
Android users outraged over Motorola's broken promise - iProject
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57526994-94/android-users-outraged-over-motorolas-broken-promise/
======
navs
This is what keeps me from android. I'm sure there are other android phones
out there that receive updates but until I do a fair amount of research I
won't know for sure. My days of carefully researching device purchases are
behind me. I just want to walk into a store, buy a new phone and know for the
next 2-3 years I'll get all the latest updates.

EDIT: Android phone recommendations?

~~~
paul9290
What keeps me from Android is...

\- The whole fragmentation and apps being made for iPhone first and sometimes
never even making it to Android

\- There is no Android store to take my device for a quick free fix or free
replacement (Apple has replaced many of my idevices at no cost and done so
quickly)

\- A new Android device is released weekly; many cheap inexpensive ones. It
just doesn't feel sexy/special to me as there is one iPhone millions lust for
and the press and consumers go ape nuts over.

\- The carriers and device manufacturers have a stranglehold on Android. Many
Android users are not able to update their 2010 or 2011 Android device to
2012/2013 software as you can choose to do so with the iPhone. Also the device
manufacturers create they own UI and add bells whistles. Android does not have
one UI/UX to rule them all like iPhone.

With that being said as a long time iPhone owner .. I am annoyed by....

\- Apple's tight control on it's ecosystem .. it indeed stifles innovation. I
wish they would allow developers to build onto the built in apps (plug ins)
like the camera, maps, alarm clock, facetime and other built in apps.

\- New Maps definitely a step down from Google Maps

Overall I just wish there was only one Android device in which the UI/UX is
controlled by Google. That would solve my Android complaints, but Google's
M.O. is to be on as many devices as possible and thus Android doesn't work for
me.

~~~
Terretta
> _New Maps definitely a step down from Google Maps_

I'm tired of this meme. It's grounded in truth as the best memes are, but
otherwise mostly it's "much ado" by we technorati, doting on SF and NYC public
transportation and using "Google" Maps like a paper map to see what's nearby
(campus, neighborhood, etc), and thinking everyone's use case mirrors theirs.
It's easy to join this chorus. It's harder to voice disagreement by pointing
out the huge usability strides in Apple Maps vs the earlier app. You will be
mocked. But...

In most of America, cell coverage is sporadic and slow. Try to pull up where
you are on former maps app and you wait ages for tiles to come in. Zoom, wait
ages again. Drive or hike in marginal coverage with Apple Maps and the
difference is night and day -- Apple Maps seems almost like it is in offline
mode. Stats and tests prove it uses a fraction of the data, and holds far more
of your map in memory.

In most of America, getting from A to B needs a car. The "Google" Maps didn't
do real time turn by turn, much less offer the spoken guidance, glancable
visual guidance (and status bar guidance while in other apps) of Apple Maps.

In the rest of the world, the famous public transportation options of Google
Maps weren't necessarily available. In Rome, for example, a public
transportation search simply returns no public transportation found. Apple
opened transit up to local providers, and now cities worldwide are already
offering local-grown transit apps that hook in. In this country, professional
guidance companies like Navigon have already hooked in with "urban guidance"
that can blend car to get into city, walking to get from parking to public
transportation, and transit to get around town, in a single route.

Blogs show screens of Apple's 3D view mapping satellite onto 3D models poorly.
So it's not Google Earth. For everyman's workaday use, so what? Articles joke
about addresses being in BFE instead of downtown. Google Maps does that too,
more times than not, unless you're careful to give enough precision in the
search terms, and even then it will prefer Queens or Brooklyn to Manhattan for
similarly numbered streets in "New York, NY". You have to use "Manhattan" to
get the street 2 blocks away.

There's a report issue button, and as users use Apple Maps, the glitches will
improve. In the meantime, what's amazing is how much more usable the
foundation and architecture of the app and server side data is compared to the
old app. This is not a step down, it's a huge step forward that can be readily
built upon, and the launch day quirks (that can be found in any mapping app
when you know your own area within a data set that covers the planet) simply
do not get in the way of the typical user's everyday use.

I'm a mapping hobbyist. Google Maps have gotten almost as good as hand made
paper maps from the past, but still have a long way to go to get to the level
of a Richard Saul Wurman. Apple Maps already have map usability techniques
that offer clearer info with less clutter, and in the months of using the beta
test app I rarely had complaints in the greater NYC area other than transit,
which has now been even better solved by the whole new class of beautiful and
usable third party transit apps. Yet technorati have scared regular users from
upgrading for fear of "losing" their Google Maps. That's a huge disservice to
the normals who count on us for guidance. (And of course they can add Google
Maps back to their home screen. It only works online anyway, why aren't we
telling people how to have both?)

Apple upgraded Maps to offer guidance to regular people in flyover country. Of
course Apple should be held to task for insufficient debugging of place
points, but even aside from the other fantastic features of iOS 6 (eg shared
photostreams), friends and family just wanting to drive to work on the best
route to avoid traffic should be encouraged upgrade today.

~~~
underwater
Apple maps doesn't have 3D or turn by turn for me. That's because Apple
decided go the planned obsolecence route and withhold those features from
iPhone 4 owners. So now I have all the downsides of the new maps wih none of
he benefits.

~~~
Terretta
With Apple, there's usually a usability reason for these decisions. When you
get to update, but certain features aren't enabled, I'm not sure that's
planned obsolecense. Not releasing ICS for phones launched last year is, but
in this iPhone 4 vs 4S situation, looking at what iOS 6 features you do get vs
which you don't, there's a common thread that points to something else.

On your device you get iOS 6, but 3D turn by turn NAV is designed to run in
parallel (multitasking) with other apps like Mail or Messages. Consider the
performance gain of the iPhone 4S vs the iPhone 4 (nearly 2x, see below), and
consider how users would react if the background turn by turn nav was causing
their foreground apps to freeze.

A hallmark of the iPhone experience is fluidity. It's one of the painfully
obvious differences to owners of both OSs (I own a Google Nexus as well).
Framerate and responsiveness make the UI feel more tactile and real, connected
to your touch and intentions. My _speculation_ is that the processing power
needed for the turn by turn could degrade the experience while in other apps,
so it was nixed.

~~~
Terretta
Forgot the 4S vs 4 performance link:
[http://www.androidpolice.com/2011/10/11/iphone-4s-vs-
android...](http://www.androidpolice.com/2011/10/11/iphone-4s-vs-android-
benchmarks-posted-even-the-galaxy-s-ii-is-getting-smoked-for-now-at-least/)

------
coopdog
He said it was a resourcing issue, they didn't have the resources to patch
every phone and considered every option. Except, it seems... paying for more
resources?

I'm just glad to be on a Galaxy Nexus with OTA updates direct from Google.
Even then the version I was on was configured not to receive OTA updates as it
was a Nexus Samsung ROM not a Nexus Google ROM. It took reflashing the Google
image using community tools, something that is mostly not possible for most of
the population.

I suppose the only solution is greater awareness of the issue, to increase
demand for better support

~~~
StavrosK
I don't understand the problem. Why can we upgrade our computers' OSes so
easily, while it's impossible to do it for phones? Don't they have drivers for
all their parts so you can just plug them in the OS's API and have the newer
versions just work?

Why does it take so much work?

~~~
buster
Apparently the driver situation is much different on phones. All the different
SoCs need extra drivers, the graphic chips, the display, everything. It's very
different on a PC (where you may have upgrade problems as well, if you have
hardware that has no drivers for your new OS) and it's especially easy for a
Mac.

~~~
mtgx
Plus, I think Google made a terrible mistake in the beginning by _not_ asking
manufacturers to support the drivers for their phones for 2 years or more. It
would've been even better if they convinced them to make all drivers open
source, although that might've been a lot harder to do.

------
nradov
Anyone who was cheated by Motorola should sue them for the price of the phone
in small claims court. Motorola might be able to weasel out and win the case
depending on the actual language of what they promised. But if enough
customers sue them it will create a PR nightmare and major legal expense to
the extent that they will be forced to reverse their decision.

~~~
cma
You might have a case for promissory estoppel if you bought one after they
claimed they would upgrade. If you bought one before? Not so much.

------
raverbashing
You know what

Users can cry me a river.

Motorola has repeatedly broken their promises. This is not the first time a
new phone is not upgraded.

I won't touch a Motorola phone, yes, even with Google. I may opt for a Android
phone next, but other manufacturers have presented more upgrade options.

Incompetence runs deeply in some organizations

This is a big sore thumb for Android, something that Google should really
enforce against the big vendors.

~~~
SideburnsOfDoom
Yep. My first thought was "is anyone actually surprised by this?"

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ck2
They are not stuck at all. If they had bought an apple, microsoft or
blackberry phone they would have been stuck.

But because they are on an open source android device they have cyanogenmod
which is even better than stock and either has or has coming ICS for their
model.

This is pretty revolutionary for mobile devices where you no longer are slaved
to the manufacturer. Credit to google?

~~~
reaganing
This provides that you're a) a nerd, b) comfortable voiding your warranty by
rooting the phone and c) that your phone is even popular enough for there to
be things like Cyanogenmod to install on it.

Sure, I did that with my HTC Incredible, but I shouldn't have had too and most
people won't.

~~~
inportb
You don't need to be a nerd; you only need access to someone you trust who
would do it for you. And plenty of folks wait until their warranty runs out
before modifying the OS.

~~~
micampe
how long until the updated version of this?
<http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/388b/>

------
Zigurd
In May, Google announced the expansion of the Nexus branding to multiple OEM
partners simultaneously.

LG has recently shown off a Nexus phone, and one can expect more such
announcements.

Nexus now resembles Microsoft's "Signature" branding for craplet-free PCs. All
reasonably recent Nexus devices get upgrades directly from Google, much like
iOS devices.

Also, not all OEM extensions are evil. Samsung's mobile device management
extensions can be very useful in some use cases. If only we could get such
extensions a la carte.

------
azharcs
HTC did the same with their HTC Desire phones. I own a HTC Desire HD and I
regret buying an Android phone as the only update I received was 2.3 with
their Sense UI crap-ware. I've lost faith in Android ecosystem with early
users being denied new features and security updates because they want users
to upgrade to newer phones.

~~~
jiggy2011
I have exactly the same experience with my HTC.

I was actually very happy with it when I bought it, for the first few months.
The battery life wasn't great but it was tolerable and the UI was simple and
responsive.

A few months back I got an update, which I hoped would give me a new version
of Android with some extra useful features. Instead all I got was a ton of
bloat and crap which made everything harder to use, slower and the battery
lasts about 1/2 what it used to. Naturally it doesn't let you turn this crap
off.

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kmfrk
If they advertised this in conjunction with their devices, I imagine consumers
would be able to get their consumer protection agency involved because of
false advertising.

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zunky
"Soni admitted that the company wasn't quite there yet. But he believes the
decision to cut off some upgrades would position the company to meet its
future commitments." Bad business practice. Keep this up and you won't have
any customers who would want to touch your "future" products. People are not
that dumb. Some actually do research on a company's reputation before buying
their products and others, well......they just don't forget when they were
screwed over.

~~~
prodigal_erik
I can only assume he's talking about commitments to vendors or carriers,
rather than customers who obviously need to discount anything they may say.

------
michaelhoffman
I'm surprised that Motorola isn't facing a class action lawsuit yet.

~~~
wtracy
Indeed, that would have a lot more teeth than FTC complaints and threats to
boycott.

------
csmatt
There's really no reason for this to happen with so many excellent community
roms. Open source is a give and take. Motorola and others could most likely
keep their promises if they started with a community rom and focused on QA.

Also, Android needs a better method of updating the os that is more in line
with how apple allows updates through iTunes.

------
nja
It seems like this happens a lot in the Android world. HTC/Verizon recently
postponed plans to upgrade the Thunderbolt to ICS:
[http://www.gottabemobile.com/2012/09/26/htc-thunderbolt-
ice-...](http://www.gottabemobile.com/2012/09/26/htc-thunderbolt-ice-cream-
sandwich-situation-is-unacceptable/)

------
viseztrance
The first company to ensure constant android updates for a decent amount of
time (ex. 3 years) is sure to make a fortune even if they don't have the best
phones.

You may argue that it will still take months to upgrade, but that should be OK
given that you're pretty much guaranteed you'll get an upgrade (well,
hypothetically speaking).

~~~
Kylekramer
I think the relative poor sales of Nexus devices proves that a fortune isn't
really a guarantee if a company ensured updates. The amount of people who care
about updates aren't enough to keep a business profitable.

------
adamc
Right now, the only sane expectation to have with most android phones is that
the version of Android you buy it with is what you get (unless you are
able/willing to install your own mod). That's definitely a downside compared
to iOS, but most Android phones are a lot cheaper, which helps compensate for
it.

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protolif
"But Android is such an open platform! /QQ" Meanwhile, my iPad 2 just asked me
if I wanted to upgrade to iOS6. It did it over wifi, and the whole thing took
maybe half an hour.

~~~
raldi
Meanwhile, my iPad 1 will never get iOS 6, even though they were top-of-the-
line just 14 months prior to its announcement.

~~~
thedrbrian
But the iPad was released 30 months ago.

~~~
artsrc
Released? Are you saying never buy any Apple product except on the week of
their launch?

From <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPad> Jobs unveiled the iPad 2 at a March
2, 2011

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tomjen3
Stuff like this is androids biggest issue. My HTC was supposed to get 2.3, but
despite their promises they never did that.

~~~
darklajid
Same thing for me with HTC ('Hero'.. Really?), and no different now with LG
(P990 / Optimus 2x). Update to ICS was promised a year ago. Look at link like
this (or any LG source on the net that allows comments) to see angry (and ..
childish) people:

<https://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=334420639902596>

So - apart from buying a Nexus device (or maybe a Samsung?), it's the same
bullshit w/ every manufacturer, I guess.

~~~
dman
Same story with Samsung. Droid Charge owners are stuck on Gingerbread.

