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!

Unwired view points out that Motorola was pretty much a non-starter at this year's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, but that they might be planning a big splash at CTIA in Las Vegas, starting April 1st (Yes, WMExperts will be there, baby). One of the phones we've been waiting for, the “Mystery Q,” which many are hoping is the Q10. The Q10, like its lower-numbered bretheren, will be a QWERTY keyboard device, but it's also rumored to sport a touchscreen!

Oh, look, a youtube video is after the break, featuring this little tidbit I grabbed and threw at the top. Looks like a Q10 to me. Another couple of shots from the video after the break as well!

The Q10 would be good news. See: Motorola could really, really, REALLY use some good news right about now. We've avoided talking about much of the doom and gloom surrounding the company lately if only because we don't like kicking a dead horse when it's down (mixing metaphors, though, we're cool doing that). When we told you on February 4th that the “MotoCoaster was just getting started,” we didn't lie. Motorola decided to not spin off their handset division, but instead to find somebody to head it (New CEO Greg Brown said he'd do it himself, but apparently changed his mind). With all that fuss going on, it wasn't much of a surprise to to us to hear that president of Mobile devices Stu Reed quit (not to mention their chief marketing officer). And do you remember how investor Carl Icahn was trying to take over the board with people that, er, didn't act like the Keystone Kops? He's on his way towards that goal with a vengeance, moving from owning a 1.4% share last year to a 6.3% share earlier this month. So expect another round of hijinks as Icahn tries to oust some folks from the board (again).

So, yeah, bring on the Q10 and bring it on quick, Motorola. The Q9h (see our full Q9h Review) is too beautiful a device to be chained to such a screwed up company, we want more of that.

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