As noted in a recent article sales of Motorola’s new Razr2 cellphones have not been as high as the company might have liked when compared to sales of Apple’s iPhone over the recent holiday buying period, and it occurred to me that not only is it possible that the iPhone affected Razr2 sales, but Motorola may be doing a better job of stifling Razr2 sales with its strange product strategy.

Walk into any cellphone outlet and you’ll likely find at least three versions of the seemingly ubiquitous Razr phone. You have the original -- though updated Razr V3 -- the Razr V3xx which adds video and music playback, the Razr2 V8 which adds smart phone features, Razr2 V9 which is thinner and offers a better camera, the Razr2 V9m with USB2.0, and the Razr2 maxx Ve which can access EVDO.

Motorola Razr2 V8 Photo courtesy of Motorola

Then there’s the Krazr which is a slimmer version of the Razr, and the Rokr which is the non-clamshell version of the Razr. Both the Kazr and Rokr comes in several models as well.

Joe Consumer wanting a cellphone is presented with an array of confusing phones, prices, features, and plans. It’s enough to make your brains implode. And that’s just the Motorola Razr lineup; there’s a boatload of Razr wannabes, look-alikes, and work-alikes as well, making a choice harder still.

Further, there really is very little that physically distinguishes the new Razr2 from its older siblings. They both are metal clad clamshell phones with the silly screen on the outside. How does anyone know you have a Razr2 versus a regular Razr unless they get up close and examine the phone. You can easily tell when someone is using an iPhone: Its silver slab physicality and big screen are easy to spot, even on TV. The Razr2, not so much.

On top of all of this, cellphone companies are now giving the Razr V3 as a free incentive phone when you sign up. Just giving it away!

Apple iPhone Photo courtesy of Apple Inc.

Of course, the iPhone as competition doesn’t help. When compared to the dizzying Razr choices the iPhone seem downright spartan. There’s only two iPhones, the 8GB and the 16GB model. That’s it. Even the three tired rate plan offered by AT&T is simple; each tier offers the same features, you just pay more for more time and access. That’s it.

Simple. Easy. Quick.

I won’t even attempt to decode the various plans associated with the Razr.

One other point I’d like to make is partly based on anecdotes, my experience with Motorola phones and the experiences of friends and family.

I have a Razr V3. It’s almost two years old and it works flawlessly. Mine is wrapped in a case from Vaja which keep the phone well protected even though I’ve dropped it several times. My wife’s Razr had a screen that died. AT&T quickly sent us a new one and the problem was solved. So, our experiences with the Razr have been relatively positive. However, I have friends who own Razrs and hate them. One woman, Nicole, says her Razr is falling apart, and says that her husband and several of her friends report similar construction issues.

In fact, back in 2006, two cellphone carriers -- T-Mobile and Cinguar (now AT&T Wireless) -- stopped selling the Razr due to significant hardware problems. While Motorola can be commended for quickly fixing the problem, such things, as well as lingering anecdotal reports like those from my friend Nicole, can leave a bad taste in people’s mouths.

So, Joe Consumer faced with deciding on a cellphone can get an iPhone, which does many things well and has a short, but clean track record, or pick from several different models of Razrs and Razr wannabes which will likely work just fine, each able to ...um, make calls and something more if he can just figure out what.

It doesn’t surprise me at all that Motorla is leaking profits and having a tough time getting people to buy the Razr2. While iPhone sales certainly aren’t helping, Motorola seems to be doing a fine job of hobbling its new phone all by itself.

Vern Seward is a writer who currently lives in Orlando, FL. He’s been a Mac fan since Atari Computers folded, but has worked with computers of nearly every type for 20 years.