Sprint Motorola Q9c enters hospice care - nearing end of life?

With the Samsung Instinct poised to take the reigns as Sprint's flagship smartphone, it might make sense to stop pushing lesser handsets. As such, we're hearing that Sprint's Windows Mobile-powered Motorola Q9c is getting the ax, as it enters it's "end of life."

The speculation comes from reports that indicate Sprint is not stocking the Moto Q9c on their online storefront, and Sprint reps have reportedly said that the handset will not be restocked once current supplies are exhausted. If the Q9c is indeed headed toward hospice care, Motorola's going to be hurting ever worse - we don't see any Motorola hardware that could replace the Q9c in the pipeline. It seems Motorola's dimly shining star, the Moto Q9, is starting to fade.

Is Motorola trying to further cost cutting initiatives by slowing down handset development and research? With half the research team pink-slipped or reassigned, it sure seems that way to us. What Motorola needs is a mid- to high-end lineup of media-centric handsets that can play with the big-dogs - GPS, WiFi, 3G (HSDPA), and possibly even touchscreens. The 3G-lacking MotoZINE lineup just ain't gonna cut it.
Why do you disappoint us so? At this rate, it won't be long before Motorola's US market share drops down to global levels - in other words, it was a nice run, but it's coming to an end.