<p>There are days when I could chuck my smartphone into the Hudson River. Waiting in an empty shuttle to ride across Manhattan from Nokia's Luma 920 launch to Motorola's Razr debut, I felt like a rope in the manufacturers' game of tug-of-war. The battle for mobile supremacy has turned nasty.</p><p>Motorola and Nokia made splashy announcements of their newest smartphones yesterday in New York City. Motorola, newly a Google subsidiary, introduced its Android-based Droid Razr HD, Razr Maxx HD, and Razr M. Nokia debuted the Lumia 820 and 920 running Windows Phone 8. The two companies are depending on these products to boost their bottom lines heading into the holiday season, and it behooves them to make waves ahead of next week's release of Apple's iPhone 5.</p><p>But smartphone announcements have become a traveling circus as manufacturers attempt to one-up each other. Nokia invited the press to its NYC announcement in mid-August. Motorola scheduled its own announcement for the same day, proclaiming it to be "the day's main event."</p><p>The press assembled early in the morning for Nokia's show on the Lower West Side. The tail end of Hurricane Isaac made it uncomfortably humid before torrential rains fell, causing journalists, bloggers and analysts to huddle under tents Nokia had set up outside the building. Once inside, the mass was greeted with a sight familiar to those who often attend such events: a dark room bathed in soft blue light (that made taking pictures difficult) and an incessant chime of background music that cut straight to the brain.</p><p><a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/mobile/2012/09/smartphone-makers-turn-desperate.php">Keep reading...</a></p><p>Read also:</p><p><a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/apples-smartphone-tablet-shipments-quarter-17174001">Apple&#039;s Smartphone and Tablet Shipments by Quarter</a> (ABC News)</p><p><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/06/nokia-ad-fail-lumia-920-camera_n_1861201.html?utm_hp_ref=technology">Nokia Ad Fail Has Some Questioning New Lumia 920 Smartphone Camera ...</a> (Huffington Post)</p><p><a href="http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2012/09/06/nokia-admits-faking-video-for-new-lumia-smartphone/">Nokia admits faking video for new Lumia smartphone</a> (Fox News)</p><p>Explore: <a href="http://news.google.com/news/more?pz=1&ned=us&ncl=dIazmgk2Yk4IZtM6fBnMVGay9oUAM">4,089 additional articles.</a></p>