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Editorial: Motoblur Issue

It’s a damn shame. I have the overwhelming feeling I’m being left behind, and there’s not a thing I can do about it. And it makes things hard, especially if I have to write game reviews. Android is growing, it’s growing fast, and with every update the games are getting more and more advanced and require so much more of the phone that it did in previous versions of the Android OS.

This is all fine and dandy when you can update your phone to have the latest Android OS update, but what about those of us that are getting screwed by unique UIs like Motoblur? What does that mean for me?

 

I have a Motorola Cliq, it’s what introduced me to the Android OS but Motoblur ,as many of you already know, completely takes over the whole phone and while the UI is great and has some really great features and abilities it also has its drawbacks, one of which I’d rather not have to deal with at all. Unfortunately it’s one drawback that I cannot avoid.

 

I’m stuck on Android OS 1.5. I haven’t even had the phone for all that long (January) and I already feel as though I made a wrong decision. Everyone else (or so it seems) is moving in the direction of getting 2.2 before the end of the summer, and yet, I have no official word on when Motorola will roll out 2.1 for the Cliq and I’m not even sure the Cliq will even update past 2.1 as Motorola hasn’t stated if there will be further update support for the Cliq. So in the meantime, I’m stuck in the middle of the intersection of Middle and Nowhere and I’m moving at a speed of nil.

 

The update is scheduled to arrive before the end of June. The other issue with having the Motoblur UI is that with the 2.1 update, features will be cut from it so that it works well enough with Motoblur. That doesn’t exactly make me a happy customer. If I had known this would be such a issue, I would have never picked up the phone in the first place and I can tell you right now that I won’t be picking up another phone with a unique UI like this again. It’s more than just me being frustrated at lack of updates. It’s the principle of the matter that the Android OS is supposed to be fast, update-able on a quick and timely basis, and with this UI it just isn’t happening so I feel as though I’ve been bamboozled out of a product that I had originally paid for.

 

I paid for this phone so that I can update the phone with new features, so that I can play the latest and greatest games but instead, because of the UI, some of those features may not even make it into the final cut and with Motorola’s reluctance to at least let the general public know a specific date it’s becoming very frustrating waiting to see my slightly different update.

 

So what does this all mean on my end? Well, certainly I won’t be purchasing another phone with Motoblur that’s for sure. I hope that this isn’t just me ranting, and if it is, well, at least it’s at a place where it’ll be seen, but I also want to warn those that are really looking for a phone that can update easily like the Nexus one (as it gets 2.2) and that you won’t be held back from getting really great games because of it.

 

ExtremeT – While most sites will tag on a disclaimer to an editorial such as this about it not representing the view of the actual website, we do not do that and even though this may not be the point of view of the entire staff we support our writers in their opinions/views/rants. A good point has been made in this editorial regarding updates to the older generation of phones. While the more tech savvy user can root their phone and install an Android 2.1 Rom of whatever flavor they feel like, the average user shouldn’t need to take such steps and do get left in the dark.


Companies fail to tell you when purchasing your phone that it will only receive updates up to a certain point and this is something that should be fixed. While the general consumer may shrug it off or not pay attention, at least it shows that the company has the motivation to educate the consumer and consideration for each consumer that they know exactly what they are buying and the consumer will not be left in the dark regarding what to expect for updates. In the spirit of education here is the current schedule for Motorola phone updates (no 2.2 yet):

 

Image courtesy of AndroidCentral

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