Mobile OSs New bosses, same old Motorola.

http://www.androidcentral.com/atrix...not-received-ice-cream-sandwich-says-motorola

Well this is tough news. Motorola Mobility has been maintaining an update chart and evaluating its current device lineup as to which devices should go forward with Ice Cream Sandwich and Jelly Bean. Just a few days ago, they delayed several devices having previously said they would get the upgrade in Q3. Now, they have announced the Atrix 4G, Photon 4G and Electrify will not be receiving the update and will be remaining on Gingerbread.

This is not good news.

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Atrix 4G - Launched February 2011
Original OS: Android 2.2
Current OS: Android 2.3
Nvidia Tegra 2 chipset based handset.

Photon 4G - Launched August 2001.
Original OS: Android 2.3
Current OS: Android 2.3
Nvidia Tegra 2 chipset based handset.

Both phones now without an official upgrade path to Android 4.0. We all know Tegra 2 is capable of running ICS (ZTE Grand X) and even Jellybean (Motorola Xoom Wifi) - 4G version updated thanks to the Android Community.

It really bugs me to see Motorola drop (what I see as) capable hardware from upgrades like Android 4.0 and 4.1 (which are leaps and bounds better than any Gingerbread based software.

I did have hope that Google taking the reigns at Motorola would have had a positive effect on their smartphones. Hopefully Sean at Android Central is right when he writes "We hope this is just a difficult transitional period for Motorola and that they will learn from this." but something would have to drastically change at Motorola before I'd ever consider another piece of Motorola Hardware.

I myself got burned by extreme delays to my Wifi European Xoom, having to unlock the bootloader and install the U.S based software to get prompt updates like the rest of the U.S based Wifi Xoom's.

Bad moves, Google.

Subsidiary or not, Google/Motorola could show other Android OEM's how it's done with swift, regular updates to their hardware. Leading by example so to speak.

It's wrong to see that non-Google owned manufacturers like Samsung are able to pump out updates faster (Jellybean on the international S3 already) with a Jellybean update due for their older handsets (Galaxy S2) on the way too when some Motorola handsets launched with Gingerbread and will (officially) stay on Gingerbread.

As well as detailing the update for the Galaxy S III, Samsung also released a full list of devices that will be upgraded to Jelly Bean. The list includes ten phones: the Galaxy S II, Galaxy Note, Galaxy S Advance, Galaxy S II LTE, Galaxy Chat, Galaxy Ace 2, Galaxy Beam, Galaxy Ace Plus, Galaxy Mini 2, and Galaxy S Duos; four tablets: the Galaxy Tab 2 7.0, Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus, Galaxy Tab 2 10.1, Galaxy Note 10.1; and an unknown device, the Galaxy Music

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Source: The Verge

This is in turn, made worse with the Atrix 4G and Photon 4g's locked bootloaders. This makes it harder (but not impossible) for ROM devs to support what is essentially abandoned hardware.

It totally stinks and was something I'd hoped that Google would have turned around taking ownership of Motorola. They still have a chance to do so going forward but I will remain critical until that happens.