The Island of Doctor Moto

It looks to be some Moreauian chimera of iPhone and Pre, but Motorola’s new QA4 Evoke seems a far slicker handset than most we’ve seen from the company lately. Odd then that it’s to make its debut on a flat-rate carrier like Cricket. Given the rapid decline in Motorola’s share of the handset market, you’d think that the company would be doing its damndest to put it on the big carriers’ shelves. Perhaps the company’s gearing up for a slow launch. Or perhaps AT&T (T), Sprint (S) and Verizon (VZ) are too busy with their iPhones, Pres and Blackberrys to pay attention to Motorola’s (MOT) latest attempt to revive its flagging post-Razr cellphone business. Anyway, as far as handset features go, the Evoke boasts some decent ones: a 2.8-inch WQVGA display, quad-band CDMA connectivity (plus EVDO Rev A), stereo Bluetooth, true GPS, an accelerometer, a two-megapixel camera and a slide-out number pad that complements its virtual QWERTY keyboard. No word yet on price, but the device will begin selling in May, likely a month or so before Palm’s (PALM) Pre and the next-gen Apple (AAPL) iPhone cause everyone to forget it.