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Motorola Asks Everyone What Cool Android Apps They’d Like to See, Gets Over 10,000 Votes for an Unlocked Bootloader

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In a poll that has clearly taken a turn for the worst (for Motorola, anyway), Motorola has asked their Facebook fans what types of new apps they’d like to see from developers. Unfortunately for them, they left the poll open to custom responses – you know who showed up for this juicy occasion. Rooters and developers the world over flocked to this opportunity to fight for their devices’ freedom and to let Motorola know that they want — nay, they need an unlocked bootloader. Over a dozen of these responses were left with subsequent votes on them totaling up to over 10,000. Doesn’t exactly fit Motorola’s original question, but the message has been sent. Let’s see how or if Motorola responds to the outcry. [via PocketNow]

Quentyn Kennemer
The "Google Phone" sounded too awesome to pass up, so I bought a G1. The rest is history. And yes, I know my name isn't Wilson.

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43 Comments

  1. Total, epic win.

  2. This is great.

  3. Hopefully they actually listen and do unlock the bootloaders.

  4. HAHAHAHAHAHA! Freakin epic! I love it!

  5. Kudos for the ditching Motoblur part too.

  6. Samsung asked their facebook fans if they were excited for the new sammy phone and the majority of the comments went something like: “Not at all – but I am excited for Froyo on my epic” We received froyo shortly afterwards.

  7. I.F*CKING.LOVE.THIS.

  8. I like how there’s exactly one response in that screenshot that wants Moto to do anything with the software other than get the hell out of the way of stock Android.

  9. OMG I was having a bad day and this seriously put a smile on my face that’s gonna last the rest of the week. I love you angry Fandroids!

  10. i like the “apps to remove motoblur” freakin hilarious
    i wonder how they feel about people not liking their custom software?

    1. that’s hilarious

  11. Hopefully other companies listen to this also! Give us the option to change our phone to what we want. Even if you have to make a plain rom and a specialized that comes with the phone. But again give US the choice!

  12. Wow, you’d think they would do this stuff more often. Give us what we want, and you will get our money. Until then I will never give motorola a dime for anything, never been impressed with their offering.

  13. They are stubborn. The more we ask, the more they will resist.

    Moto give android a bad name through association. I’m amazed that there wasn’t a class action for the Milestone. It took almost a year and a half for 2.2 to be released so that the Milestone could play flash – a feature which it is advertised as having on the side of the box!

    I got a refund for mine after 6 months on this basis.

    Honestly, the best way to get what you want is not to moan on Facebook, but start sending the fucking device back to the sellers for a refund when it does not work as advertised. Motorola will soon get the picture when they legally have to issue refunds.

    Having to give money back is a clearer message than them making slightly less in the first place (which they might not notice).

    1. That’s actually not a clearer message at all. People can return their product for all sorts of reasons and the store will not keep track of those reasons. The Facebook responses actually tell them what the problem is.

      1. True, but if 1000 developers spam Facebook, their dumbass directors won’t give a stuff. Whereas a negative profit margin would send that message loud and clear to their bank accounts.

        And I’m pretty sure that stores do keep a track of this, as they will get a refund from the manufacturer. If 10,000 Milestones were returned to Carphone Warehouse, someone would take note.

        Someone decides which phones to stock, and they base this on whether they can make a profit. If figures show that they do not make a profit because the product has a high return rate, it will no longer be stocked.

        1. Wishful thinking…when comes to updates moto has always been great to me the x the og droid

        2. You have a VERY naive business world view.

          10,000 returned phones represents a fraction of a fraction of a percentage point of just Motorola’s wireless division. In the fourth quarter of last year that division did $2.4 BILLION in revenue and shipped 4.9 million smartphones. 10,000 people being motivated enough to return a phone isn’t even a blip on the radar, and is actually EXPECTED in their projections.

          However, negative press, especially in the Facebook demographic where smartphone sales are strongest, spreads like wildfire and influences purchasing decisions heavily for the consumers Motorola are trying to target. Those 10,000 people have become a story being spread around to millions who will be making smartphone purchases. Whether they even understand what a locked bootloader is or not, they’ll have heard that Motorola does SOMETHING that doesn’t sound quite right.

      2. No, it doesn’t. It’s not a broad cross-section of the user base, no are these all unique votes. It’s not a scientific poll in that it doesn’t sample the population, but rather the people who have something to say/gripe are the ones more likely to vote and tell their friends to vote. It’s also not clear that all of the people who vote for unlocked bootloaders have any clue what a bootloader is, or why one would want it unlocked. It could easily be: “Unlocked sounds better than locked. Better vote for it!”

        What do these votes mean? That there are a group of people pushing for unlocked bootloaders. (already known) How significant is this group? Can’t tell.

        You can’t take a conclusion, look at some numbers in a Facebook question poll and point out that those numbers support the pre-conceived conclusion.

    2. There is no cross-country class action lawsuit type of thing in Europe (at least not that I’m aware of), and not in every country of the EU, too.

  14. I won’t look a device from any OEM using Android unless it’s stock Android and gets direct updates from Google when they are released. . . . so I don’t really have much options lol

    1. Honestly that’s the way it _should_ be. Do I need to wait on Dell or HP for the latest Windows update? No. Maybe on the latest driver … but thats no different than a new kernel as those are monolithic anyway.

      My next phone will be the same as yours … as will my _first_ tablet.

      1. PC is an entirely different beast given it is a standardized architecture. Microsoft also gets consumer money directly and uses that money to built a huge set of generic drivers. There is no such support in Android given Google doesn’t take a licensing fee for Android as an OS. Phone hardware is also different enough that a generic driver likely won’t work. Another difference is people don’t expect to have to install a driver (or deal with drivers at all) in a phone, while you do in a PC.

        PC’s also generally don’t have such things as “carriers.” With phones, carriers are liable for any issues with updates, therefore there is usually testing required for any update.

        If you want a Android phone with direct updates from Google, only the Nexus series can satisfy that. On the Tablet front, it’s unclear if Google will release a Nexus Tablet.

        1. Who said anything about a generic driver? Kernels are monolithic: they contain the drivers. All HTC/Samsung/Anyone should need to provide are the said kernel and hardware … everything above that should stream direct from Google. This is no different from me buying some custom PCI card for my PC: I don’t look to Microsoft, I look to said vendor.

          “Carriers” is completely irrelevant. I don’t blame my ISP when my PC crashes. The only reason carriers are in the middle is because they WANT to be. They WANT to get in the way of updates so it doesn’t get in the way of their feature pricing (tethering, for example). They don’t want to be ISPs … I don’t want them to be anything else. It would solve so many problems.

  15. Hilarious. I can only imagine what all the faces look like at the office when they read stuff like this. What does the average Motorola employee think? Are they all brain washed or do they empathize with the loyal Android community that’s stuck with them despite locked bootloaders?

    1. Nah, they’re probably all on Motorola Droids running CM7. Either that, or an HTC phone, as Motorola advised its customers if they wanted custom ROMs.

      1. Trust me motor employees are prob rocking tagras right notw

  16. Hilarious! Also, we need a Netflix app..

  17. I’d ditch the Droid branding, the throwback design, and the evil eye. But it sure shows the disconnect between their rabid internet fanboys (or any other company’s) when less than 5% of their userbase make 100% of the noise. If locked bootloaders were actually hurting sales, Motorola, HTC, and even Google wouldn’t be so keen on doing it. Definitely not what has been happening.

    1. uh … Google doesn’t lock their boot loaders. Every Google experience phone has shipped unlocked.

      Also, consider the Xoom isn’t locked either

  18. At CES I asked a Moto Rep if his phone was rooted he said he couldn’t comment and then smiled!

  19. Hahahajahaha. Apps to remove MotoBLUR. Lol. This made my day. TAKE THAT MOTO! Everyone should have something on startup that says “stock or -skin-?”

    Sent from my Milestone(not Droid!) Running CM7!

  20. 9 people really asked for a farmville app? yikes

  21. Excelent!! go for it people, Moto makes great devices, they only need to be unlocked.

  22. i actually like the motoblur lol (not the social networking crap, i turn that off) but i think they should make Motoblur optional. u can have it or just have bog standard android. i think sonys new stance is the way to go. they give u the phone with all the custom software etc and then if you want to remove it and unlock the phone u can go to the website and have it removed.

  23. OWNGE & FACEPALM to Motorola

  24. That poll got trolled to death. Unlocked bootloaders and removal of motoblur with a side of updates.

  25. The unlocked bootloader thing is hilarious to me. Its just a convenient excuse for people who don’t want to buy their phones to use.

    Personally, my locked bootloader DX is sportin Gingerbread and its pretty sweet.

    1. Huh? That’s not true at all. Have you ever used CM? Until you have, I’d be a little weary of how you weigh that opinion of others wanting an unlocked BL. GB doesn’t have shit on CM & never will. Sorry to break it to ya ;)

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