For those who may be unaware of the suggestion of the title, I don’t mean Sadism and Masochism. I mean Samsung and Motorola of course. Aside from HTC (High Tech Computer Corporation), Motorola and now, as of recent, Samsung have been very big players in the Android world; needless to say they have stepped on many people’s toes.
Hark, the community cries. Here it not? We all do, it resonates all around us and I’m only another person to bring it to the attention of Motorola and Samsung as well as you all reading this now are also painfully aware of what I’m talking about.
The Droid was a blessing that continues to bear fruit for the community and those who give and give and give with no price tag for their beyond amazing contributions. But when Samsung says, “tough, your device is stuck with what you got.” Or “this update isn’t necessary.” And essentially ruling anyone without a Windows-based machine of getting their much hyped, anticipated, and other public mishandlings with their wanna-be iTunes, Kies. And what did Motorola do? They said, “you don’t like our version of Android, go buy somewhere else.”
And to this I have to say to these entities, bite me! For goodness sake, it is the consumer that saves the companies! Good luck getting some sort of bail out when you need it, because it won’t happen like it did for the automotive industry in the USA. T-Mobile learned that one! Who remembers the FIRST Android commercials for the G1? It was someone in a dressing room saying something like, “what’s a carbon footprint?” Hell if I know! But the point was that your phone was with Google but Verizon didn’t treat their Google phone as a feature phone, but as powerhouse!
But then Motorola crippled their first gen Android phone (the CLIQ/Dext not the Droid) with MotoBLUR being heavily built with Android and Samsung did the same with their Behold II.
There is a petition going on to get Motorola to change their high security, DEFCON 1, Eagle must leave the nest, Air Force One boot loader. I hope it goes well because I’m sure the revolt that went on Samsung for their deplorable Behold II support and now their shenanigans with their Galaxy S phones are still lingering around. Whenever these entities stay quiet, all hell breaks lose as the imagination of many roam wild with the possibilities that could explain them breaking their promises with an update for the end of the year.
Before every OEM (original equipment manufactures) usually the Android Community, XDA, Cyanogen Mod by Team Douche, and the Obsidian, Onyx, Nero v5 (currently) by Team Whiskey and the other amazing people out there making ROMs accessible to those who take the leap of faith to root their phone and place their devices in the hands of these people. Now, why can’t the OEMs get their act together as fast and efficient? Seriously, these are HUGE entities that move as fast as molasses and they still haven’t learned.
What’s that saying? Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
That is the point that a good portion of Android users feel they are at (not everyone roots and uses ROMs for fear of bricking their phone or other reasons), they don’t know what phone manufacturer to buy from for their next phone. This sadomasochistic relationship that we’re being dragged into for the sake of Android has gotten to the point where we have to take a minute and wonder, will Google, the parent essentially, step up and get these OEMs to either get their act together or that they cannot touch Android, even phone carriers, to maintain everyone up to date.
Remember the security vulnerability in Android’s browser because of possible malware installing itself? Google said they fixed it and Android 2.3. No one but the Nexus S has this important update. Why doesn’t everyone else? With every step forward Android takes with Google, these OEMs and carriers with their bloat-ware take three steps back.
Is it us the consumers who are stuck, or will the OEMs and carriers be stuck when people just stop buying their crap-ware. The kinks in the system need to come to an end, things can continue to get worse and go downhill from here. But all we can do is hope for the better.