Moto's Bionic LIVES!

[SnydersWeb]

Am I the only one who thinks Moto is covering up the real reason behind the Bionic's delay? I understand that many rumors are more or less speculation, but this announcement seems to fall perfectly in line with the widespread rumor of late; the Bionic has seemingly unfixable hardware issues.

IMO, Moto is pulling out some nonsense reasoning to justify its delay. I think they're looking to replace the processor (since that's been the alleged issue) and by the time they get the phone operational they'll be forced to upgrade some of the specs to compete with other upcoming android devices. I find it very odd that nobody else seems to feel this way. Is there something I'm missing?

I have been looking forward to this device for quite some time and I am very disappointed in this news. Verizon does not have any other 4g phones coming out in Q2 that is comparable to the Bionic (even in physical attractiveness, let alone specs).

Nope you're not but if you consider that if Moto were to tell all and say everything it would hurt the company. So in this case they're engaging in spin control pure and simple. Moto is doing what is expected: covering their butts, protecting shareholder value. This phone is one of the most anticipated devices from Motorola Mobility Inc's young history and could likely make or break them.

In the end we'll be getting a better Bionic than the one we saw at the CES. Whether that takes the shape of an Etna+ or the Targa is what we're waiting to hear further info on.

IF it turns out that this thing becomes the Targa/Bionic then it'll be a real treat.

 

[Cruiserdude]

Like many of you said, and I and others had proposed earlier, Moto did in fact decide to "revise" the hardware but keep the Droid Bionic name, as cancelling it outright will kill the value of their shares. However, they also cannot come right out and say the current hardware is defective, as it would still damage their reputation somewhat. The main concern, however, is NVIDIA and Qualcomm. Moto doesn't make the cpu or baseband chips that seem to be causing the problem, and if they were to openly admit that the problem was with one of these factors, or announce that the hardware had officially been cancelled, then bring something to market with a different cpu, it would damage that company's reputation. When you're MOTO and a large part of your business model revolves around selling high-end smartphones on next-gen networks, killing the stock values of and pissing off NVIDIA and/or Qualcomm isn't exactly a good business move.

The real question: 1) Will the Galaxy S2 LTE come out before this revised device? 2) Will either of them come out before unlimited 4g data goes away?

 

[Preach2k]

Motorola Assures Everyone Through Twitter that the DROID Bionic is Not ?Cancelled?

 

[Oxn]

Ughh, the Targa has one ugly bezel

 

[aDroidtoRemember]

I hate the word summer. That can be May 15-Sep 20 (end of my summer at least)...I am dying over here with this crappy curve. Come on Bionicc!

 

[BigDFSU]

Let me ask you this. Hypothetically speaking, if the Bionic was re-announced with a new design, Dual Core TI OMAP 4, 1 GIG of RAM, 13 MP camera, 5MP FFC, LTE, 4.3" sAMOLED + screen would you turn it down because it wasn't the Bionic anymore?

Man I would snatch that up giggling like a little school girl as I'm leaving with my new phone. I liked the old form, but as long as the phone is comfortable to hold then I don't care if the outside looks a little odd.

I'm excited again.

 

[rkeller62]

I hate the word summer. That can be May 15-Sep 20 (end of my summer at least)...I am dying over here with this crappy curve. Come on Bionicc!

Officially summer is the time from the vernal equinox to the autumnal equinox - June 21 to September 21

 

[Droid800]

May very be true, however i just dont understand the whole email thing. The email or statement the WSJ recieved didnt specify improving the form factor, but this guys recieves in his email the exact same statement but with the additional wording "improved form factor"?

I dont know what to think, however it does look fishy, from this site.

It is. Motorola said nothing of the sort in its statement. All it said was that ?Based on compelling feedback since the show, we are incorporating several enhancements to make this an even better consumer experience?. Nothing about form factor. At all.

 

[Balthazar B]

Sheesh. The one thing we can be (reasonably) certain of is that there will be a Motorola phone called the Bionic released this summer on VzW. Beyond that, it's all reading tea leaves or arguing about how many angels can fit on the head of a pin.

 

[Preach2k]

I hate the word summer. That can be May 15-Sep 20 (end of my summer at least)...I am dying over here with this crappy curve. Come on Bionicc!

It is the same as saying 3rd Q. It can be anytime between July & September!!!

 

[seabass]

Here it is straight from Moto's Mouth... Read and Enjoy for all those who love the design.

So with the latest news that the Bionic is being delayed for "upgrades" everyone is excited we could see more ram, a better front facing camera, but the biggest overall concern is that Motorola may change the design of the Bionic to not look like what we have grown to love.

Everyone is scared that it will come out looking like the rumored Targa or Droid X 2.

So the simplest question I can ask is will the Bionic look as it does today??? Thats what everyone is dying to know.

You have Many loyal Motorloa fans out their more than willing to wait for this incredibly sexy phone with awesome hardware, myself included.

Great design, very sleek, very appealing. Please let us know if it will stay the same.

Thank you,
Motorola Fan


Response:



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Subject
Droid Bionic to change Deisgn or Stay the Same

Discussion Thread
Dear Jasper,

Thanks for reaching out to Motorola. I?ve reviewed your e-mail and I?m ready to help.

Regarding your concern, the design of the Motorola Droid Bionic will still be the same. We don't have any specific launch date on this particular phone. We highly recommend you to check our web site from time to time for further updates.

We hope that you find this information useful and look forward to assisting you in the future.

For information about Motorola products and services, please visit us at Motorola Home - Motorola USA

Thank you for contacting Motorola e-mail support.

Best Regards,

Niel

Noooooo way. Someone who actually e-mailed Motorola to ask them instead of jumping to conclusions based on weak rumors, and then new rumors once those rumors were shot down? If only the rest of this forum could do more research and less pretending like they know something when they know nothing.

 

[allan1313]

allan you are my new friend lol!

At least I have one now haha

 

[Castor Troy]

At least I have one now haha

anyone that cares what's under the hood rather than what a phone looks like is a friend of mine : )
-
Pack a brick with a great processor a gig of ram a nice screen and ill buy it : )

Sent from my Droid

 

[vzwuser76]

Noooooo way. Someone who actually e-mailed Motorola to ask them instead of jumping to conclusions based on weak rumors, and then new rumors once those rumors were shot down? If only the rest of this forum could do more research and less pretending like they know something when they know nothing.

Not trying to start something here, but people emailed HTC & Verizon ahead of the bolt launch and got replies, and they ended up being incorrect. I have talked to CSRs at Verizon, HTC, & Moto, and when I ask a question about something that's unreleased, they usually say something to the effect of "We don't hear anything until a week or two before it's official".

Until Moto does an official press release outlining exactly what's happening, everything is pure speculation.

 

[jrcarson]

I cover smartphones daily and contacted Moto Mobility PR directly and posted what they said. The WSJ doesn't care about specs, so wouldn't have posted details not pertinent to finances. I quoted the Moto email word for word.

Anyway, we'll hear more soon enough, I suspect.

 

[Jasper]

Well, contrary to what i was told there is seemingly another post that discusses the changing of the form factor... Below is the link.
Motorola Droid Bionic Release Date Delay: Verizon Problems (Update) ? Phone Reviews

And CK, i do care about whats under the hood. As i stated i was happy to hear they are delaying the Bionic to upgrade the hardware, even though a delay is not preferable, having an up to date phone is. Also to me though and many others the design of a phone plays a role too, not as important but still important. Call me crazy for wanting a powerhouse phone in an appealing package.

 

[kristykat182]

There is no way in hell verizon is going to release this before tiered data. They want our money too bad. I'd be willing to bet my kindle on it.

 

[thebizz]

Whats so funny is the Droid Bionic is a vzw name now if they were to say the etna (the device we saw at ces) is being released with slight modifications then that would kill this argument, but at this point the Targa could become the Droid Bionic. Just saying

 

[Cruiserdude]

There is no way in hell verizon is going to release this before tiered data. They want our money too bad. I'd be willing to bet my kindle on it.

There's no way to tell of course, but I'm honestly thinking there's a good chance we'll still be able to get this on unlimited data. As I've said elsewhere, it would be unfair to change to tiered data until all of the device partners had at least one LTE device out. Doing so would cause a sales surge before the cutoff for those who already had devices out (just HTC so far, and almost certainly Samsung) and hinder sales of devices released after the cutoff (because most people who had been holding out for 4g would have jumped while they still could get unlimited data, rather than waiting longer for a particular device). MOTO is their preferred manufacturer, so I really don't see them hurting Bionic sales like that.

You have to remember as well that while it is expensive to build an LTE network, its actually a good bit cheaper to run than EVDO, based off comments from various testers and insiders. VZW has stated many times that the reason for unlimited data is the iPhone 5, and that unlimited data will be gone by the time it launches. As that device has been delayed, there's a good chance unlimited data will stick around until just a few days before its launch.

Of course, there's no way for us to actually know until we hear something. They could announce a looming date later today for all we know. But the reality is that in today's market, the launch of the iPhone 5 is likely to bring many more customers than the Bionic or even a GS2 LTE, despite the fact that the Apple almost certainly will not have LTE itself. The next Apple device has always made more of a splash than any single Android device. While that may change in the future, its the reality for now, and may end up benefitting us, as Verizon doesn't seem to care about all the Android data usage. They're just worried about the iPhone because of what it did to AT&T's network.

 

[corymcnutt]

Am I the only one who thinks Moto is covering up the real reason behind the Bionic's delay? I understand that many rumors are more or less speculation, but this announcement seems to fall perfectly in line with the widespread rumor of late; the Bionic has seemingly unfixable hardware issues.

IMO, Moto is pulling out some nonsense reasoning to justify its delay. I think they're looking to replace the processor (since that's been the alleged issue) and by the time they get the phone operational they'll be forced to upgrade some of the specs to compete with other upcoming android devices. I find it very odd that nobody else seems to feel this way. Is there something I'm missing?

I have been looking forward to this device for quite some time and I am very disappointed in this news. Verizon does not have any other 4g phones coming out in Q2 that is comparable to the Bionic (even in physical attractiveness, let alone specs).

I'm disappointed too, however, I would rather they fix it than put out an inferior device. I'm sure Moto was hoping to solve the processor issue, but finally decided it was going to be a poor user experience; that would have been bad for Moto, Verizon, and the users of the phone...a no-win situation.