Android-running Motorola FlipOut to hit Germany in July at 350 euro

The square-shaped Android phone, the Motorola FlipOut, is on its way to Germany. It will arrive a little later than expected, but at least we get pricing info and also which carriers and stores will offer the FlipOut.

The Motorola FlipOut became official a couple of weeks ago, with little info on price and regional availability. But the info then said that the FlipOut was to become available in "certain regions" in Q2.

Obviously Motorola is a bit behind schedule since Germany will get it first and it will be among the first countries to get it. Official info from Motorola states that the Motorola FlipOut will come to Germany this July (which is technically Q3 2010), through O2, Vodafone and The Phone House. The price? Hold on to your hats - the FlipOut has an unsubsidized SIM-free price of 350 euro (430 US dollars).

What the Motorola FlipOut has to offer for that amount of cash is Android 2.1 Eclair with the MOTOBLUR custom UI, compact body at 67 x 67 mm and a 5-row QWERTY keyboard. Also 512MB worth of RAM sounds plenty plus you do get a 2GB microSD card.

The MOTOBLUR UI turns the Android address book into a social networking powerhouse. And with a physical QWERTY, there will probably be plenty of chatting and status updates with the Motorola FlipOut.

If the 350 euro asking price for the Motorola FlipOut seems hard to swallow or you just don"t want to wait, there are a number of alternatives for about the same amount of cash, including the other oddly shaped QWERTY Android, the Motorola BACKFLIP.

Source (Site in German)