Verizon to Skip Motorola Android Party

SCHAUMBURG, Ill. TheStreet) -- Motorola (MOT) says it will lift the curtain on its Google (GOOG) Android phones Sept. 10 at a media event in San Francisco, but don't expect to see telco partner Verizon on the stage.

A Verizon representative says the company is not part of the Motorola event and added that he did not know what Motorola was announcing. Adding to the mystery, a Motorola rep said the company will announce its phone company partners at the event.

The Verizon no-show will come as a slight shock to those Motorola watchers who expected to hear details about the Android phone headed to the No. 1 wireless carrier.

As TheStreet reported last month, Motorola will introduce two Android phones, one for Deutsche Telekom's (DT) T-Mobile and one, according to a source close to the company, for Verizon (VZ) in October.

The confusion going into the event adds extra drama to what is already billed as a defining moment in Motorola's long awaited comeback.

The September Android unveiling puts Motorola on track to reach its goal of having phones available for the holiday season. More important, perhaps, is that it gives investors slightly more confidence that the tech titan is closer to regaining some footing after stumbling for five years since the fall of the Razr phone.

The phone headed to Verizon, dubbed Sholes, is expected to have a big touchscreen, a slide-out Qwerty keypad, a 5-megapixel camera and possibly WiFi -- which would be a big departure for Verizon.