Motorola debuts Cliq, with social media-based Android UI

Not to be confused with HTC's Android-based Tattoo, which was known as "Click" before it was released, Motorola today debuted the latest T-Mobile Android called Cliq.

As expected, Cliq is an HVGA touchscreen QWERTY slider with quad-band GSM, WCDMA/EDGE/GPRS and HSPA 7.2, A-GPS, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.0 connectivity. It offers up to 32GB of storage via microSD, but the speed of processor and amount of RAM were not announced today.

Central to the Cliq is Motorola's new Android UI known as Motoblur, an interface which pulls content from disparate social networks and merges them with texts, emails, and other in-phone communications into a single management system. Motoblur actually fulfills a rumor from nearly one year ago, which suggested that Motorola was working on a "social Android device."

Motoblur integrates services such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter, and syncs all content (feeds, updates, and contacts) into a single Android-based interface. Status updates across all social networks can be done with a single update, and the 5 megapixel, 24fps video camera is equipped with the ability to directly upload and geotag content on Picasa, Photobucket or YouTube.

Though Motorola was expected to unveil two devices today, it still made a landmark announcement in that it's now the second manufacturer to release an Android device in the US, and the fourth internationally (behind HTC, Samsung, and Huawei).

With Sanjay Jha at the helm of Motorola's handset division, Android has taken on greater importance in the company's mobile device revitalization. However, many considered today's Android launch to be a "make or break" moment for the company.

"It is an important launch, but I think it is possible to overstate the importance of it," Jha told the Chicago Tribune yesterday, "We're not anymore in a phase where one product will either make or break this company. What we're trying to do is build a portfolio of products."

Jha reiterated this point today, saying that Cliq is not the single solution, but the beginning of a process.

The device will be launched in Fall 2009 on T-Mobile, and will be released internationally on Orange, Telefonica, and America Movil later this year under the name "Dext."