Today, Verizon Wireless joined the select group of carriers offering the Motorola Q in a black casing.

Verizon was the first carrier worldwide to offer this Windows Mobile Smartphone with 3G support in its traditional silver casing. Two Canadian wireless carriers have been offering both black and silver versions for weeks.

Verizon is banking that customers wil be willing to pay a premium for the black version of the Q, as it is charging more for it. Both the silver and black versions have the same $300 base price (assuming the user signs up for a two-year contract) and a $100 instant rebate, but those who get the original version qualify for an additional $100 mail-in rebate, while those who get the version released today only qualify for an additional $50 mail-in rebate.

Either version of this WM Smartphone can be ordered from Verizon Wireless' web site now.

More About the Motorola Q

The Motorola Q has a tablet design, with a 320-by-240-pixel screen above a backlit QWERTY keyboard.This smartphone supports the push email system Microsoft released earlier this year. It can view Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Adobe Acrobat files that come in as attachments.

It isn't just about email, though. It is able to play music in a variety of formats and sports dual speakers. A miniSD slot offers additional storage for music, as well as other types of files. So far, the only versions of this smartphone to be released run on CDMA networks, and also support the 3G standard EV-DO.

It includes a 1.3 megapixel camera and Bluetooth short-range wireless networking. The Motorola Q runs Windows Mobile 5 and has 64 MB of RAM and 128 MB of Flash ROM.