Last week Microsoft announced Windows Mobile 6 details and this week Motorola announced details of two new devices. The Moto Q GSM is due out later this year and is simply a quad-band GSM and EDGE version of the current Q phone, and for some odd reason (timing?) they are keeping the current Windows Mobile 5 OS on the phone, instead of the latest WM6.

The biggest news is the newly announced Moto Q q9 phone. The Q9 features the Opera browser, anti-virus protection, an updated 2 megapixel camera (upgrade from the crappy 1.3 megapixel), 30fps video capture, improved 320×240 QVGA display, improved support for more audio formats, VPN support, voice recognition, A2DP stereo Bluetooth support, Quad-Band (GPRS/EDGE) functionality like the Moto Q GSM, USB 2.0 support, and the new Windows Mobile 6 OS. New High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) technology allows for faster downloads, up to 3.6MB/sec (AT&T is the only carrier which supports HSDPA currently). The phone is also 11.8mm thick, which is 0.3mm thicker than the current 11.5 mm Q phone.

The Q9 will be available Q2 2007, probably around the time the new Apple iPhone is released. I love the Q, but I think Motorola is going to have to make some bigger changes to compete with the iPhone, most notably a larger display and improved web browsing experience. While the Q9 promises an Opera browser, there are no details as to whether or not this is just the current Opera Mobile software that you can put on your current Q phone, or something different. Since web browsing accounts for the majority of my time on my Q phone these days, I’m watching closely to see how this feature improves.