Making a Comeback

Report: Favorite Flip Phone Making a Comeback

New Motorola Razr will sell for $1.5K, reports 'WSJ'

By Arden Dier

A pedestrian uses his Motorola Razr cell phone in Chicago in 2009.   (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast, file)

Still longing for your Motorola Razr flip phone? Good news.
A new version of the ultrathin phone, hugely popular upon its 2004 release, is expected to hit the market as soon as next month. Lenovo-owned Motorola is currently performing tests on the $1,500 model to be released in an exclusive partnership with Verizon, the Wall Street Journal reports, describing a limited run of 200,000 devices. Based on the report, CNET expects the smartphone to be unveiled at Mobile World Congress kicking off Feb. 25 in Barcelona. Samsung is expected to show off its Galaxy X, also with a folding screen, at the same event.

Per the Verge, Microsoft is also investing in foldable and dual-screen devices, which are often viewed as productivity tools, leading Danny Paez at Inverse to note 2019 is "shaping up to be the year of the foldable phone." Motorola, responsible for more than 27% of US mobile-phone shipments in 2004, sold more than 130 million Razr phones before Apple moved to dominate the market with the release of the iPhone in 2007. The company revived the Razr as the Droid Razr, also with Verizon, in 2011, but without much success. As the Journal reports, the company's share of US phone shipments was less than 6% in the third quarter of 2018.