Android Central recently posted an article with a press release from Motorola stating rather explicitly, that they weren’t in the business of making Dev phones. The Motorola Droid’s Developer friendliness seems to be a fluke forced on the company by business agreements (Verizon and/or Google) and from now on, they were going to make sure everything’s locked up tight and if you want a phone with custom roms, you should buy a developer phone.
There’s just one problem with that Motorola. Until this announcement, the Droid line was assumed to be the CDMA development phone. Where does that leave those of us on Verizon? Or more specifically, what options to we have for stock android now that no current phones ship with it and we can’t hack it on?
As I posted earlier, I prefer the look and feel of Motorola Hardware to anything coming out by HTC or Samsung, but with Moto’s active blocking of the development community coupled with the fact that all their new devices coming out are running something other than stock android, it looks like I won’t be purchasing another motorola phone.
So where does that leave me? I don’t like Motoblur, Sense, or Touchwiz. For me, it’s all about the stock experience. The Motorola Droid is STILL the only phone on Verizon that gives a stock android experience, and by the looks of it, the Droid2 will ship with philblur, so if I want to get a new phone, I have to choose between losing my ability to root/custom rom or buying a phone with (to me) inferior hardware. In either case, I’m current fucked when it comes to finding a phone with out of the box stock android on verizon.
I really hope Motorola realizes what a huge error this is. Sure, only makes up a minority of users, but we’re a statistically valid minority, enough that blocking rooting will hurt their bottom line. On top of that, Verizon will offer NO stock android phones once they retire the droid, which alienates a whole slew of others.
So goodbye Moto. The Droid 1 is by far the best phone I’ve ever owned (hardware and software). But with your removal of Stock UI options, and your seeming disdain for the rooting community, it looks like I’ll need to look elsewhere for my next phone.
What about you? Do you care about rooting, or is the whole thing a non-issue with you? What phone should those of us who love rooting on Verizon look at next?
