Motorola Q9h - Getting Cheaper, Getting Replaced?

The Motorola Q9h (see full review here) is still one of our all-time faves here at WMExperts HQ. It's a stupendous device whose primary downfalls are battery life and lack of WiFi. Ok, there's one other downfall we failed to mention in our smackdown between the Q9h and the BlackJack II: the Q9h is more expensive.

Looks like that last part is getting slightly better, as we're seeing the after-contract price on AT&T's site down to $149 after rebate compared to the BJII's post-rebate price of $99. If you can snag a refurb (they're out of stock right now), the Q9h is actually cheaper.

What about that first downfall? Well, we're hearing a funny little rumor courtesy of Eric: apparently some AT&T stores are not only running out of stock on the Q9h, the manager is actually telling folks that it's been discontinued. That seems awfully crazy: the Q9h is a flagship device and we know that it's going to be getting the official update to Windows Mobile 6.1. There are two possible explanations:

• Nothing to see here but a couple of mis-informed AT&T store managers
• The Q9h might actually get updated?

It's a long shot, but we know that the Q9h has appeared before with WiFi: supposedly some pre-release models had it and BGR's Q9h has it for sure. Also, some enterprising diggers at MoDaCo have found hints of the of WiFi within the European version of the Q9h's OS (sans the WiFi hardware, of course). There's also that mysterious “other Q” that we spotted in a Motorola video.

So dare to dream this Monday morning, but don't dare too much, we don't see this happening quite yet.

Thanks Eric!