“Motorola is apparently sticking to its Android guns for the foreseeable future. Not in its future? Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7. Christy Wyatt, corporate vice president of software and services for Motorola, laid it out quite plainly for the press at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week. ‘I don’t envision us using Microsoft,’ she said. ‘I would never say never but it’s not something we’re entertaining now. We’re the only vendor who is 100% Android.'”
Carries don’t wan’t open phones (that can’t tether by default for expample) and OEM wan’t to be super differentiated by putting crappy skins and crapware ontop of stock Android, which only makes updates more costly and hence unlikely and waters down the otherwise good experience.
I just hope the chip vendors will build generic platforms that some chinese OEM with NO expertise in software will just build and sell (unlocked and unmodified).
It may be not a phone for all the sheeple that get their phone with a contract (or live in a country with no other choice), but it would be great for me. As long as no other good open solution exists.
I don’t use Android, can’t afford it. Just wondering. What would be wrong with Moto or someone giving vanilla android? I mean no one else is doing that. As far as I know. Besides the google ones. This would be a range which gets updates as soon as google releases them and be better specd than the google ones.
ZTE is offering vanilla Android on their phones. As does most of the carriers for whom ZTE brands it.
I have a vanilla Android from ZTE Blade (2.1 officially, 2.2 coming and now I have custom rom for 2.2 because tethering) and it only had a carrier boot screen. And it is unlocked from the beginning.
Nothing bad to say because 2 euro (about 2.5 dollars) a month for unlimited speed and amount (phone supports 7.2Mbits download, but with 3G modem I can get 14Mbits download speeds and 5.26 uploads).
I would not touch at all to any customized Android phone if I would not have a garantee that I can pick a vanilla android GUI and install any other what I want.
OK, suppose Motorola and other heavy-weight phone makers give us unlocked phones and it, somehow, makes the life of hackers easier. They start to install malware and all that stuff on uncle John phones.
Who is going to pay the bills? Because, if the phones are locked and software is installed through “official” stores, for sure, under the law the poor hacked guy will have some coverage.
The way I see it, they could offer you two plan options, one where you can do whatever you want and will be responsible for that and the other for regular people.
Funny how unlocked and open phones seems to be no problem in the rest of the world…
Actually, they are. If you are hacked and your network traffic goes beyond what is specified on your contract, you pay the bill, and the phone network provider goes happy to cash that.
The number of smartphones are increasing very fast, soon or latter this issue must be addressed.
No, you dispute the bill. I’d like also like to hear of any real-world cases where someone has gotten “hacked” and was forced to pay the bill.
When was the last time any company was made accountable for software vulnerabilities and related damages?
That’s it: never.
Official stores or not, you pay the bills.
Seriously, this Microsoft-Nokia deal is going to prove good for Nokia (assuming they can deliver phones in time) and bad for Microsoft.
Of course Motorola doesn’t want to make Windows phones now! With Microsoft now playing favorites with Nokia, what’s the incentive for other manufacturers to adopt WP7? I can imagine the sales pitch: “Hey go ahead, license our OS for your devices… Yes, Nokia has power to alter the OS and you don’t… Heck, you might even end up with a few of those Nokia-developed customizations in your phone, as they are incorporated into the OS, but what’s wrong with that? Paying our license to use some of your competitor’s software is still better than that open OS where you don’t have to pay for a license and have to customize all on your own!”
What about:
You will get Ovi Maps for free while Nokia has invested billions in it?
(sounds like a good reason that Nokia gets a bit more influence than other companies, doesn’t it?)