What Motorola is doing wrong

[Drumm]

With the release of the Motorola Droid quite some time ago. Which made it to the UK as the Motorola Milestone. The Droid X just made it to the UK as the Motorola XT720. I was hoping that the Motorola XT720 would have a better release than the Droid. Unfortunately I was wrong. Once again Motorola has released an incredibly good phone on a shitty little online store.

The Droid was originally on sale here: http://www.expansys.com/d.aspx?i=190234
The XT720 was originally on sale here: http://www.clove.co.uk/viewProduct.aspx?...ory=GROUP1

Both stores I have never heard of. Both sold unlocked without a carrier. How do they expect people to buy their phones if they aren't advertised, and nobody can buy them through the main channels. I am predicting a similar approach from Motorola on their release for the Droid 2. I was particularly looking forward to the Droid 2. It would be the best Touch screen Android phone with a keyboard. Something I want. The G1 was a very good phone. If there was to be an increase in internal memory and processor, it would be a more than capable phone. Worthy of taking on the Nexus One.

[T3hRogue]

Boo hoo, we all know Motorola screwed up. If they put the money into the UK channels they'd still have massive competition from all the LG fankids and people wanting a cheap touchscreen. They'd get a few more sales (understatement) but styill not enough towards their advertising and marketing

[Drumm]

When I went to London the other day. I noticed that everywhere I looked, there was a Samsung Galaxy S advert. It's all over London. Motorola aren't even making the slightest effort to let anybody buy their phone. As British we get left out of a lot. Phones shouldn't be one of them

[Pack3t SynAck3r]

Motorola's money is coming mainly from sales in the US. I think they shipped it over to the uk as a mere formality. None of the carriers in Europe really jumped on the bandwagon. Unfortunately for those/most of you on the east side of the Atlantic it means you are probably going to pay too much money for a phone that doesn't have a real carrier. It is more the fault of the carriers than it is Motorola. Generally with the android each carrier contracts Google to help design the phone's os build tailored for their network(GPS capabilities, frequency standards etc.). The phone manufacturers then use those set guidelines and turn out phones for the carrier. Hate your carriers not Motorola. Motorola has been instrumental in the android's success as a whole. The G1 while it did break ground did not impact the market as originally hoped, and it wasn't until the DROID came out last year that android began making Apple realize they were not invincible in the smart phone arena

[T3hRogue]

^ This kid knows too much, he's like a walking google.

Let's ask him stuff:

What is the standard NATO caliber and what guns use it?

[Drumm]

Jamie: I'd rather this not become yet another tangented thread.

I agree with what you said about the G1, at least in the UK, another phone that more or less didn't exist in advertising. I still jumped on with the phone. Lived through it's flaws. Scowled as phones with more memory got 2.*
Surely though, it is down to Motorola to try and make negotiations with these carriers? I am really starting to get annoyed with every carrier over here boasting about their iPhone and so many people having one. I don't blame them. It isn't their fault that they don't see any other options, and are too computer dumb to find anything better (I don't live in a city, it's quite country where I live, so most people use computers for MSN & FB)

[Mark]

I like phones to be unlocked, usable on any network. Then you can pick and choose the best rates. Also pay as you go, not JUST contract like all the new phones are. As for as i know the only Android phone that you can buy on P&G is the Pulse - which is what i got.

[Drumm]

The reason Android phones USUALLY aren't on P&G is because of the syncing feature. The phone automatically checks for email, updates contacts, market downloads etc. etc. to your google account (Or if you're unlucky enough to be using MotoBlur facebook, twitter and all that as well) Now, if you top up £10, as your phone syncs more and more. That amount is literally going to jump down in your pocket. I'm not really sure how much data is sent, but for the average (dumb) user. They're going to wonder where their money is going.

When I looked for sim-only contracts (something I favour with my heavy usage of Texts, Data and phone calls, and I'm too antisocial to go anywhere to top up my phone, and lack to age for a credit card :tongue) I couldn't really find anything cheap enough to make it worth buying an unlocked phone.

Update: I'm not sure how up to date this list is, but I can get a better deal than that £40 a month on £30 a month, with a free phone

http://www.simonlycontracts.co.uk/sim-on...-text.html

[Pack3t SynAck3r]

Jamie: I'd rather this not become yet another tangented thread.

I agree with what you said about the G1, at least in the UK, another phone that more or less didn't exist in advertising. I still jumped on with the phone. Lived through it's flaws. Scowled as phones with more memory got 2.*
Surely though, it is down to Motorola to try and make negotiations with these carriers? I am really starting to get annoyed with every carrier over here boasting about their iPhone and so many people having one. I don't blame them. It isn't their fault that they don't see any other options, and are too computer dumb to find anything better (I don't live in a city, it's quite country where I live, so most people use computers for MSN & FB)

I find it interesting that more than one carrier in the UK has the iPhone. AT&T has an exclusive contract with Apple here in the US. In other words if you want an iPhone you go through AT&T, period. AT&T only recently started selling android phones, and honestly they are locked down compared to equal phones on different carriers. They pretty much suck.

It is up to the carriers to get the negotiations done, period They are the ones who are ultimately responsible for the phones reaching the public. If the carriers didn't want to pay the price Motorola wanted, you can't blame Motorola for that. Verizon was more than happy to foot the bill for the design and manufacturing of the DROID and they turned out one bad ass phone IMHO. Really all the other android phone manufacturers except for HTC are garbage. The hardware is cheap and is probably sold cheap to the carriers. Android is still a relatively young platform and so you might have to be patient to get a really good kick ass phone over there with full functionality. Certainly the success over here in the states will eventually lead to at least one carrier contracting Motorola. The DROID 2 just came out over here and it is unbelievable.

**Side note**
Are you still on 1.* with you G1? T-Mobile in the states pushed out 2.01 for it almost a year ago. I just got my Froyo(2.2) for my DROID on Saturday and it is pretty nice. They crippled wifi-hotspot ability by default(you can pay and extra $15.00/month to get it activated by Verizon) Of course I can just root it and turn it on manually myself for free.....decisions, decisions.
@Rogue With respect to Drumm I politely decline to respond to your comment.

[Drumm]

Yes, I'm rocking 1.6 :tongue. G1 "isn't" compatible with Froyo. The only way I can get it to work is by flashing a DangerSPL to my phone, which looks like it would work in America only, and that would leave enough space for CM-6 to run 2.*. I find the battery life shit enough on this thing anyway (1150mAh, I barely get a day) Without overclocking and having more stuff running. T-mobile haven't release 2.* for G1 in any country as far as I can tell, only phone not to be able to run it. Thankyou for not letting this go too off topic.

You're probably right Pack3t about it being down to the carriers to pick the phone, but with such storming phones in the US, it does seem like a small coincidence that all 3 phones haven't got any attention from the carriers. The XT720 (X) is actually cheaper than the HTC Desire unlocked, yet that got picked up by T-mobile UK. Which leads me to believe there is something on Motorola's part as well.