Mobility Today Motorola Q Giveaway: Win One of 2006's Hottest Smartphones

Mobility Today's Motorola Q giveaway page has sat live on the site's servers for close to two decades, still reachable at its original web address long after the contest itself wrapped up. This article restores what the page actually said, using archived snapshots of the original page pulled from the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine, and frames it clearly as history rather than as an active promotion. Mobility Today originally ran this giveaway in the summer of 2006. The contest has ended, the prize was almost certainly claimed nearly twenty years ago, and nothing below should be read as an invitation to enter anything. This page has been restored as a historical archive of a small but genuine piece of the site's early news coverage.

What Was Mobility Today's Motorola Q Giveaway?

In mid-2006, Mobility Today — at the time a mobile technology news and community site run by David Ciccone under Handheld Marketing Group, LLC — ran a giveaway offering a brand new Motorola Q Windows Mobile smartphone, described in the original page as valued at $500 USD, alongside a small bundle of accessories. The contest lived at the page this article restores, and archived snapshots of it show the promotion being actively updated over several weeks in June and July 2006 as new prizes were added to the package.

This Contest Has Ended — Archive Only

To be direct about it: this giveaway is not active, has not been active for close to two decades, and nothing on this page should be treated as a current offer. The original contest closed in July 2006. What follows is a restoration of that original page's content for historical reference, built from archived snapshots, not a live promotion. Anyone encountering this article should not attempt to enter, submit buzz words, or expect a prize of any kind.

The Giveaway's Timeline

Archived snapshots let us reconstruct a rough timeline, though not every date is pinned down with certainty. An earlier, separate Mobility Today post pointing readers toward a Motorola Q promotion appears to date to around June 2, 2006. The specific giveaway page this article restores — the one with the full contest rules, the podcast buzz-word mechanic, and the accessory bundle — first appears in archived snapshots around June 19–20, 2006, under the headline "UPDATE...Win a Motorola Q." The headline and content were revised at least twice more as the contest progressed: to "ENDING!! Win a Motorola Q and more!!!" by early July 2006, and later to a simpler "Win a Motorola Q TODAY," a title that stuck in snapshots taken well into 2007 and 2008, long after the contest had actually closed. The contest's stated closing date, repeated multiple times in the page's own text, was July 5, 2006.

How the Contest Worked: Podcast Buzz Words

The entry mechanic was tied directly to Mobility Today's own podcast rather than a simple comment-and-win format. According to the archived page, entrants needed to subscribe to the Mobility Today Podcast, listen to each new episode for a designated "contest buzz word" mentioned somewhere in it, and track every buzz word across multiple episodes leading up to the contest's close. On July 5, 2006 — the date of the final podcast episode tied to the contest — entrants were instructed to post all of the buzz words they'd collected in the comments section attached to that day's podcast, and the first person to correctly post the complete set would win. A one-entry-per-member limit, with IP addresses checked, implies entrants needed a registered Mobility Today forum account to participate at all.

What Was in the Prize Package?

The prize package grew over the life of the promotion, based on the differences between earlier and later archived snapshots of the same page. The core prize was the Motorola Q handset itself; the accessories layered on top of it over the following weeks.

The page does not state a combined dollar value for the full bundle beyond the $500 figure attached specifically to the phone, so this article isn't estimating one. Whether Boxwave, Vaja, and SanDisk formally sponsored these items or Mobility Today sourced them independently isn't spelled out in the surviving page text either, with the single exception of the memory card, which is explicitly credited to SanDisk.

Eligibility Rules and Restrictions

The original page included a fine-print eligibility note attached directly to the prize description. Winners were required to be United States residents, a restriction tied directly to the prize itself: the Motorola Q being given away was, in the page's own words, "a CDMA phone locked to Verizon Wireless Service." No wireless service plan was included, and the page warns the winner might need to pay a $30 activation fee depending on whether they activated new Verizon service or upgraded an existing line. Entry was limited to one per member, with IP addresses checked to help enforce that limit, and the phone would ship within 15 days of a winner being determined. No minimum age requirement is stated anywhere in the surviving page text.

Who Ran the Giveaway?

The giveaway was run directly by Mobility Today, published under David Ciccone's byline as the site's founder. There's no indication on the archived page that Motorola itself was a sponsor or supplied the device — the page's language describes the prize as something Mobility Today itself was giving away, reading as a site-run community contest built around driving podcast subscriptions rather than an official Motorola or Verizon marketing campaign. How Mobility Today itself acquired the handset isn't stated.

Was a Winner Ever Announced?

This is one of the clearest gaps in the surviving record. Archived snapshots of the page from 2007 and 2008 — well over a year after the July 5, 2006 deadline — show the same contest content still live, just retitled "Win a Motorola Q TODAY," with no winner's name, no congratulatory follow-up post, and no update to the rules text anywhere in those later snapshots. It's entirely possible a winner was announced elsewhere on the site, in a separate news post, in the podcast itself, or in a forum thread that hasn't survived in the same archived form — but nothing in the snapshots of this specific page confirms a winner, so this article isn't naming one. Readers looking for a definitive answer on who won should treat that detail as unconfirmed.

Why the Motorola Q Was a Desirable Prize in 2006

A Motorola Q was worth building a contest around because it was one of the most talked-about smartphones on the market that year — a genuinely new device shape at a moment when BlackBerrys, Palm Treos, and bulkier Pocket PC phones defined the category. It ran Windows Mobile 5.0 Smartphone Edition, the non-touchscreen variant of Windows Mobile built for devices navigated by physical keys rather than a stylus, packing a full QWERTY keyboard, a side thumbwheel, and a five-way pad into a body that was strikingly thin for the era, clearly borrowing design language from Motorola's RAZR. On Verizon, it connected over EV-DO, the fast mobile data standard of the period, making it genuinely useful for email and light browsing. A landscape 320x240 display, a 1.3-megapixel camera, Bluetooth, and expandable miniSD storage rounded out a spec sheet that read as legitimately premium at the time.

Motorola Q Specs at a Glance

The Verizon Motorola Q's May 2006 Launch

The Motorola Q that Mobility Today gave away was the original version of the device. Verizon Wireless launched it as an exclusive in the United States on May 31, 2006, roughly three weeks before the giveaway page's earliest archived snapshot. Contemporary coverage put the phone's price at $299.99 with a new two-year contract, reduced by a $100 rebate — commonly reported as bringing the effective price to around $199.99, though the precise rebate mechanics (mail-in versus instant, exact terms) aren't independently verified here beyond what contemporary reporting described. By the time Mobility Today's giveaway launched in June 2006, the Verizon Motorola Q had only just gone on sale, making it a genuinely current, in-demand device rather than an older or discounted model.

Sprint's Motorola Q Arrived Later, in Early 2007

It's easy, in hindsight, to blur the Motorola Q into a single generic product, but it rolled out to different carriers at meaningfully different times. Sprint's version did not launch until January 2007 — roughly seven months after Verizon's exclusive launch, and about six months after this specific giveaway had already closed. That's worth holding onto clearly: the Sprint Motorola Q is a separate, later carrier release of the same core hardware, not the device Mobility Today gave away in the summer of 2006. A separate Mobility Today retrospective on the Sprint Motorola Q covers that later release in more depth.

Which Carrier's Q Was Actually Given Away?

Because the Motorola Q went on to have both a Verizon and a Sprint version, it would be easy to assume the wrong one without checking. Here, the archived page removes the guesswork: its own eligibility text specifically describes the giveaway phone as "a CDMA phone locked to Verizon Wireless Service." Combined with the contest's June–July 2006 timeline — months before Sprint's version even existed — this confirms the giveaway unit was the original Verizon-locked Motorola Q, not a Sprint model, and not one of the later Q9-series devices (Q9, Q9m, Q9h, Q9c) that Motorola introduced afterward with newer versions of Windows Mobile. This article is not assuming that carrier based on a sibling article about the Sprint version — it's stated directly in the giveaway page's own surviving text.

Motorola Q vs BlackBerry and Palm Treo

Part of what made the Motorola Q worth giving away in 2006 was where it sat relative to the smartphones people already knew. BlackBerry had built its reputation around push email and a keyboard-first design philosophy that IT departments trusted. Palm's Treo line combined a keyboard with a touchscreen for more flexible navigation. The Motorola Q split the difference: no touchscreen at all, a one-piece QWERTY candybar form factor, and an unusually thin body that set it apart from the noticeably chunkier Treo, leaning hard into messaging and email much like BlackBerry while offering Windows Mobile's broader software ecosystem instead of BlackBerry's own platform. None of this article is declaring a winner among the three — reasonable buyers in 2006 picked among them based on carrier availability, platform familiarity, and personal preference as much as raw specs.

What We Could and Couldn't Verify

Given how old and thin contest pages like this tend to be in the historical record, it's worth stating plainly what could and couldn't be confirmed from archived snapshots.

Confirmed directly from the archived page text: the prize was a Motorola Q valued at $500, described as brand new; the giveaway unit was a CDMA phone locked to Verizon Wireless service; entry required subscribing to and listening through the Mobility Today Podcast for buzz words; the contest closed on July 5, 2006; eligibility was restricted to United States residents; entry was limited to one per member with IP checks; the prize would ship within 15 days of a winner being determined; and the bundle included a custom Vaja case, a Boxwave kit, an InvisibleShield, and a SanDisk 2GB miniSD card.

Not confirmed, and not guessed at here: the winner's name or whether one was ever publicly announced; the exact original publish date, beyond a window bounded by nearby snapshots; any minimum age requirement; the unit's color; whether Motorola directly supplied the device or Mobility Today sourced it independently; and whether Boxwave and Vaja formally sponsored their items. Where this article flags something as uncertain, that reflects a genuine gap in the surviving record, not an oversight.

Why We're Preserving This Page

Pages like this one rarely survive online for long once a contest ends — there's little incentive to keep hosting rules for a giveaway that's already been decided. This one happened to survive because the Wayback Machine crawled it repeatedly over several years, capturing both the active contest and its long, quiet afterlife as a stale but still-live page. Restoring it here keeps a small, genuine piece of Mobility Today's early history on the record — clearly labeled as what it now is: an archive, not an active offer.

FAQ

What was the Mobility Today Motorola Q giveaway?

A 2006 contest run by Mobility Today offering a brand new Motorola Q smartphone, valued at $500, plus an accessory bundle, to a reader who correctly collected and submitted a series of "buzz words" mentioned across episodes of the Mobility Today Podcast.

Is the Mobility Today Motorola Q giveaway still active?

No. The contest closed on July 5, 2006. This article is a historical restoration of the original page's content, not a live promotion, and there is no way to enter it today.

Which Motorola Q was given away?

The original Motorola Q, the CDMA version locked to Verizon Wireless service — not the later Sprint version, and not any of the later Q9-family devices.

When did the Motorola Q launch?

The original Motorola Q launched exclusively on Verizon Wireless in the United States on May 31, 2006. Sprint's version followed separately in January 2007.

Which carrier sold the original Motorola Q?

Verizon Wireless, as an exclusive launch partner, starting May 31, 2006.

Did the Motorola Q have a touchscreen?

No. It used a fixed 320x240 landscape display, navigated with a physical keyboard, a five-way pad, and a side thumbwheel.

What operating system did the Motorola Q run?

Windows Mobile 5.0 Smartphone Edition, the non-touchscreen variant of Windows Mobile built for keypad navigation.

Did the Motorola Q have a full QWERTY keyboard?

Yes, built directly into the bottom half of the device, alongside a five-way navigation pad and a side thumbwheel.

How much did the Verizon Motorola Q cost at launch?

Contemporary coverage put it at $299.99 with a new two-year contract, reduced by a $100 rebate, commonly cited as bringing the effective price to around $199.99 — though the exact rebate mechanics aren't independently verified here.

How did the Motorola Q compare to a BlackBerry?

Both leaned heavily on keyboard-driven messaging and email, but BlackBerry ran its own dedicated platform with a strong existing reputation in IT departments, while the Q ran Windows Mobile, a broader general-purpose smartphone platform.

Who won the Mobility Today Motorola Q giveaway?

Unknown. Archived snapshots of the giveaway page from well after the July 5, 2006 deadline show no winner's name or announcement anywhere on the page, so this detail could not be confirmed and is not being guessed at here.

Mobility Today's Motorola Q giveaway is a small, dated artifact of a specific moment in mobile technology — a site-run community contest built around a podcast, offering one of 2006's more distinctive smartphones as a prize, run by a small independent outlet years before giveaways like this became a marketing category of their own. The contest closed in July 2006, its winner was never confirmed in the surviving record, and this restored page exists purely as a historical reference to that piece of Mobility Today's history and the Motorola Q's own launch era.