I have written earlier about my displeasure with Motorola’s delay in upgrading my Cliq XT from Android OS 1.5 to 2.1. That update was in September, when the upgrade was supposed to be out by the end of the year. Fast forward to February, and in the end, Motorola gave up. Unsurprisingly, a lot of people are incredibly mad, me included. As a result of this fiasco, I will never buy a Motorola device again.
Although in my post last September I wrote that I didn’t really care if the upgrade to 2.1 came, as time went on and I was unable to install apps more and more frequently because I still had 1.5, it became an issue. The lack of feedback or progress from Motorola was just rubbing salt in the wound. When they finally announced that Cliq XT users would be left out in the cold, I wasn’t too surprised. A lack of surprise didn’t mean a lack of outrage, though.
What was even more infuriating was the fact that the Cliq XT was more than capable of running 2.1. Plenty of people had rooted their phones and done an unofficial upgrade (rooting is to Android phones what jailbreaking is to iPhones). Once I learned that an official upgrade was not happening, I decided to root my phone myself. Rooting your phone is dangerous, and you are definitely on your own if it goes wrong. However, I was not terribly worried, and I followed the instruction at this forum and successfully upgraded my phone to 2.1. There were a lot of steps, and it took several hours, but at no point was I afraid that I had screwed up. Knowing Linux definitely helped, but even a novice can handle it if the instructions are followed meticulously (note: I, like everybody else, am not responsible for whatever happens if you decide to root your phone).
Now my phone is happily running 2.1, and the Cliq XT is more than up to the task. This is definitive proof that the reason that Motorola gave up on the upgrade was due to their own resource-hogging MotoBLUR™ technology. What I really don’t understand, though, is why they just didn’t give up on MotoBLUR itself and pushed ahead with the upgrade. Motorola has made it clear that MotoBLUR will not be a part of their future products. They’ve decided that MotoBLUR isn’t worth it, and apparently for good reason. So why don’t they just acknowledge it and make available the BLUR-less version of 2.1 that I have running on my phone, more or less? They’d at least make a lot of people happier than they are now.
All in all, Motorola really demonstrated a complete lack of customer service know-how here. As a result, they’ve lost me as a customer for life, and I know I’m not the only one. As for T-Mobile, we’ll see. I’m going to complain to them and see if they are willing to assuage me. Yes, it’s a bit unfair since the fault is with Motorola and not T-Mobile, but since T-Mobile partners with Motorola, and is in face the outlet that these phones were purchased from, they are going to be held responsible too. I’ve never had a problem with T-Mobile in the past, but our contract is up in a year and Verizon is certainly getting more and more attractive…
Moral of the story: as I said before, under-promise and over-deliver. Not vice-versa.