The year is nearing its end, but consumers from the U.S are still impatiently waiting to be able to pre-order one final phone before the ball drops in Time Square to mark the beginning of a new year. Unsurprisingly, the handset we are talking about is the now famous Motorola Razr, who made the headlines ever since it was first announced. The fact that it’s a derivative of the nostalgia-filled flip phone from more than a decade ago makes it even more appealing to the average user.
Background
The original Motorola Razr sold in more than 130 million units during its lifespan of approximately 4 years. Motorola brought back interest in flip phones back in 2016 when they released a video teasing a high school hallway (from about 15 years ago) when everybody seriously wanted to get their hands on a clamshell flipper. November 13th marked the official announcement of the Motorola Razr, and preorders were scheduled to begin on the second day of Christmas. The phone is supposed to be priced at $1500 and be only available for Verizon customers, with the official release date set on January 9th. Unfortunately, these initial dates are being set back, just like it happened with other foldable phones (see the Samsung Galaxy Fold and Huawei Mate X as examples). Motorola says that they don’t expect to see a big delay. Nevertheless, while this is at least a bit irritating to say, the reason why the release date is being pushed back is interesting and says a lot about the upcoming foldable phone from Motorola.
The reason behind the delay
Foldable phones are a new concept, and just like any new technology, certain mishaps can take place among the first generations of a product. The Samsung Galaxy Fold was launched later than the initially planned release date because of some issues with build quality (which were more or less fixed, even though reports of broken or malfunctioning Samsung Galaxy Fold devices are a very frequent occurrence). Everybody remembers those youtube videos where some influencers have mistaken a vital part of the display with a protective film, removed it and ultimately destroyed the display of the phone. Some manufacturing issue caused the device to accumulate debris underneath the screen around the area of the hinges, causing nasty bulges to appear on the screen.
However, this is definitely not the case for the Motorola Razr, as some early indications hint that the Japanese manufacturer just needs some extra time to build more units in order to meet the enormous demand. In a statement to Gizmodo, Motorola said:
“Since its announcement in November, the new Motorola razr has received unparalleled excitement and interest from consumers. Demand has been high, and as a result, has quickly outgrown supply predictions. Motorola has decided to adjust razr’s presale and launch timing to better meet consumer demand.”
It looks like Motorola seems to deeply care about supporters of their new piece of hardware as they truly want to avoid somebody waiting to get their hands on a new Razr phone:
“We are working to determine the appropriate quantity and schedule to ensure that more consumers have access to razr at launch. We do not anticipate a significant shift from our original availability timeline.”
