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]

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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.