Motorola unveils U9 phone

Motorola will start selling the U9 music phone outside the U.S. this year, taking on devices from Apple and Nokia.

The U9 will go on sale in Asia, Latin America and Europe this quarter, the Schaumburg-based company said in a statement Thursday. The price wasn't disclosed. Motorola also is introducing eight other devices.

The company has posted two straight losses as U.S. shoppers flocked to Nokia models and Apple's iPhone, which combines the iPod media player with a Web-browsing mobile phone. Apple is introducing the phone in Europe this quarter.

Motorola is seeking new phones to match the success of its best-selling Razr model, now available for free with service contracts in some regions. The company has sold more than 100 million of the phones since their debut three years ago.

Motorola rose 19 cents, or 1 percent, to $18.89 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The shares have dropped 8.1 percent this year.

The U9 has music controls users can access without flipping the phone open. The model can store about 1,000 songs with the help of a memory card.

The other new phones include seven models from Motorola's W-series, aimed at consumers who only want basic services such as voice calls and text messaging. The phones typically sell for about $29.99 in the U.S. with a contract, compared with as much as $299.99 for the Razr 2.

The company also will introduce a black-and-gold version of the Razr 2, with a snakeskin texture on the back. Motorola, which didn't disclose the price of the new model, started selling the successor to the Razr in the U.S. in August.

Motorola will sell two of the W-series models in the U.S., while the others are aimed at markets such as Asia and Latin America, spokeswoman Jennifer Keyt said. The luxury Razr 2 will debut in Europe this quarter, and Motorola may sell it in other regions, she said.