Mobile
Motorola Talks the Talk but Can’t Walk the Walk
By now you’ve probably heard that Motorola CEO Sanjay Jha announced that the Motorola Droid Bionic will be launching in September. That would be fine, if Motorola hadn’t announced the phone all the way back in January of this year. It’s quite clear that Motorola has not figured out 4G LTE. The company launched a tablet called the Motorola Xoom back in February and quickly promised 4G LTE support. We now know that the Xoom won’t be getting 4G LTE until September. And now, during the same earnings call where the company announced the Droid Bionic release date, Jha has promised even more 4G LTE devices for 2011 in the form of a phone and two LTE enabled tablet devices. Neither of those tablets is the original Xoom I might add.
Quite frankly, at this point, I could care less about the devices. One will probably be the Motorola Xoom 2. The phone could be the Dinara or the follow-up to the Motorola Atrix but honestly, who cares? Motorola still hasn’t even released its first 4G LTE products! Why on earth would I care about the rest of your lineup until you can prove that you have mastered 4G LTE?
It’s absurdly mind boggling. Honestly, my head hurts writing this. I love Motorola hardware, I really do. But I am sick and tired of hearing a ton of talk but seeing no action to back it up. As I’ve said, Motorola had the ability to put out the first 4G LTE tablet ever. It failed. It also has the ability to put out the first dual-core 4G LTE smartphone in the Droid Bionic and it’s now possible that they’ll fail to do that as well.
Instead of focusing on these products during an earnings call, to soothe investors and consumers alike, we hear about three more devices that are in the pipeline for 2011. Well, Sanjay, hate to break it to you but the glory days of the original Droid are over and I have a feeling some people are going to be buying a little device called the iPhone 5 in September and a device called the Galaxy S II in August. And those who want a 4G LTE tablet can waltz down to their local Verizon store, right now, and pick up a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1.
That being said, until Motorola figures out how to follow up all of its talk, its going to be eating the dust of its competitors for the foreseeable future.
Jared Fucci
07/28/2011 at 11:35 pm
Harsh words….but 100% correct. If the SGS2 is 4g…I’m done waiting for the bionic.
Scotty Braun
07/29/2011 at 12:31 am
@Adam:twitter . And you know what the sad thing is, that really the Bionic is just gonna be another good smartphone in todays standards. By now its not gonna be the Smartphone we all dreamed and waited 8 months to get. It’ll be like a Droid X2 with LTE, which really isn’t all that exciting, especially knowing what other phones are coming out..
It’ll just be a Dual Core 4.3″ qhd LTE phone. Im sure its not gonna be that exciting anymore. I’ve held my upgrade since February for this thing, but now i don’t know if its worth it after all this.. I guess we’ll all play august, and see what else is gonna make it out prior..
Dick
07/29/2011 at 12:55 am
Amen, I originally had a droid charge and liked it but returned it to extend my return policy for 30 days wishing to get the Bionic. In exchange I picked up a thunderbolt and have been quite surprised. I like it because when using wireless tether other devices see it as an access point and everything from my ps3 to xbox see it no problem, which was not the case with the droid charge. My intention was to get the bionic after another exchange but this wait has gotten ridiculous. Truthfully even with all the thunderbolt haters, I have not had many problems with it since day one. Rooting was not too hard, and it has less lag than my old HTC Incredible which I was hating due to lag. Yes battery is not great but neither was my Incredible, and no smart phone seems to be leaps and bound better anyways. So Im really close to just keeping the Thunderbolt.
Motorola is truly run by fools if they have waited by any means to compete against the new iphone or Galaxy SII. First to market with a good product is often the winner or has great advantage in the tech industry, so if they had any chance at all to compete it would have been by getting a good head start.
BrianB13
07/29/2011 at 1:53 am
I haven’t seen anyone else come out with a dual core qHD 4G LTE phone yet either. I don’t care if the Bionic comes out in August or September. In the next 8 weeks, we should be seeing the Bionic, SGSII and iPhone 5. I will look at the reviews, check them out and make a decision. I don’t need to jump on the first one of them out. I have a life that doesn’t revolve around the smartphone I’m packing. So I will continue to enjoy the summer and look forward to September. If Moto can’t get the Bionic out in September, they might as well scrap it too and concentrate on the Dinara.
Matt Howard
07/29/2011 at 5:50 am
You are absolutely right on the last sentence. I would go a step further and say they might as well scrap the damn thing now. If they are seriously planning on the Dinara coming out this year, why would they bother with the Bionic at all if it doesn’t come out first week of September? Just to make it obsolete in another month or two? It makes no sense. The mark for this device was July, that gives a solid 4-5 months to sell before they make it obsolete.
Matt Howard
07/29/2011 at 5:47 am
At this point, I’ve pretty much scrapped the idea of the Bionic. I know, all you calendar experts are going to tell me September is still summer, but nobody looks at it that way. Summer is June, July, and August to most people. I have to believe Motorola was aiming for August when they tweeted about “this summer,” but they missed their mark and just are getting a pass on a technicality.
After this headline today, I’ve been watching video reviews of the Galaxy S2, and it looks freakin’ amazing. I don’t see anything Motorola could throw at me that would blow the S2 out of the water. We will probably see the S2 first, and I will be first in line, assuming it is LTE capable, which, come on, it has to be. The SGS2 will have a better screen, has MHL-enabled USB, and reports are indicating seriously impressive battery life. That will probably drop some once LTE gets involved, but still, it’s a good sign.
Also, remember this phone is already 3 MONTHS OLD. And it will probably at least match the Bionic, unless the leaked specs are way off, which has YET TO BE CONFIRMED. It’s a proven winner and match for what we assume the Bionic will be in a slicker form factor and without Motoblur.
I’ve always said I’d take the Bionic or SGS2- whichever came first. Now I’m kind of questioning why I was so torn- it seems rather obvious.
My plan now is S2 as soon as I can, and then when (if) the Dinara and Nexus 3 (Prime, whatever) come out, I will consider selling the S2 for one of those if they pack a considerably bigger punch.