If you’re in a two-year contract, Motorola’s $100 offer does little, unless they can convince carriers to offer customers two-year contract pricing (teaser: they won’t be able to convince the carriers of that).
If you missed the news, here’s the deal. Motorola is offering a $100 rebate on a new Motorola smartphone, if your old Motorola Android device won’t receive Android 4.1, Jelly Bean. Specifics to come at a later date (oh, great).
At first, we didn’t report on it. We thought it was a cheap gimmick. But, the news went viral. Here’s why it doesn’t make sense for most.
Let’s say you have a Droid 3. Motorola’s first international-and-CDMA Droid was supposed to get Android 4.0. It had all the specs… but Motorola claims off-the-record that it doesn’t have enough RAM to run their customizations (MOTOBLUR) and the Android 4.0 payload. As such, it’s stuck at Android 2.3, Gingerbread, forever.
Now, let’s say Motorola offers $100 off a new Droid to make things right for the Droid 3 owner. That owner is likely locked into a two-year contract. By the time they are off-contract, an Android 4.1 Motorola phone will be had on eBay, Craigslist, or Cowboom for around $100. And that’s assuming Motorola doesn’t expire the offer after six months anyways.
Oh, and don’t forget, if you’re on Verizon Wireless, upgrading with a new contract will now vaporize your coveted unthrottled, uncapped 4G LTE-capable data plan. When LTE hits your town, that $100 Motorola discount will seem like a slap in the face.
Let’s also say Motorola extends the discount to unsubsidized devices. Nice, but still far from enough. A user with a Droid 3 would still be better off (financially, at least) picking up a recertified Galaxy Nexus, co-branded by Motorola Mobility’s parent, Google.
Older devices are also in the same straits. Galaxy Nexus is rolling out now at free-on-contract, even the LTE Verizon variant. Even if you factor in the $100 contract discount, it’s only the same cost as a Droid RAZR M. Oh, and by the looks of it, Galaxy Nexus may eek out the 1 GHz Droid RAZR M in the performance department… though that may be more of a toss-up.
As such, Motorola’s “bet”, “offer”, or “promise” (however you spin it) to save you $100 off a new Motorola, isn’t very tempting. It’s about as tempting as when HP offered $50 off a $599 HP TouchPad as an “apology” for failing to deliver webOS 2.0 to webOS 1.0 devices… within months of Palm’s CEO promising to do exactly that.
We do applaud Motorola for taking on updates. But, the key for Motorola should be to deliver timely updates, not grandstand about getting around to delivering them someday. As a Droid Bionic owner, I’m still waiting for Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich… Android 4.1 is merely political to me… like politics, I’m just left hope and (pocket) change.
I’m on a Droid X. I had the Samsung Galaxy S3 but returned it due to signal issues, despite my love for the screen, but factoring in my hatred of it’s not allowing me to connect to the PC and browse the SD card.
So for me, am I really going to wait another 3 -4 months in the hopes of saving $100 on a phone? I highly doubt that would all work out in my favor, knowing Verizon and their love of milking customers for every penny.
I agree 100% but the issue is that you just turned a nice thing that Google/Motorola are doing for customers that won’t receive Jelly Bean and called it a slap in the face… but the slap in the face is from the carriers. Every issue isn’t one with Motorola but is one that every American wireless consumer faces against their carrier.
Mustang, I’m not so sure this is a “good thing”.
I see this as Google putting lipstick on a pig… a pig that they didn’t really want.
It’s no secret that Google wanted Motorola just for the patents, and tried to sell the manufacturing business to other companies. This whole “innovation firewalled division” stinks.
Droid Bionic was supposed to “rule all droids” – it was used to build the Droid RAZR and Droid 4. It still doesn’t have ICS!! Still!
Google lauds Sony for “contributing” to Android, and saying that’s why they got their tablets so up to date. Their own team has to offer cash for clunkers… with 80 strings attached?
A good thing would be getting the updates out within a few months of Google. Motorola, enjoy the lipstick.
I’m not saying that this is the best idea ever, far from it.. but at least it is a company admitting that a device should get the new software and because they can’t deliver they are giving you a credit. Should it be more, yes, but it is more than you will get from HTC or Samsung or hell, even Apple when they decide your device won’t get the next update. Your choice is to buy a new phone, period.
So while I’m not praising them, at least I’ll be sitting on the curb with $100 credit to play with if I decide that another Motorola would be in my future (FYI — one isn’t).
Point is, it shouldn’t be a matter of throwing cash my way. I would rather have paid $599 for a Galaxy Nexus and be done with it. Google is even leaking the ROMs for Verizon customers willing to one-click root until Verizon posts it.
Do that with a Droid Bionic, and the latest beta leaks lock your bootloader, can’t upgrade to final Android 4.0, can’t downgrade to Android 2.3. How nice of them.
If they converted this to a $100 carrier bill credit, or gift card, with no strings attached… then it might be a fair deal. That’s still an option, but it looks like one they’re going to have to be pressured (see above) into doing.
Nice Obama jab in there. Now we know who Chris is voting for…
Considering Google leans way to the left, maybe they’ll teach Motorola to be more conservative with its commitments. And not use reconciliation to remedy impasses.
đŸ˜‰
Really at this point who believes Motorola/Google on this subject. My BIonic (and admitting I own one is like admitting I bought an Edsel) was advertised as “ICS” ready and almost a year later, here I am stuck on GB. Numerous promises have been made and then ignored. Promising me Jelly Bean is beyond irrelevant because I have been lied to so many times that it would be idiotic to believe them. BTW the Motorola update site to this day claims ICS coming in “Early Q3” which has come and gone.
Depends onhow far back they’re going. I have a Droid 2. Ain’t no way I’m getting Jelly Bean, I’ll probably never even see ICS. Give a $100 credit on a new phone, and I’ll be stoked to ahead and pick up the RAZR M for free or maybe even wait until the RAZR MAXX HD comes out. Without I’m tempted to just join the crowd and get an SGIII or even the iPhone 5.
George,
If you do that, however, you’ll lose your unlimited data plan when going from Droid 2 to Droid RAZR/RAZR HD/Bionic/4.
You would be better off hopping on a site like Cowboom or Fleabay and buying a used Droid 4, which would (probably) net you Jelly Bean, and Verizon will hand you a free SIM card that keeps your unlimited data, plus 4G LTE… and without locking you into a new 2-year contract.
This deal is only good for people willing to give up their unlimited data. If you don’t have unlimited data, you’re so new of a customer to Verizon you’re probably stuck in contract anyways, and can’t take advantage of the token gesture.
@Tom: Don’t really care about unlimited data at this point. Nine times out of ten, when I need to access the internet for any sustained period of time, I have a wifi hook up. I don’t even use 500 MB a month right now.