Nokia and Motorola Come Up Stale

On Monday, the company said software problems would delay the introduction of six phones, including its N91 music phone. Earlier this year Nokia blamed software for the absence of its new E-series line of smartphones for business customers.

Nokia isn't the only cellphone maker stumbling. Surprisingly, onetime industry-design leader Motorola added nothing to its lineup that could rival the two-year run of the ultrathin Razr.

A particularly noticeable absence from Motorola's product showcase, as TheStreet.com reported last week, was the Q phone, the heavily anticipated rival to Research in Motion's (RIMM Quote) Blackberry.

Motorola did introduce a lower-priced CDMA phone. And earlier in the week the company announced three new colors for its massively popular Razr phone, milking the line as best it can. The Schaumburg, Ill., wireless titan also added the V3m, a special music-playing version of the Razr. The V3m doesn't have the 100-song limit of its disappointing iTunes Rokr phones.

Meanwhile, Samsung stuck to its full-on imitation strategy, rolling out what it bills as the thinnest phone in the U.S. Though not yet fitted with a catchy name, the t509 candybar-styled GSM phone measures less than 10 mm thick. The t509 is a nonfolding version of Samsung's Blade phone. Blade was Samsung's answer to Motorola's Razr, just as the t509 is designed to go head-to-head with Motorola's Slvr.

And finally, No. 4 LG introduced a handful of CDMA clamshell, color-screen camera phones, not entirely different from models currently in circulation, at least with one exception: the LG LX-550. This thin, folding phone has an unmistakably Apple (AAPL Quote) iPod-looking navigation wheel on the outside for music controls.