Motorola: Its not our fault we're slow with updates . . .blame Google!

[hans007]

Why would they? Again, it's not Google that needs changing here, it's HTC/Samsung/Moto/Sony. While they are under no obligations to keep up with Google and the Nexus line in terms of updates, it would be nice to see it happen.

why would they?

android is still taking over the world. and other than geeks on message boards like this 95% of people could care less if they have the current version.

also to the guy that claims the rom guys can get a stable build out in X days, those are people who are primarily skinners, skinning leaks.

the AOSP guys rarely ever can do this. and its not remotely stable. CM7.1 even after several releases on my thunderbolt was no where near what a real manufacturer could release as stable.

Like I realize geeks think they are anything near what a normal person would care about, but in reality they are not. I have a galaxy nexus and I love it. But i'm a geek and a software dev. Regular people want prettier icons, prettier looking widgets and things that have pretty graphics.

The iphone has those things. skinned androids have much prettier themes than stock android generally (especially pre ICS). ICS stock is kind of drab and dark looking and it has very very plain looking widgets and apps. I like it that way, but most people want bling and transclucent shiny icons and stuff like that. Hell most people like chrome on their cars, and fake chrome in their car interior. The masses are not you and motorola sells to the masses. I mean the razr has sold many more units than the nexus. It is on a skinned and prettier icon'd version of android but not the latest and 95% of people don't care, or dont even know ICS exists or is newer.

Hell this is probably why windows phone 7 sells like crap. its all text and has no pretty icons and no one was allowed to skin it with all those little effects that make ios look so pretty ( as well as say HTC sense, touchwiz, etc). Windows 7 phone is super fast, mostly text, and really plain. its exactly what geeks want and what regular people who want bling do not look at.

 

[Glitchny]

The RAZR uses the exact same chipset as the Galaxy Nexus. There is absolutely no excuse there.

They don't want to upgrade people. They'd rather release a new device for more money, with the same hardware, but with the new OS version. That way they can sell it as the "new improved" phone when the hardware is actually the same.

 

[QueBert]

why would they?

android is still taking over the world. and other than geeks on message boards like this 95% of people could care less if they have the current version.

also to the guy that claims the rom guys can get a stable build out in X days, those are people who are primarily skinners, skinning leaks.

the AOSP guys rarely ever can do this. and its not remotely stable. CM7.1 even after several releases on my thunderbolt was no where near what a real manufacturer could release as stable.

Like I realize geeks think they are anything near what a normal person would care about, but in reality they are not. I have a galaxy nexus and I love it. But i'm a geek and a software dev. Regular people want prettier icons, prettier looking widgets and things that have pretty graphics.

The iphone has those things. skinned androids have much prettier themes than stock android generally (especially pre ICS). ICS stock is kind of drab and dark looking and it has very very plain looking widgets and apps. I like it that way, but most people want bling and transclucent shiny icons and stuff like that. Hell most people like chrome on their cars, and fake chrome in their car interior. The masses are not you and motorola sells to the masses. I mean the razr has sold many more units than the nexus. It is on a skinned and prettier icon'd version of android but not the latest and 95% of people don't care, or dont even know ICS exists or is newer.

Hell this is probably why windows phone 7 sells like crap. its all text and has no pretty icons and no one was allowed to skin it with all those little effects that make ios look so pretty ( as well as say HTC sense, touchwiz, etc). Windows 7 phone is super fast, mostly text, and really plain. its exactly what geeks want and what regular people who want bling do not look at.

QTF, I don't like Moroblur, but I do like Sense. I'm not really a fan of how stock ICS looks. I'd definitely take a Rezound with GB over a Nexus with ICS. While it's not super, I do like Sense 3.5 much more than the stock Android OS. A Sense rom with a Warm TwoPointTwo skin's good as Android gets

 

[LOL_Wut_Axel]

QTF, I don't like Moroblur, but I do like Sense. I'm not really a fan of how stock ICS looks. I'd definitely take a Rezound with GB over a Nexus with ICS. While it's not super, I do like Sense 3.5 much more than the stock Android OS. A Sense rom with a Warm TwoPointTwo skin's good as Android gets

Enjoy your sluggish UI performance, then. Anything other than the stock ROM being preloaded=crap and inconsistent user experience.

 

[hans007]

Enjoy your sluggish UI performance, then. Anything other than the stock ROM being preloaded=crap and inconsistent user experience.

I dont think this is entirely true anymore either at least on the newer dual core phones. Most of the newer phones are so fast that it really doesnt matter anymore for just UI stuff. I had a rezound for a bit, and that phone is so fast that HTC sense didn't feel slower at all. THe main thing it was missing was the accelerated browser of ICS. most of the problems with skinning these days are the widgets look different, or they have some extra services running that eat battery (like HTC IM client, and drm etc). but generally the UI i can't say is slower than stock for say moving from home screen to home screen. on the latest phones, i think its more of a "i want pure" thing vs it being a real performance hit liek it was on the first gen skinned phones.

 

[LOL_Wut_Axel]

I really don't get this.

This isn't entirely true either. Most of the newer phones are so damn fast that it really doesnt matter anymore. I had a rezound for a bit, and that phone is so fast that HTC sense didn't feel slower at all. THe main thing it was missing was the accelerated browser.


If anything samsung added hardware accelerated browser to 2.3 gingerbread. Their skinned builds are actaully faster for browsing than stock gingerbread. i think motorola may have also tweaked the browser in their gingerbread builds though its hard to tell whta the equivalent stock build would look like since most gingerbread blur phones, do not have a comparable model rooted / hacked (since they have locked bootloaders).

i mean i had a tbolt, CM7 was buggy enough on it, i actually put sense on a cleaner rom on since at least it worked correctly, so in the end for a tbolt the best build for it ended up being a repacked OEM rom like bamf.

Only if you buy the highest-end phones. Almost everything mainstream is demonstrably slower because of the crappy ROMs. We shouldn't have to install CM just to get a decent experience. Ultimately that's where Google missed the mark. By making everything completely open you leave the door open for things like ExcreBlur to hamper UI experience, battery life, and consistency across devices.

 

[QueBert]

Enjoy your sluggish UI performance, then. Anything other than the stock ROM being preloaded=crap and inconsistent user experience.

I own an Android device, performance obviously isn't all that important to me. If it did matter I'd have a WP7 or iOS device. Sense might be slightly more sluggish than stock Android, but it looks and functions better imho. I'll take a bit of performance hit for a better overall experience. *shrug* And YES I've used a few of the uber dual core Android phones, the UI on a WP7 device (to me any ways) still feels smoother to me.

 

[BlavaFodia]

what an excuse.lol

 

[LOL_Wut_Axel]

I own an Android device, performance obviously isn't all that important to me. If it did matter I'd have a WP7 or iOS device. Sense might be slightly more sluggish than stock Android, but it looks and functions better imho. I'll take a bit of performance hit for a better overall experience. *shrug* And YES I've used a few of the uber dual core Android phones, the UI on a WP7 device (to me any ways) still feels smoother to me.

It's NOT a better overall experience no matter how much you want to rave about it. The UI is altogether different from a Motorola smartphone running ExcreBlur or Samsung smartphone running TurdWiz. It's completely inconsistent; there's no UI guidelines.

 

[chitwood]

It's NOT a better overall experience no matter how much you want to rave about it. The UI is altogether different from a Motorola smartphone running ExcreBlur or Samsung smartphone running TurdWiz. It's completely inconsistent; there's no UI guidelines.

UGH... stop vomiting your opinions into this thread as though they are fact!

 

[LOL_Wut_Axel]

UGH... stop vomiting your opinions into this thread as though they are fact!

Them having different UIs and therefore delivering an inconsistent user experience is a FACT.

Or are you gonna say I'm making this up?

Completely inconsistent.

 

[mammador]

Huh? Google IS Motorola!! lol... any blame must be self-directed.

I still don't get this acquisition, Samsung, HTC and co. will get pissed off ultimately. Then again, I think that Samsung needs Android, most of its top selling phones use it as an OS.

 

[hans007]

Huh? Google IS Motorola!! lol... any blame must be self-directed.

I still don't get this acquisition, Samsung, HTC and co. will get pissed off ultimately. Then again, I think that Samsung needs Android, most of its top selling phones use it as an OS.

uh the patents?

they will get the patents, and spin off motorola mobility eventually. i doubt google really wants to be a hardware company.

 

[Raduque]

Them having different UIs and therefore delivering an inconsistent user experience is a FACT.

Or are you gonna say I'm making this up?

Completely inconsistent.

Those app drawers look mostly the same to me; Grid of icons. Sure, the icons are a little different, but big deal.

My mother is your standard average smartphone user, and she had zero problems going from a G2 (mostly AOSP-stock, skinless Android) to a Galaxy S II (TouchWiz 4, best version yet). In fact, she much prefers the Samsung customizations to the ugly boring skinless G2 she had before. She also used my myTouch 4G Slide for a while before she bought the GSII and really liked Sense3.

 

[theeedude]

Even if Motorola has no control over Google's releases, they do have control over adding TouchWiz.

 

[lothar]

Even if Motorola has no control over Google's releases, they do have control over adding TouchWiz.

Why would Motorola have control over adding TouchWiz?

 

[theeedude]

Why would Motorola have control over adding TouchWiz?

Sorry, Blur, or whatever it's called. Point is, handset makers should stick to handsets, leave the OS to the OS vendor.

 

[Deeko]

Them having different UIs and therefore delivering an inconsistent user experience is a FACT.

Or are you gonna say I'm making this up?

Completely inconsistent.

Its quite clear that he was not saying the inconsistency is an opinion; rather, your insistence that those other Android experiences are definitely worse. That is an opinion, even if many of the Anandtech crowd agrees with it.

 

[lothar]

Sorry, Blur, or whatever it's called. Point is, handset makers should stick to handsets, leave the OS to the OS vendor.

How would the handset manufacturers be able to differentiate among themselves?

 

[QueBert]

It's NOT a better overall experience no matter how much you want to rave about it. The UI is altogether different from a Motorola smartphone running ExcreBlur or Samsung smartphone running TurdWiz. It's completely inconsistent; there's no UI guidelines.

I don't care about consistency, I've used Samsung, Moto, HTC & Vanilla Android offerings. I can do more with Sense than I can with stock, so to me that makes my experience better. I much prefer HTC's app drawer to any other I've used. At this point you couldn't pay me to use a stock Android device. But, that's just my opinion it's not right or wrong, it's just what I think. As far as it being inconsistent, all I use is Sense, so my experience is always very consistent.

 

[LOL_Wut_Axel]

How would the handset manufacturers be able to differentiate among themselves?

Seriously? Hardware features, specs, design (form factor), etc.

 

[LOL_Wut_Axel]

I don't care about consistency, I've used Samsung, Moto, HTC & Vanilla Android offerings. I can do more with Sense than I can with stock, so to me that makes my experience better. I much prefer HTC's app drawer to any other I've used. At this point you couldn't pay me to use a stock Android device. But, that's just my opinion it's not right or wrong, it's just what I think. As far as it being inconsistent, all I use is Sense, so my experience is always very consistent.

Right...

You don't, but a lot of people do. The main reason why the iPhone sells so much apart from being a fashion statement, status symbol and sheep is the user experience.

Also, Sense cuts your battery life by 25-50%.

 

[QueBert]

Right...

You don't, but a lot of people do. The main reason why the iPhone sells so much apart from being a fashion statement, status symbol and sheep is the user experience.

Also, Sense cuts your battery life by 25-50%.

LULZ no it doesn't, when I de-Sense'ed my phone and put a rom on there that was running a totally different kernel I got the exact same crappy battery life. There might be a multitude of reasons at to why HTC phones have crappy battery life, but Sense isn't one of them. And people obviously don't care about whatever you're complaining about because the biggest selling Android phone by far has a non standard UI which would effect the Android experience.

Here's how I see it, the majority of people I know with an Android phone don't even know what Android is. They have a Galaxy or EVO. They don't even know what stock Android is.

 

[LOL_Wut_Axel]

LULZ no it doesn't, when I de-Sense'ed my phone and put a rom on there that was running a totally different kernel I got the exact same crappy battery life. There might be a multitude of reasons at to why HTC phones have crappy battery life, but Sense isn't one of them. And people obviously don't care about whatever you're complaining about because the biggest selling Android phone by far has a non standard UI which would effect the Android experience.

Here's how I see it, the majority of people I know with an Android phone don't even know what Android is. They have a Galaxy or EVO. They don't even know what stock Android is.

That's funny, because around a month ago I got around to installing the stock Android ROM to my mom's EVO 3D and now battery life is nearly double doing the same things and it's also much faster/less laggy. Almost everyone else is reporting the same thing, so I'm gonna have to say you're in the wrong here.

Putting a heavy "skin", or ROM, on top of what the OS comes with makes for a crapstacular experience in many cases.

The manufacturer ROMs should be opt-in, as in they should be available in the Market or other places for allowing users that want to customize their devices to do so themselves. Otherwise, no. Like senseamp said, leave the OS to the OS vendor (Google) and everything related to the hardware to the manufacturer, but still give users that want to customize the option to do so. Unfortunately, that's not gonna happen, so Google's attempts to make everything unified with Android 4.0 ICS will prove meaningless.

 

[ultimatebob]

Heh... didn't Google just buy Motorola Mobility recently? Talk about biting the hand that feeds you!

I really hope that Google shitcans a big chunk of the team that developed "SlowMoBlur", and releases more phones with a stock Android experience. Leave the custom skinning to HTC, since they seem to be better at it.