Motorola calls stock Android 'the right thing,' but bows to Verizon customization (via Verge)

[Ry]

Motorola calls stock Android 'the right thing,' but bows to Verizon customization

Despite being owned by Google, Motorola still has to answer to Verizon

Speaking to a group of reporters last night, Motorola Senior Vice President, Product Rick Osterloh pointed out the company's main focuses going forward, and one of them was obviously Android. Specifically, he addressed the question of shipping unaltered, stock Android software on phones.

Going forward, we?re going to try to be as close to the base as we can be, because we think that?s the right thing for users. We think users also want fast upgrades and upgrades for their phones over the long haul, so we?re going to be focus on that as well. It?s a little bit different than what a lot of OEMs are doing and certainly what Motorola did in the past, but going forward that?s going to be our strategy.

The phrase "as we can be" is remarkable, because it implies that Motorola, which is owned by Google, doesn't have the power to release phones without custom software on top of it. The RAZR HD is a perfect example: it's very close to stock Android, but there is a custom skin and some custom Verizon software to be found on it. It's also shipping with Android 4.0 instead of the latest version, Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, though an upgrade is slated for later in the year.

One commenter did point out though, why doesn't the RAZR i have stock Android?

 

[gadgetjunkie89]

I like a lightly skinned OS. I've looked at Sense and Touchwiz, and though I see a few good things here and there I still come back to the light touch Motoblur puts on Android. I don't see why Verizon (and other carriers) can't let carriers produce phones with stock Android (even if it were stock with the VZW bloatware). Faster upgrades with stock Android make sense to customers, why not to carriers?