents of the in-box user guide are included on the Q wiki to get things started. There are links to Motorola Q resources outside the wiki as well.

The Q, along with the just announced Samsung SGH-i320, is the thinnist smartphone with a QWERTY thumb-keyboard - just 11.5 millimeters thick - yet. It measures a compact 4.6 x 2.5 x 0.45 inches.

Verizon sells it for only a consumer–friendly $199.99 after a $100 instant rebate when purchased with a qualified Verizon voice and a data plan with two-year service agreement. That’s half as much as comparable Treos from Palm, Inc.

Leveraging the Windows Mobile 5.0 for Smartphone OS , like the Samsung, the Q is built in the mold of RIM’s BlackBerry and Palm’s Treo. Like the Palm Treo 700w and 700p, it is supports high-speed EVDO (Evolution Data Optimized) broadband, which averages data connection speeds of 400 to 700 kbps.

Additional features of the Q include a 320 x 240-pixel screen - not touch because it is a Windows Smartphone and not a Pocket PC, not a Pocket PC like the Treo 700w - 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.

The Q does not deliver Microsoft's Direct Push technology for push e-mail support with Microsoft Exchange out of the box. That technology will be available at a later date.

A new version of the Q may ship when the company's exclusivity agreement with Verizon ends with the conclusion of 2006. So while the Verizon version is compatible with that carrier's CDMA/EVDO network, a GSM operator like Cingular in the U.S. plus any number of other providers worldwide—there are now around like 2 billion GSM customers today—may be able to offer the Q then. In additoin, that version of the Q will likely be compatible with the GSM's UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) 3G technology.

There's even been specualtion that the subsidized cost of the Q could drop from today's $199.99 to an incredibly low $50 in six months time.