Motorola's new mobile has a lotta bottle

 

Gallery

By Reuters

Posted on 7 Jan 2009 at 08:12

Motorola has unveiled a mobile phone made of recycled water bottles, hoping to cash in on the trend for environmentally friendly products.

Motorola claims the W233 Renew is the world's first carbon-neutral phone. As well as using recycled materials for the plastic casing, the company is also pledging to offset the carbon dioxide used in manufacturing, distribution and operation of the phone through investments in renewable energy sources and reforestation.

It hasn't disclosed pricing for the phone, which will be showcased at this week's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.

Motorola, which has lost market share by being slow to follow trends such as touchscreens and high-speed data links, also plans to showcase three different items at CES: a relatively large touchscreen tablet phone, a rugged phone, and a rechargeable cable TV remote control with a find feature.

The Motosurf A3100 touch-control tablet supports Wi-Fi networks and high-speed cellular connections and can be operated using a stylus, a trackball or touching the screen with fingers.

The device allows for video conferencing and updating of social-network sites, and is to be available in Asia and Latin America during the first quarter.

The rugged Tundra VA76r phone, which includes a walkie-talkie style feature, will go on sale on 13 January in the US.

The company's home electronics division will also introduce a rechargeable television set-top-box remote control. The remote is wirelessly linked to a base station, on which a user can press a switch to trigger an audio-tone and a flashing light that will help locate the device if it goes missing.