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As Verizon Wireless subscribers continue to wait for Motorola's Windows Mobile Q communicator, another smartphone from the world's number two mobile phone vendor has shipped to distributors ... in Hong Kong. But this device is called Ming and it's not Microsoft but Linux based.

The smartphone debuted at a Shanghai press event on December 26th of last year, when clothing designer Vivienne Tam and some models walked it and some other Motorola handsets down a runway.

The keypad-less smartphone, which weighs a mere 3 ounces (95 grams) - less than a RAZR - is built on MontaVista Linux and a Intel XScale PXA270 processor. It sports a clear flip-cover to allow users to view its 240 x 320 pixel resolution, 262K color and 2.4-inch screen without having to open the phone.

There's also a 2-megapixel camera that incorporates a business card scanner and optical-character recognition software, FM radio, audio player, and Bluetooth. Productivity software includes a document viewer, POP3 e-mail, calendar, task list, and a contact manager that allows attachment of photos and contact-specific ringtones.

Motorola is emphasizing the smartphone’s name, which it changed from the A1200 for the Hong Kong market. Ming stands for bright, clear, overt or open in Chinese.

The company's Hong Kong Mobile Devices Business director of sales Terence Ma said, "The name Ming was chosen to resonate more deeply with people in Hong Kong than a traditional model name or number can."

"The bright display, the clear flip cover, the high-resolution camera, the superb handwriting recognition, and the features designed to keep the life of an executive clear and comprehensible truly make Ming the unifying concept of this device," Ma added.

A U.S. version of the A1200 landed on the mobile device rumor mill's favorite leaky faucet Web site, the Federal Communications Commission's, back in January, This GSM/EDGE (850/1800/1900MHz)version of the smartphone appears to offer a 1.3-megapixel instead of Ming's 2-megapixel camera, but the camera still doubled as a business-card scanner.

The Hong Kong version of the A1200, Ming, should be available to consumers shortly, while there's still no telling when the American edition may ship.