Motorola unveils new wireless handset - made from recycled plastic bottles

Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT). which continues to sit on the brink of a total meltdown in global wireless handset sales, announced a rather unique handset at the CES trade show in Las Vegas this week. Yes, if you've been clamoring to get your hands on a wireless phone made with almost entirely recycled plastic bottles, Motorola may soon have your product.

While this may make sense from an ecological perspective -- and Motorola should be commended for this -- customers won't care a bit. The Motorola W233 is the first carbon-neutral handset in the world that also comes in a smaller packaging with manuals printed on 100% recycled paper. This may be the greenest phone in the world in almost every respect.

The problem is Motorola's market -- where will it sell this? In a world where almost all customers need at least some mid-range features in their phones, the entry-level W233 may only find a home in emerging markets. If those customer segments really are seeking out green phones, that would be quite a surprise.

The W233 is definitely voice-focused, with nine hours of talktime, Motorola's CrystalTalk voice enhancement technology and messaging capabilities. Other than that, there's really nothing else feature-wise about this new handset. Motorola, should it focus this handset precisely in the customer segments where it needs to be, may still do well with this model. But, with voice minutes already a commodity, the differentiators in advanced mobile markets are data-focused -- and that is where this handset falls short.