It's currently the Motorola product of most appeal.
And you can miss the point all you want and that's fine. I'll try one more time and then happily stop useless back n forth (ppl do that a lot these days).
A manufacturer can put logos on their product all they want. In fact, anything can be done. Point is that they want to actually SELL said product right? You may buy it but others like me won't. So they will lose some people, others not. So the message conveyed is very important! I don't care what contracts are made on who "has permission" to do what. You're trying to sell the product to ME, to YOU, to others! So this is not a "look what I can do since I have all the control." This is about the care one should take to make the right selling choices, aka BUSINESS choices.
A manufacturers logo is different from a "carrier" logo. So you can say it is a collaboration btwn VZW and Motorola, this is true! It still doesn't change the point that it installs a lack of confidence on the part of the carrier, it shows a desire to "control" the message we see in our minds, and it's still at the end of the day, A MOTOROLA FIRST product. A car logo is the logo of the manufacturer. And even Toyota, or Honda, or any car company, they always take great care on what that logo will look like. You won't see a Toyota spell its name on the front. You'll see a "symbol." Why? Consumers will not buy an advertisement on wheels. So care is taken to make sure that even a manufacturer places the right logo for the product they want to sell.
That alteration that Motorola did in their redesign cost them $$$. And that is partly why the iPhone is so valued and no phone OEM can never go head to head with them. Samsung has come the closest but still doesn't have the power of Apple. And that's unfortunate because android is a great operating system and ecosystem.
So the bottom line is that, if a company wants to stand out, it needs to consider its power of influence. When you see an iPhone with no VZW logo, no VZW bloatware, that speaks volumes!
Motorola is linked to VZW. But there are plenty of subtle ways to make that point known without throwing that message in your face by force. Even worse, and I repeat, destroy the design esthetics for the sole purpose of demonstrating a lack of confidence.