Motorola
A780

At its launch, the A780 was described by Motorola as a “truly converged device offering the speed of EDGE technology coupled with the open, flexible environment of Java and Linux to deliver the ultimate handset for both work and play”. It was the successor to the Chinese-developed Motorola A760 which was the world's first handset to combine a Linux operating system and Java technology together with PDA functionality. The Linux distribution used was MontaVista Linux. Moving to a Linux Java operating system was a big bet for Motorola, which saw the company switching its loyalties from the Symbian OS to Linux Java. Around the same time, Motorola was in negotiations to sell its 19 percent stake in Symbian having previously been one of the founding shareholders. This coincided with Motorola stating that it was committed to making the Linux operating system a key pillar of its handset software strategy. The A780 had a range of capabilities including personal digital assistant (PDA) functionality, a digital camera, a video player, and an MP3 player all accessed via a colour touch screen. Linux + Java allowed Motorola to offer what it referred to as “the coolest applications from games to productivity tools”. Users were able to view PDF attachments, as well as Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents on the A780’s integrated document viewer. The device also had a “full-HTML browser”. The phone included a 1.3-megapixel camera with 8x digital zoom, video recording and playback and an integrated MP3 player. When it was announced in Europe in August 2005 the A780 became Motorola’s first mobile phone with built-in satellite navigation. This was provided in partnership with ALK Technologies’ CoPilot Live navigation software and digital maps from NAVTEQ. This offered “full-featured satellite navigation, with detailed colour street maps and voice instructions”.