Double or Nothing?

• Paper Beats Pebl

  The Pebl falls prey to the economics: Typically, it costs $20 million to develop a new product and another $200 million to launch it globally. That’s why a product’s life cycle is four years or, more often, four months.

• Scissors Beats Paper

  Moto’s play–phones as fashion statements–gets cut short when consumers fail to embrace the Pebl and tire of the Razr derivatives, shredding Motorola’s recent sales growth and leaving it between a rock and a hard place.

• Pebl Beats Scissors

  The Pebl rocks. Its smooth, rounded body and velvet-soft skin blunt consumer criticism that it’s too clunky. Instead, it evokes simplicity and proves to be another iconic design for Motorola.

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