Why can't Motorola be like HTC?

[The Robot Cow]

Bottom line: as long as Motorola keeps up their current business practices, HTC will get more and more of a hardcore following. Moto's marketing department may be able to make up for that with continued mainstream newcomers. Ironically, that sounds an awful lot like another company.

Brandon

i agree with this, however i am pretty sure MOTO could care less about the "Hardcore" crowd. this is a LARGE forum with 178,XXX members registered. when you think of the number of Droid X's sold and Droid 1 sold, that is a fairly small number. i really dont think moto cares about the hardcore crowd, especially when the every day users far outnumber us and probably have no idea what a bootloader is.

+1, unfortunately true. Only reason i know anything about, well any of that, is from here. I've learned so much just from reading around here even to the point of being able to troubleshoot and help with most problems on d2/d2g's.

The only thing that i see that Motorola has going for them is build quality. They always put out very well put together phones but they're locked down. HTC (in my limited experiences) is basically the opposite. They do great software but sub-par hardware.

That's the main reason I chose my d2g over an HTC or samsung android. It feels like really well built phone, and feels like a great smartphone. The materials feel like they will last alot longer. And I also like the dots that appear when you scroll over to different screens(is this part of moto blur?). This is my first smartphone and I wanted to be certain that it was a solid built phone and the d2g is. I have to agree with the quote above Motorola builds better phones but are locked, and HTC phone's quality may not be up to par but they have more freedom with their software.

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[bplewis24]

Bottom line: as long as Motorola keeps up their current business practices, HTC will get more and more of a hardcore following. Moto's marketing department may be able to make up for that with continued mainstream newcomers. Ironically, that sounds an awful lot like another company.

i agree with this, however i am pretty sure MOTO could care less about the "Hardcore" crowd. this is a LARGE forum with 178,XXX members registered. when you think of the number of Droid X's sold and Droid 1 sold, that is a fairly small number. i really dont think moto cares about the hardcore crowd, especially when the every day users far outnumber us and probably have no idea what a bootloader is.

I'm pretty sure you're right, for the most part. They definitely notice us enough to encrypt their bootloaders, though.

That's the silly part, to me. The rooters and ROMers are a relatively small minority, so why don't they just leave the phones unlocked and let us go about our business? We still upgrade our phones and want the latest/greatest.

Do they have some type of revenue stream tapped into certain widgets that are in MotoBlur? Not that I know of. Are there any advertisements in some Motoblur apps? I'm not sure. The only people I can understand wanting the phones locked down are the carriers. Verizon loses money on people who don't purchase the wifi-hotspot subscription because they know if they root they can just use the rooted apps. Maybe that's who is pressuring the manufacturers?

Brandon

 

[13th angel]

they lock them down so that we don't screw our phones up playing with things that we have no idea about then try to get them replaced. It makes sense from that point of view but there's other ways to do it. My thoughts would be to have 2 seperate models basically. One that is locked down like the current ones and an unlocked one that they would only replace hardware defects on. They would still sell atleast the same amount (if not more because of everyone that's going over to htc for unlocked bootloaders).

Sent from my Liberated D2G

 

[bplewis24]

they lock them down so that we don't screw our phones up playing with things that we have no idea about then try to get them replaced.

Good point.

Brandon

 

[13th angel]

Its what it comes down to. They don't want to lose money to our inexpierences. True, its about impossible to actually kill these phones since we have sbfs for most if not all models but still. Its bound to happen that someone does something then doesn't know about the sbf and doesn't ask then just takes the phone to vzw/moto for replacement.

Sent from my Liberated D2G

 

[cloudstrife05]

they lock them down so that we don't screw our phones up playing with things that we have no idea about then try to get them replaced. It makes sense from that point of view but there's other ways to do it. My thoughts would be to have 2 seperate models basically. One that is locked down like the current ones and an unlocked one that they would only replace hardware defects on. They would still sell atleast the same amount (if not more because of everyone that's going over to htc for unlocked bootloaders).

Sent from my Liberated D2G

+1 sorta If I were moto I would do the same thing. You have to look at it from a business point of view. If you could make a product that the customer couldn't "f" up on his/her own, return it, then get another one for free, why would you? You cant make $$ that way. Even if its a small % of people that would do it.
It sucks, but I understand and not mad at them for that.

And to be honest, isn't the TB locked? If so, HTC might be headed in the same direction. Remember these companies are in business to make $$ bottom line.

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[13th angel]

It got unlocked very fast (less than 24 hours after release if I remember right) but yea, they might be heading that same way. As long as they make it where it CAN be unlocked (unlike moto's nasa level encryption) then I could care less if they lock it. It would keep the people that don't know what they're doing out but allow those of us that want to do with it what we will.

Sent from my Liberated D2G

 

[bplewis24]

And to be honest, isn't the TB locked? If so, HTC might be headed in the same direction.

It is locked. However it's not signed or encrypted (can't remember which), which apparently is a big difference. Regardless, they may be going down the same road. Who knows?

Still, I believe the amount of people who brick and return their phones is still a relatively insignificant amount to the manufacturer's bottom line. Not only are the amount of people who root small, but the amount who brick their phones is even smaller.

Having said that, I do understand why they would be motivated to protect themselves against the possibility of it, no matter how small.

Brandon

 

[bplewis24]

And to be honest, isn't the TB locked? If so, HTC might be headed in the same direction.

It is locked. However it's not signed or encrypted (can't remember which), which apparently is a big difference. Regardless, they may be going down the same road. Who knows?

Hmm, check this out:

HTC Incredible S has Signed Bootloader.

IF the Thunderbolt was locked but not signed and IF the Incredible S is both locked and signed, then this is a horrible pattern starting to emerge.

Edit: after reading a little bit, it turns out the Thunderbolt may have been signed as well, but not encrypted. The hackers circumvented the signature by reverting to pre-release firmware that somebody stumbled across which allowed them to bypass the signature. Regardless, this is getting depressing to me.

Brandon

 

[takeshi]

This thread gets a thumbs down. It's like asking why Chevy isn't more like Ford?

"Company X needs to YYYY in order to remain competitive with company Z (who is doing YYYY)" is a recurring meme on every forum site. Doesn't matter what the product is being discussed. I don't get this mindset either. If 2 companies are identical then why would I choose one over the other? Differentiation and niches provide options. Personally, I prefer having options. I guess others don't and prefer homogeneity.

 

[PereDroid]

Thank you. Totally agree.

 

[bplewis24]

Chevy and Ford have nothing to do with this. Nobody is asking HTC to make the same type of phones that Motorola makes or vice versa. They are free to differentiate all they want. That isn't what this is about. It's about locked bootloaders. It has very little to do with product differentiation or creativity and a lot to do with corporate policy.

Brandon

 

[knighthonor]

can somebody explain what blur and sense is? I been trying to figure this out

 

[bplewis24]

It's a software suite that Motorola and HTC (respectively) build on top of the stock Android OS to add extra widgets and make the Android experience unique to their specific phones. They may change menu options around, replace default calendar or weather applications, add widgets for social networking, etc.

Occasionally, this can present issues in the form of bloatware taking up memory and storage space, and background processes that cannot be stopped permanently without rooting.

Brandon