AT&T's Android on the Motorola Backflip Is Crippled
![AT&T's Android on the Motorola Backflip Is Crippled [Users Give Negative Reviews of AT&T Heavily Modified Android On The Backflip, Blame Apple]](http://nexus404.com/Blog/thumbnailimages/alt/Motorola-Backflip-Thumbs-DownTFTSThumb220153.jpg)
As I reported last week, AT&T got the Google out of Google’s Android for their upcoming Motorola Backflip, which is their first Android phone. Public perception on the move as a shot in the Google-Apple feud where AT&T sided with their pals at Apple who have provided them with exclusivity of one of the most desired mobile phones in the history of the market.
To recap the story from last week, AT&T had set Yahoo (which is really Bing) as the default search engine on the Backflip, instead of Google, and all Google applications on the Android device had reportedly been replaced with their Yahoo equivalents. At the time, it was unclear if users were able to easily change the default search engine.
The Backflip was released just a few days ago, and users have chimed in. (Disclaimer – all of these reports are coming from third-parties, so accept them accordingly. We weren’t given a Backflip review unit.) Unsurprising, the heavily modified Android experience isn’t very good. First, it’s the older Android 1.5. It doesn’t include support for the newer, more appealing Google Experience apps like Google Maps Navigator.
Secondly, users are unable to change the default search engine, it’s literally “locked” to Yahoo. Consider that many of these reports are coming out on the xda-developers forum, where the reader base is very comfortable with root access and the command line.
Many apps, even ones installed from the Android Market, are ‘hidden’ by the phone and it encourages you to use the AT&T pre-installed ones. Apparently, the AT&T apps aren’t very good, and users are unable to uninstall them – at all.
One of the biggest insults to people who purchase the phone – it won’t allow you to install non-market applications. Users can only install apps from the Android Market onto the phone, ones downloaded from other sources will not install. Presumably, this is being done in the name of security, but it is creating an iPhone-like environment on the Backflip.
Even users familiar with Android’s command line were unable to use command line commands to get non-market apps installed. AT&T has this thing locked up like a vault.
Reportedly, the hardware is nice – Motorola knows how to make a decent Android handset. AT&T will probably sell a lot of these handsets and many non-technical users will enjoy the Android MOTOBLUR experience – but the average TFTS probably wants to stay clear of the Motorola Backflip from AT&T.
Credit: Source.Mass Effect 3 Hit With Tons Of Negative User Reviews On Metacritic, But Are The Complaints Legitimate?
Motorola Announces $200 Cash Back Promotion Offer Aimed At Getting More Users To Make The Switch To Android
HTC & Facebook May Be Working On A Heavily Modified Android Phone, What About The HTC ChaCha & Salsa?
Motorola Currently Looking For 1,000 Cliq 2 Users Willing To Upgrade To & Test Out Android 2.3 Gingerbread
Apple Said Not to Launch New Apple TV Set Anytime Soon, Sharp IGZO Display Supply to Blame
Apple Granted Injunction Against Motorola Devices in Germany on Slide-to-Unlock Patent Infringement
4 Comments / Add Your Response?
Breaking News
The TFTS Team
Yes, motorola support guy told me the backflip cannot install non-android market apps due to “carrier restrctions” Trying to get the word out for people to avoid this junk phone.
I thought the point of getting an android phone was getting the google experience, not a yahoo/AT&T experience. If I wanted that I would just buy an iphone. I sincerely hope google and the phone manufacturers say NO the next time AT&T asks for an android phone.
Although I do think this phone is very crippled based on the information presented here, something that I think many people are mistakenly assuming is that Android = Google. This is not the case. Google simply sponsored and contributed to the effort of getting an Open Source platform onto a mobile device that could benefit from an shared technologies and intellectual property in an open fashion. So, by AT&T using Yahoo as the default search provider, they have done exactly what Google and the other involved companies intended to occur. If you want a “Google” phone, then you need to get a Nexus One as it is the one any only Google phone.
The intention behind creating an open-source phone OS is to allow innovation from people outside Google. At&t is essentially blocking access to innovative ideas – apps, even android updates – presumably so that they can keep Apple happy. This is a shitty side-effect of open-sourcing, not the intention behind it. At&t has been systematically shooting itself in the foot ever since it bought cingular out. Their signal quality is poorer, their phone collection is one-dimensional, with their business piggybacking mostly on the iphone and customers who have already been roped into a 2-yr contract. Eventually, you can’t call yourself a cellular service provider – not a good one at least – if you provide shitty service and phones that people could make with a manual, some glue and an elf that rids any phone of anything even accidentally innovative.