- Posts tagged Motorola
- Explore Motorola on posterous
Android Weakness On Display: Motorola's 2.1 and 2.2 Froyo updates
Let’s start off with Android updates for Moto’s smartphones available in the US. Here’s the list of devices, and the expected updates…
As the fragmentation of Android phones continues, I wonder about those who bought Android because they thought it was a good phone that would get better with updates.
Oops.
Let's see what U.S. Motorola Android users can expect in terms of updates (international users fare no better):
Motorola Droid X – Android 2.2 Froyo update to start in “late summer” (as previously rumored)
The X is only a month old but shipped with the old 2.1 version of Android. It could get 2.2 in a month, and if so will finally be on the current version.
Motorola Droid – Android 2.2 update “currently rolling out in phases”
The original Droid gets 2.2 before the X, though it's still rolling out now. Like the X, the phone will then be current.
Is it that it takes so long to test devices for the current version, or that so little emphasis is placed on updating? That the latter is likely is shown by the updates below, which will not even make the phones current.
Motorola Cliq and Cliq XT – Android 2.1 updates “planned for late Q3/early Q4” (no Froyo, huh?)
No current version for these, but they can update to the old 2.1 version in another month. Or two. These phones are only nine and six months old, respectively. There's at least 15 months left on a 24-month contract but they're already outdated.
Motorola Backflip – Android 2.1 should be available in Q3
Just like the Cliqs. Released only five months ago but won't get the current Android version.
Motorola Devour – no plans for an Android 2.1 update, sadly
The Devour is only six months old, yet "devour" is exactly what Motorola did to the phone's chance of getting even the old 2.1 version. Maybe Devour users should've bought a Backflip or Cliq instead—they wouldn't be as badly outdated—but how were they to know?
Let's summarize:
- By "late summer" two recent phones should finally be current.
- By "early Q4" three recent phones should get an old version.
- One recent phone will get diddly-squat.
That's bad news any way you look at it. And don't think it's just Motorola, others are being just as stingy with Android updates.
This major weakness of the Android platform is usually glossed over (not by me). Rather than articles that critique Android's partners for weak update support—or for not pushing the platform forward—it's mentioned in passing, if at all, before discussing how nice 2.2 is. They don't mention that running the current version of Android is the equivalent of a private club to which the vast majority of its users will never be invited.
Apple Crushes Everyone In Cell Phone Customer Satisfaction Ratings
Surveys of consumers' future buying habits mean very little. If consumers did what they said in surveys, products made via those surveys would be raging successes, but they're not. Apple, perhaps famously, eschews such surveys, contending a customer doesn't know what they want until they see it. So even though the future looks great for Apple in the article's surveys, it means little to me.
There is, however, one type of survey that's very important. Customer Satisfaction is not about the future, it's about real people who own the device now, and how happy they are with it. I would argue it's the only survey that really matters. Look at that chart. Apple crushes everyone by such a wide margin the other guys should be revamping their support policies, procedures and staff, not their product lines.
Motorola Introduces the DroidPad.
Apple keeps the iPhone screen size the same, but increases its resolution significantly while making the phone itself narrower and thinner. It is, after all, a handheld device.
Motorola increases the physical screen size and produces something half the size of Cleveland. It's huge.
Pick what you want, but I can't tell if Motorola is gunning for an iPhone/iPad hybrid or just thinks bigger is better even where it doesn't make sense. Either way, no thanks.Roundup of My Live Tweets From Google's Nexus One Q&A Session
A Desperate Verizon To Men: You're An Absolute Candy-Ass If You Don't Buy A Droid.
The macho image in advertising is pretty heavily used for truck commercials, and maybe power tools. They're low in how functional the product actually is, and high in how much of a he-man you'll look like using it.
Now I guess the macho image applies to smartphones as well (sorry, "robot phones"). After all, what man looking to overcome his inadequacies wouldn't be drawn to these:
- Crush a rock
- Punch a hole through a steel wall
- Run apps with axle-greased ease
There's more, but be warned only Neanderthals need apply.
Male or female, the first thing I look for is a mind at work. I can only hope no more men will be swayed by this crap than women are swayed because a product is pink, or has a mirror. This kind of "macho" advertising makes me ashamed of my gender.
