TECHSHOW - Motorola unveils phones, to buy Soundbuzz

By Sinead Carew

LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - Motorola Inc, the world's third biggest mobile phone maker, on Sunday unveiled two new phones and a plan to buy Asian digital music service Soundbuzz as it looks to stem recent market share losses.

Motorola unveiled the Rokr E8 music phone which, when switched on, is controlled by virtual buttons that vibrate when touched. When switched off, it has no visible control keys. The device also highlights and enables different buttons depending on whether the music player, phone or camera is being used.

The company also announced the Moto Z10, a video phone with editing capability and enough storage space for 24 hours of footage in an effort to appeal to young consumers who like to share videos with their friends.

Motorola has been under pressure to come up with new phone designs as it has been losing mobile phone market share to rivals such as Nokia Oyj (NOK1V: Quote, Profile, Research) and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd 005930 in the past year. And it has come under criticism for failing to come up with a strong successor to its Razr phone.

It also faces competition from Apple Inc, which entered the cell phone market with its iPhone in June.

Stu Reed, the head of Motorola's cell phone unit, said the latest phones were part of the company's plan to come out with new products frequently to build a broad phone range.

"We want to sell a broad portfolio. We don't want to be dependent on one phone ever again. We're not about one phone," Reed said in an interview at Motorola's product launch event on the sidelines of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.