Hello,
 We have all been following the recent(and the past) course of one [Great] American ICON; Colt, in the decision to sell dumbed down Ar-15's to the consuming public.
 Here is another example of another  [Great] American  Icon selling their wares as well!  Motorola!

Any one in the know had or wanted one of these phones from the past.... I would have given my left nut back in the 90's to have had one of those jewels then.


Also, being knowledgeable about radios, I have had the pleasure to own/use some of these two ways:REAL RADIOS!   and this :


NOW, in today's BUSY consumer market, this is what we all can purchase.

These are the cell phones:  


and these are the two way radios:    

MICKEY MOUSE RADIOS

My point: Motorola does the same thing Colt does in peddling dumbed- down, cheap wares to the buying public. I think with Motorola, it is more blatantly noticeable, and not as subtle as Colt's attempt, but both attempts are still being made; to hoodwink a great thriving energy pump for the US economy. Do we stand for this? Sit idle. Do something?
 Any ideas?

Thanks!    

Sorry, you are wrong. Go to Motorola's website and look at their product line.

Do you really think the talkabout radios are all they are offering now?!?!?

Quoted: Sorry, you are wrong. Go to Motorola's website and look at their product line. Do you really think the talkabout radios are all they are offering now?!?!?

I did not say this was ALL they are offering now, BUT, as you said, GOTO the COMMERCE, consumer side of the Motorola web site, and then come back and say what you see?

The Talk about and their ILK is all they offer up as TWO WAY RADIOS to consumers, the general buying public. Try to buy an XTS-5000 from the same commerce site.. GOOD LUCK!

Totally agree about the dumbshit FRS type radios that are out there.  Who the fuck decided to put the PTT on the FRONT of the rig?!?  Thankfully there are a lot of choices out there and we can bypass this "consumer oriented" crap for something more professional.  Good also that Kenwood, Yaesu, Icom, etc... still make *REAL* radios.

I just replaced my StarTac (my second - paid $500 for my first in 1996) with a V710.  While I *hate* silver gear, the V710 isn't too bad and the functions are straightforward.

I still use a Startac.  Nokia is Finn for "no work"

Those cheapo jobs are perfect for some applications, for instance:  Construction.  I dropped one down an elevator shaft once and it shattered... we all laughed.  If it had cost 600 dollars I would have had to have jumped after it to break its fall.  

Motorola is really starting to shoot itself in the foot when it comes to professional 2-way radios and equipment. It used to be you paid more for the big /\/\ because you were getting such a superior product. Now you pay more for a name.

They don't have anything more than the competition in most models, and as Kenwood, Vertex, Icom etc get better and better, more and more agencies and companies switch, Couple that with the fact that they treat the customer like crap and thier asanine programming software policies and watch the market share drop......

Oh, and the comperable radios can be had from the competition for usually less than half the /\/\ price, sometimes way less!

It's a fact  that lots of people find the FRS style radios useful for various purposes. Quite a few went to Iraq with our troops for use on the platoon/squad level, they're cheap enough that every soldier can afford one.

I don't really like the PTT on the front of some of the Motorola FRS radios either but I seem to be seeing fewer of these for sale lately. Market forces at work perhaps?

Low cost, reliable, short range radios are suited to many peoples needs, but it's the no license aspect that is the big draw IMHO.

Don in Ohio

It used to be the Astro Saber was the top of the line Motorola portable - what has that been replaced with?

I believe the Astro Saber  parts support is discontinued by the end of this year. 4 years ago, they introduced the Astro XTS3000(trunked/conventional), XTS3500(conventional), now within the past 2 years they introduced the XTS2500/XTS5000, both trunked/conventional; more MO money. All these have the APCO 16 features. They ARE introducing lower end analog trunked models priced around $1000, but without the APCO 16 features.
 With homeland security funds, and the latest buzzword, INTEROPERABILITY, there is a lot of Federal dollars going into this highend radio equip, and it also aids and eases the ability to encrypt the emmissions, as well as OTAR the encryption keys.

Quoted: I still use a Startac.  ...

+1

Actually been thinking about getting a new battery for it.

I was at the local Best Buy, and Motorola licenses it's name for the FRS radios.