Motorola finally announced that it is now offering its Chinese consumers the choice to use a different default search engine on Android-powered Motorola devices. Consumers in China can use the well-liked Baidu Chinese search engine as a default option as a substitute of Google Search, Motorola said on Thursday in union with the opening of its SHOP4APPS application marketplace. In the face of the tensions involving China and Google’s censorship, Motorola told Reuters that it’s not unusual for it to trade the default search engine on phones for more commonly used engines, depending on the country the phone is selling it.

Motorola announced the new MOTOROI, South Korea’s first Android 2.0 device. The phone features a 3.7-inch capacitive touchscreen display with an 854 x 480 WVGA resolution, an 8-megapixel camera with Xenon flash, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. The camera is capable of shooting 720p high-definition video. Other features include support for T-DMB(INFO) television, up to 8GB of storage, and smart homescreen widgets. The MOTOROI also supports HDMI. The handset will be available this February through SK Telecom.

Survey says that cellphone buyers jump over better prices and deals. The survey was by Motorola’s Enterprise Mobility Solutions Group. With the growing number of data plan subscriptions choosing the right unit is never as easy. Motorola’s sample group included 4,350 shoppers in Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Mexico, Spain, the U.K., and the U.S. It was conducted between November 25th and December 20th.

Sprint Nextel launched the Motorola Brute i680 for its iDEN customers. The handset features 810F Mil-Spec durability, withstanding dust, shock, vibration, low and high temperatures, low pressure, solar radiation, salt fog, humidity, and blowing rain. Motorola also added a few bonus features, such as a 2-megapixel camera, stereo Bluetooth support, and aGPS. The 99.5mm x 53mm x 26mm (3.92in x 2.09in x 1in) and clamshell form-factor Brute i680 also supports Nextel Direct Connect for both Group and International Direct Connect options as well as Direct Talk, Direct Send, Group Messaging, and NextMail.

The device is currently available from Sprint for $119.99 with a 2-year contract.

Motorola and T-Mobile USA informed the public about their Motorola CLIQ Android-powered smartphone update. The update is downloaded to the phone over a WiFi or cellular connection and the complete update process takes no more than a few minutes. Top on the list of improvements are a new Battery Manager system and other battery use optimizations, along with a better Bluetooth structure and touchscreen twist.