I'm not taking sides here, but I'm pretty disappointed with Moto as of late. They've made some good moves with Android devices in the past few years, but they seem to have lost their way. Call it innovation, evolution, revolution, whatever, but the fact is the other manufacturers have had a strong summer portfolio, while Motorola has had NOTHING.
They had the Xoom, which was tainted by the fact that several of its features didn't work, partially the fault of Google for saying Honeycomb was ready when it wasn't, and also Moto themselves for pushing them to bring it to market. The Atrix is a good phone to be sure, but doesn't really do the Tegra2 justice. LG's phones really fly, and the Atrix doesn't really keep up despite the nearly identical hardware. It was also somewhat tarnished by the fact that it was advertised as 4G, which actually only meant ATT's HSPA+, which isn't close to actual 4g, except the Atrix didn't even support that when it came out. Maybe not Moto's fault, but still hurt sales. Webtop was definitely something new, but not implemented well. The idea has a lot of potential, but its an awkward design with the slot in the back, the feel is cheap, and the OS is too basic to be attractive or that useful compared to the phone itself. The hardware could easily run the full version of Ubuntu, or tie-in with Google's own Chrome OS. So its not nearly what it could be, and its WAY overpriced.
Since then, they haven't brought ANYTHING new to market. Well, there's the Droid X2, but that's a slight update the Droid X to unload all the Tegra2 processors they didn't need after the Etna was cancelled, and the Atrix didn't keep selling as well as they had hoped. And if you've ever played with one, it feels far from optimized. The first one made full advantage of its hardware and felt quite snappy. The new one doesn't impress at all in that respect. I'm not gonna stir up the screen controversy all over again, considering its ultimately subjective. But I personally wasn't too impressed with the pentile display compared to the great S-AMOLED+ in my Charge.
Meanwhile, those hoping for the Bionic continue to wait, while they continue to promise newer and better products "just around the corner". I'm glad they've done well in the past few years, and I know they claim they have some great products coming up that will be improved even further by ICS. But the mobile industry is moving way too fast to go an entire quarter with NO competitive products. You can't have a period of innovation here and there while having nothing the rest of the time.
All the other companies have a strong summer portfolio of devices both already released and well-detailed for upcoming launches. Motorola has empty promises and leaked rumors and blurry pics of something that was supposed to have released this spring. Its killed their sales, made carriers wary of partnering with them, and the whole Nvidia thing has surely made a few hardware partners cautious. Not to mention its damaged their credibility, as CK said, to actually make a stable and competitive device. I hope it is everything that we hoped it would be, but if its essentially a Droid X2 with LTE, Moto may as well give up now.
Its a shame, because I too am a big fan of Moto and have had several of their devices in the past. I respect their history in the telecom industry, but I'm still a consumer and I'll buy what I consider the best device for my needs and wishes. Their heavy, angular slab design does not impress me, nor do their Pentile displays. But those are subjective concerns. Yet recent poor hardware optimization, product development failures and delays, and the complete inability to deliver a competitive product for a significant period of time in such a fast moving industry is a universal concern, and explains their plummeting stocks. I hope they turn it around, but at this point, its gonna take a lot more than making sure the Bionic is a real hit.
It would be a nice start, though.
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