Motorola V600 was announced at the 2003
Consumer Electronics Show and was expected for a release in the second half of the year. It was developed along with two other similar but lower models,
Motorola V500 and
Motorola V300, collectively referred to as the "
triplets". Because Motorola's operating profit had been significantly less than market leader
Nokia, the company designed these phones along with others differently by trimming costs. The "triplets" are almost identical and have many common parts. The Motorola V600 was hyped and became a much anticipated product, however its release was delayed because of cited software problems and it missed the crucial Christmas period. In October 2003, Motorola announced a special edition of the Motorola V600 in a tie-in with luxury carmaker
Aston Martin. At the 2004 CES show, Motorola announced availability of the V600 and signalled that it would be as big a product as the preceding V60 and the
StarTAC. It was finally released in January 2004 in Europe, on February 24 in Taiwan, and suffered another delay in the US until it was released at the end of March 2004, carried by
T-Mobile,
AT&T Wireless and
Cingular. Considered stylish, Motorola gave out the V600 to nominees of the
Oscars held on February 29, 2004. == V620 ==