Motorola Brings Back the Razr

Remember the Razr? It's back.

Motorola Mobility on Tuesday unveiled the Droid Razr, which the Libertyville-based company is billing as one of the world's thinnest smartphones.

The Droid Razr borrows its name and slim profile (it's 7.1 millimeters thick) from an earlier-era predecessor, the Razr, which Motorola Inc. launched in 2004.

The original Razr, an ultrathin flip phone, eventually became the world's best-selling handset. The Razr name represents one of Motorola's biggest triumphs, but it is also remembered by tech followers as an unhappy milestone for the company because Motorola failed to follow up on the phone's success.

The post-Razr years were marked by lackluster product launches, such as the Razr2, declining market share and a late entry to the smartphone game. Chief Executive Sanjay Jha, who joined Motorola in 2008, has led a comeback in mobile devices by focusing on phones that run Google's Android operating system.

"On balance, (the Razr name) has more going for it than not," said William Lozito, chief branding officer at Strategic Name Development, a Minneapolis-based brand naming company. "It was the first innovative phone that was thin — I can see why they would use it. But I think initially, consumers are going to associate it with a tired brand."

Bill Ogle, Motorola Mobility's chief marketing officer, told the Tribune that the idea for reviving the Razr name surfaced after executives saw some "amazingly thin" parts, such as batteries, that company engineers had created. Subsequent consumer research showed that "Razr" stood for thin, metal and "really cool," Ogle said. The phone's designers were then asked to incorporate metal elements and other features, such as Kevlar fiber, into the device to make it fit the Razr image.

"We brought (the name) back to pay homage to what made a Razr a Razr, but (we) made it so much more modern and almost futuristic with the software we've added," Ogle said. "As designers and marketers and engineers, we feel we've taken the classic — and what's near and dear to people's hearts here — and improved it."

The new device is updated with hardware and software that make it a "marvel of engineering," Jha said at a press event in New York.

The Droid Razr is the company's first device to be outfitted with a splash guard that protects the outside and inside against water damage, for example, and it's the first phone in Motorola Mobility's portfolio to come with "Smart Actions," power conservation software that can squeeze up to 30 percent more battery life from the device by dimming the display or slowing processor speed.

The Droid Razr is also the first phone to come with MotoCast, a service that enables content sharing between mobile devices and a PC. For business users, the phone has remote memory-wiping ability and government-grade encryption for email, calendar and contacts.

Verizon Wireless, which uses the Droid brand for its lineup of premier Android devices, is the exclusive carrier for the new phone. The Droid Razr runs on Verizon's 4G network and will be available in early November for $299.99 with a two-year contract.