Motorola V3

Since its release in 2004, the Motorola Razr V3 has become the fastest selling and most popular mobile phone in history, spawned a slew of imitators, and redefined the mobile phone as a style icon, rather than merely being a communications device.

With its ultra skinny looks, and sleek buttonless metal finished keypad, the V3 hit the market like a rocket, and was soon the must have gadget – indeed, it has since gone on to be named as one of the best gadgets of all time by the readers of PC World magazine, beating the Apple PowerBooks!

What is perhaps most remarkable about the phone is that even now, 3 years on, the original phone remains one of the most popular handsets on the market, with annual sales still in their millions.

The phone has spawned several new versions, including the popular Krazr design, and earlier this year, Motorola announced that a new version of the Razr would be released in 2007, and feature the great looks of the original coupled with a more modern interface, and additional features.

The first generation V3, with its brushed aluminium finish, and large screen ushered in a new era for mobiles around the world, and when compared to the Razr, most other phones looked overweight and bulky.

Over the last 3 years, a number of developments, such as a mega pixel camera have been added to the Razr in order to keep it up to date and competitive in a fast moving market, however, the styling has remained exactly the same, ensuring the ongoing popularity of the phone with consumers who want their gadgets to look amazing.

The other models in the Motorola range that have had their designs based on the Razr have not managed to garner the same levels of popularity as their parent, but this is hardly surprising, as the Razr has become so iconic and ubiquitous that people want to own it rather than a look-alike. Other manufacturers such as Nokia and Samsung have aped the design of the Motorola Razr on a number of high end handsets, but for some reason, even though they may be slimmer, and more angular, they always seem to come off as a second best model, rather than managing to exceed the original.

When the Razr 2 comes out later this year, with its all new functionality and added features, it is to be hoped that it manages to compete with the original model, and even exceed it, rather than becoming yet another also ran!