Shambles? Really? Regardless of your dislike of them, they're one of the few makers that's actually well into the black these days. People are buying their phones, and they're as stable and reliable as ever.
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Phones I jumped to Android and it was a disaster?
- Thread starter dj1891
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Again, considering Lenovo and Motorola pulled out from the smartphone market of the largest populated country in SE Asia, that tells me they can’t compete. Lenovo has no vision on what they want to do with Motorola. Their lineup is confusing with no direction.
I guess they are still competitive in markets like the US due to the lack of competition at the mid range and lower (no Xiaomi or Realme).
You keep referring to Lenovo like they're actually running Motorola. They're not. Motorola still operates out of their Chicago offices. And do you have a single original thought on this? Because all you're doing is making the same misinformed arguments that so many do about Motorola.
Lenovo are simply the owners, and meddle far less than Google did. You keep claiming they have no direction, yet you're missing what they have always consistently done, and that's make utilitarian phones that aren't following some brainless trend. That's what Motorola has always done, and continues to do. It seems like you're expecting them to be something that they have never been.
Sure... they have messed up here and there, but they're actually profitable. They're still quite big in North America and Europe, and they're huge in South America.
Their phones are for people who want a no BS phone that just works, and will continue to do so. They cater to people who want nothing to do with pretension, like me.
Are you saying people who like the features a phone like a Note provides are pretentious?
Sorry but they are not very popular in most countries. Then they have featureless phones that don't really excel at anything. Their market share continues to dwindle worldwide. Their brand rides the coattails of yesteryear when they made cutting edge phones.
Then if memory serves me right the Motorola brand was full of pretension... They were advertised as the Droid phones and had animations that imitated cyborgs and robots and such. They had these awful pretentious sounds and animations.
Motorola didn't make the cut and is lumped in with "others" at about 6%
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I'll tend to agree with this sentiment. Motorola's best phones are low end, budget devices like the Moto E and G, handsets that sell for less than $250. Moto doesn't muck up Android like so many other OEMs, which is beneficial considering their best devices are not power houses. I'm not a fan of most of the Chinese OEM's software aesthetic and quite honestly, here in the US, they're just not an available option, so If I was limited to that price range, I'd almost certainly choose a Moto G.
That being said, their presence in the smart phone industry outside of the budget market is limited and their devices are pretty subpar. The Moto Razr foldable and Moto Edge were already outdated, overpriced and non-competitive at their respective launches. And considering most here on the forums are smartphone enthusiasts, Moto offers little to attract our attention.
Thus my point. Motorola can only thrive in markets where they have little competition. Eg. US market. In markets where there are a lot of competition in the low to mid range market, Motorola is just not competitive at all. In Indonesia, they pulled out of the market many moons ago. They just didn’t know what to do against the likes of Xiaomi and Oppo, and gave up.
Meanwhile, look at how Samsung restrategized their offerings and came back with strong lineup of Galaxy A and M to compete with the Chinese. It shows that Motorola just doesn’t have the mojo anymore.
I honestly don't think they have much presence here in the US either. From what I recall reading online in the past, Central/South America appears to be their strongest market. I think they are a market leader in Brazil. I rarely see Moto phones here in the US. If it's an Android phone, most seem to be a Samsung variant or budget LG models.
I've seen various models from companies such as Blu, Cooltab, TCL lately. But most phones today are huge bricks that all look the same (gesture controls and all) that if in a case, it's rather hard to tell one apart. Even the Android UI looks very close to iOSs, in the Android 9 and 10 versions. Rounded corner UI and all. I'd forgive anyone for confusing Android today with iOS.
Of course, I'm happy daring to be different with my tiny Thunderbolt
I admit there ARE some smaller phones out there. For a short time I used a Moto E6 (it came with the service I got for my hotspot/backup line) and was impressed it offered a smaller footprint (albeit having a 5.7" display, it was actually smaller in hand than my Galaxy S5), even a removable battery and headphone jack. However, by the time I tried to customize the UI to be familiar to me, and how I like it to look, (with launchers, lock screen replacements and tons of third-party apps to fill in what's missing in stock Android), I ended up with a slightly more modern Galaxy S5. I just said 'what am I even doing? This is stupid' and put the phone in drawer and went back to the Galaxy S5. I eventually ordered an S4 (new in box too) to put that backup line on. (Galaxy S5 is my main line, Thunderbolt my mobile number/messaging/music device).
Happens every time. Everytime I try to make it work for me, I just end up with what I had before and it becomes a redundant device doing a poor copy of what I prefer.
I went through these growing pains before. in 2008, I was still using a Nokia 5185i. I thought smartphones were dumb fads and the iPhone just another Newton with a color display this time around. My Nokia was replaced multiple times by newer phones sporting color displays (a Nokia 1100 Messenger, Nokia N-Gage, Moto RAZR VIII, etc) and all of them sucked IMO. The UI was either cumbersome or totally foreign to me, or the signal/calls were awful. At that time, I only needed to make phone calls and texts. I didn't need data (which was costly at 1 cent per megabyte.) Always went through the trouble of reactivating my 5185i, totally used to and comfortable with its menu layout (which ironically was flat design!). It was also durable. Only reason I ever got into smartphones to begin with was because the battery supply for the Nokia was gone, and my collection of batteries couldn't make even 30 minutes STANDBY. Boss handed my a 3GS, said 'you are using this or you're fired since I can't get hold of you in the field with that other phone'. Of course, that was my gateway.
One day, it will happen again. I'll be on my Thunderbolt (or collection of 'em) and they will end up failing do do something reliably, possibly the battery again, and someone will probably hand me whatever new smartphone is out in 2040 or something, and I'll be amazed again. These things come in cycles. For now, what I use is just like the Nokia. Familiar, comfortable, fun.
Moto does however make some excellent stuff, the G7 Power is the only Android phone I know that can go 3 days per charge without disabling half the stuff that makes a smartphone a smartphone. The only way I will ever manage that with my Thunderbolt is by velcroing a battery bank onto the phone.
Of course, I'm happy daring to be different with my tiny Thunderbolt
I admit there ARE some smaller phones out there. For a short time I used a Moto E6 (it came with the service I got for my hotspot/backup line) and was impressed it offered a smaller footprint (albeit having a 5.7" display, it was actually smaller in hand than my Galaxy S5), even a removable battery and headphone jack. However, by the time I tried to customize the UI to be familiar to me, and how I like it to look, (with launchers, lock screen replacements and tons of third-party apps to fill in what's missing in stock Android), I ended up with a slightly more modern Galaxy S5. I just said 'what am I even doing? This is stupid' and put the phone in drawer and went back to the Galaxy S5. I eventually ordered an S4 (new in box too) to put that backup line on. (Galaxy S5 is my main line, Thunderbolt my mobile number/messaging/music device).
Happens every time. Everytime I try to make it work for me, I just end up with what I had before and it becomes a redundant device doing a poor copy of what I prefer.
I went through these growing pains before. in 2008, I was still using a Nokia 5185i. I thought smartphones were dumb fads and the iPhone just another Newton with a color display this time around. My Nokia was replaced multiple times by newer phones sporting color displays (a Nokia 1100 Messenger, Nokia N-Gage, Moto RAZR VIII, etc) and all of them sucked IMO. The UI was either cumbersome or totally foreign to me, or the signal/calls were awful. At that time, I only needed to make phone calls and texts. I didn't need data (which was costly at 1 cent per megabyte.) Always went through the trouble of reactivating my 5185i, totally used to and comfortable with its menu layout (which ironically was flat design!). It was also durable. Only reason I ever got into smartphones to begin with was because the battery supply for the Nokia was gone, and my collection of batteries couldn't make even 30 minutes STANDBY. Boss handed my a 3GS, said 'you are using this or you're fired since I can't get hold of you in the field with that other phone'. Of course, that was my gateway.
One day, it will happen again. I'll be on my Thunderbolt (or collection of 'em) and they will end up failing do do something reliably, possibly the battery again, and someone will probably hand me whatever new smartphone is out in 2040 or something, and I'll be amazed again. These things come in cycles. For now, what I use is just like the Nokia. Familiar, comfortable, fun.
Moto does however make some excellent stuff, the G7 Power is the only Android phone I know that can go 3 days per charge without disabling half the stuff that makes a smartphone a smartphone. The only way I will ever manage that with my Thunderbolt is by velcroing a battery bank onto the phone.
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All UI is flat, boring. Compare HTC Sense 3.6 to whatever is out now. There's simply nothing as fun as that weather animation on the lockscreen or the skeuomorphism I love.
I would like phones to differentiate, for OEMs to not be afraid to be bold, for Android to cater to the very folks who got it off the ground, instead of catering to the mediocre mainstream.
I would like to see a resurgence of phones such as the Backflip, BlackBerry, heck, even Windows phones. We need more competition. More manufacturers not afraid to be different. Stop listening to the tech bloggers and actually listen to the customers. Have an actual device WE want, not forcing us to conform to their image and for their fans to simply retort, 'You'll get used to it'.
What even happened to KaiOS? wasn't it supposed to be a new contender? We really need more competition out there. Not all this homogenized stuff. I'm tired of boring. My Thunderbolt is perhaps the most interesting experience I've had since the Galaxy S4 launched.
Heck, it's not like gesture controls couldn't be fun. Anyone remember WebOS? It needs to come back.
I would like phones to differentiate, for OEMs to not be afraid to be bold, for Android to cater to the very folks who got it off the ground, instead of catering to the mediocre mainstream.
I would like to see a resurgence of phones such as the Backflip, BlackBerry, heck, even Windows phones. We need more competition. More manufacturers not afraid to be different. Stop listening to the tech bloggers and actually listen to the customers. Have an actual device WE want, not forcing us to conform to their image and for their fans to simply retort, 'You'll get used to it'.
What even happened to KaiOS? wasn't it supposed to be a new contender? We really need more competition out there. Not all this homogenized stuff. I'm tired of boring. My Thunderbolt is perhaps the most interesting experience I've had since the Galaxy S4 launched.
Heck, it's not like gesture controls couldn't be fun. Anyone remember WebOS? It needs to come back.
Skeuomorphism went away for a reason. It was ugly, dated and people wanted a more modern look.
What happens when everyone gets tired of flat design? I still think it's boring. Certainly we can't stay flat forever, right? What comes after? command consoles ala DOS?
I certainly didn't want a more 'modern' look. Which is funny seeing as flat has been done before in the 80s. Amiga WorkBench, Tandy DeskMate, MS-DOS, Windows 1.0.
Why? Why are we rendering an 80s interface design (which, BTW was done due to hardware constraints at the time) on a screen more than capable of 2K?
I will always see flat as dated, skeuo was the future. We are going backwards. I always figured skeuo would lead to holographic UI but perhaps I was dreaming? We will never know so long as we are rendering EGA graphics these days. blinding white, rainbow colors and all
I certainly didn't want a more 'modern' look. Which is funny seeing as flat has been done before in the 80s. Amiga WorkBench, Tandy DeskMate, MS-DOS, Windows 1.0.
Why? Why are we rendering an 80s interface design (which, BTW was done due to hardware constraints at the time) on a screen more than capable of 2K?
I will always see flat as dated, skeuo was the future. We are going backwards. I always figured skeuo would lead to holographic UI but perhaps I was dreaming? We will never know so long as we are rendering EGA graphics these days. blinding white, rainbow colors and all
You’re using an HTC Thunderbolt?? You think that thing is tiny?
It’s heavier than a Galaxy S10, Galaxy S20 and Pixel 4, and is 20-30 % larger in overall volume than the aforementioned phones, as well as an iPhone 11 Pro, while only having 35-40% of the battery capacity of those smaller and lighter phones. That thing is the definition of a brick.
But remember this is the guy from the other thread who loved his Galaxy S5 and wrote pages describing the ways he preferred it.
He is living in the past....
Agreed, but even his own logic is flawed. Claims he doesn’t like the giant bricks that are phones nowadays but the phone he’s using is actually bigger and less efficient.
Every post of his I read I can just hear my grandfather saying ‘things were so much better when I was your age...’
HAHAHAHA So true!Agreed, but even his own logic is flawed. Claims he doesn’t like the giant bricks that are phones nowadays but the phone he’s using is actually bigger and less efficient.
Every post of his I read I can just hear my grandfather saying ‘things were so much better when I was your age...’
In 10 more years when all his plastic android phones are broken and no longer available, this guy will be complaining that the 2020 phones were the last good ones. I think he just wants something to bitch about
BTW how is modern phone OS design anything like 80s computer interfaces? WTF are you talking about Nick? Have you noticed that nobody agrees with you?
BTW how is modern phone OS design anything like 80s computer interfaces? WTF are you talking about Nick? Have you noticed that nobody agrees with you?
I think that big HTC clock/weather widget they used to do is just about the ugliest design I’ve ever seen on smartphone software ?
Just proves that one phone ain't for everyone, now, doesn't it?
Yes, I am using an HTC Thunderbolt as my daily ($49 on Amazon) and I really love it. It's actually the perfect size for my hand. It literally fits my hand!
I like that it's heavier, a tad thicker myself. The soft touch rear feels more durable and would likely survive a drop unlike the glass bricks (when I say 'brick' I mean Zack Morris Saved by the Bell size!) made today.
I always loved the look of Sense 3 myself (yes, including the weather widget). I just never got the chance to use it. When I got out of Apple when iOS 7 sapped all the fun out of it (for me) I went straight to Samsung. They were the only ones still doing skeuo UI in 2013. HTC already had the One M8 out and it had flattened itself.
Either way I'm satisfied with my phone. Yea, the S5 has a ton of great stuff as well, and is my second phone. It usually stays at home and acts as a remote control, home phone, and offline E-reader. Sometimes I take it to work since it has all my service manuals in *.PDF form on it (though I intend to transfer all those to the Thunderbolt).
Either way, to stay within the subject matter of this thread, I jumped to Android and it was NOT a disaster for myself. I've had rough spots here and there but I've always been satisfied with it. I do prefer older versions when they were more for enthusiasts and packed in features and I actually adore skins such as TouchWiz and HTC Sense 3.x, but Android's motto was 'Be different, not the same,' right?
I really don't care if anyone agrees with me or not. I'm not expecting everyone to think like me, any more than you expect me to think like you and embrace this ugly flat design where everything is white, icons look cartoony (yes, like EGA icons) and there is literally no depth. You enjoy burning your retinas in while I enjoy the depth. If everyone thought exactly like everyone else there'd be no point now wouldn't there?
When I say it reminds me of 80s it was because I'm old enough to remember when flat design was new--in the 80s! most computers then couldn't even draw 3D graphics (barring some exceptions from Silicon Graphics) much less a skeuo UI. When multi-core CPUs, higher end GPUs, and tons of RAM became standard it made sense to leave flat behind. I can understand and forgive anyone too old to remember when flat was the thing. But it's certainly not modern--merely a regression for no particular reason. We got screens more than capable (as if they're not big enough either way) of drawing detailed high definition graphics yet all apps seem to be cartoons these days. No depth. I thought Material Design was supposed to swing back to skeuo but Material 2.x made it even flatter and whiter.
Either way, I see flat as nothing but a hallmark to the early computing era, not anything remotely 'modern' as it has been done before. We can't stay flat forever can we? I remember everyone on these forums long before I became a member complaining about skeuo being dated after 6 years of it on the iPhone, but here we are 7 years into flat and it's only getting flatter. I'm surprised no one is sick of it yet!
If no one can make a phone I want to buy, I'll head to Amazon and get what I want, with the UI I want, with all the features baked in that I want, in a size that fits my tiny hands. You do you and I do me.
Yes, I am using an HTC Thunderbolt as my daily ($49 on Amazon) and I really love it. It's actually the perfect size for my hand. It literally fits my hand!
I like that it's heavier, a tad thicker myself. The soft touch rear feels more durable and would likely survive a drop unlike the glass bricks (when I say 'brick' I mean Zack Morris Saved by the Bell size!) made today.
I always loved the look of Sense 3 myself (yes, including the weather widget). I just never got the chance to use it. When I got out of Apple when iOS 7 sapped all the fun out of it (for me) I went straight to Samsung. They were the only ones still doing skeuo UI in 2013. HTC already had the One M8 out and it had flattened itself.
Either way I'm satisfied with my phone. Yea, the S5 has a ton of great stuff as well, and is my second phone. It usually stays at home and acts as a remote control, home phone, and offline E-reader. Sometimes I take it to work since it has all my service manuals in *.PDF form on it (though I intend to transfer all those to the Thunderbolt).
Either way, to stay within the subject matter of this thread, I jumped to Android and it was NOT a disaster for myself. I've had rough spots here and there but I've always been satisfied with it. I do prefer older versions when they were more for enthusiasts and packed in features and I actually adore skins such as TouchWiz and HTC Sense 3.x, but Android's motto was 'Be different, not the same,' right?
I really don't care if anyone agrees with me or not. I'm not expecting everyone to think like me, any more than you expect me to think like you and embrace this ugly flat design where everything is white, icons look cartoony (yes, like EGA icons) and there is literally no depth. You enjoy burning your retinas in while I enjoy the depth. If everyone thought exactly like everyone else there'd be no point now wouldn't there?
When I say it reminds me of 80s it was because I'm old enough to remember when flat design was new--in the 80s! most computers then couldn't even draw 3D graphics (barring some exceptions from Silicon Graphics) much less a skeuo UI. When multi-core CPUs, higher end GPUs, and tons of RAM became standard it made sense to leave flat behind. I can understand and forgive anyone too old to remember when flat was the thing. But it's certainly not modern--merely a regression for no particular reason. We got screens more than capable (as if they're not big enough either way) of drawing detailed high definition graphics yet all apps seem to be cartoons these days. No depth. I thought Material Design was supposed to swing back to skeuo but Material 2.x made it even flatter and whiter.
Either way, I see flat as nothing but a hallmark to the early computing era, not anything remotely 'modern' as it has been done before. We can't stay flat forever can we? I remember everyone on these forums long before I became a member complaining about skeuo being dated after 6 years of it on the iPhone, but here we are 7 years into flat and it's only getting flatter. I'm surprised no one is sick of it yet!
If no one can make a phone I want to buy, I'll head to Amazon and get what I want, with the UI I want, with all the features baked in that I want, in a size that fits my tiny hands. You do you and I do me.
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We all make mistakes at times. You are still welcome here, even though you temporarily left the ranks.
My first phone was Android. After that, I made a vow I would never go back. It just didn’t work for me.
If you are saying using Android is mistake, then frankly I disagree. I don't care about your opinion about Android, but switch to Android or using Android is certainly not mistake.
I recently purchased iPhone SE (in both Black and White, both 128GB) and I had iPhone 11 since launch day.
And I switch to Android just this week. Went to grab midrange Android (Motorola Moto Power G, aka Moto G8 power in US) and high end Huawei P40 (I am supporting Huawei).
And both runs as well as iOS 13. I am using Android and iOS in different mindset. When I am using Android, I don't judge with iOS, and when I use iPhone, I don't judge with Android.
There are still few things I find useful and delightful when I using Android. Therefore, I won't put myself in Apple only camp.
I’ve used numerous Android and iPhones before and while both have their pros and cons I always come back to iPhone for personal use. Apple software is infinitely less buggy compared to android, especially considering the mostly godawful OEM “enhancements” coded by interns. With that being said, I wish Apple would expose the file system like android so I could drag and drop files instead of having to resort to cancer known as iTunes.
As someone that's used both platforms for over a decade on a constant basis. I can honestly say, the contrast of better or worst between the two doesn't exist anyone. Nowadays, the only contrast to speak of is how different they are.
Android 11 will force apps to use built-in camera app, ignore 3rd-party defaults
In Android 11, a tweak to how the system handles your default camera app will see users on the built-in camera much more often.
9to5google.com
It is interesting (and sad) that while Apple is opening up iOS bit by bit (ability to select default browser and email client on iOS14), Google is actually going on the reverse, putting more and more restrictions on Android bit by bit. The security excuse behind this decision is a bit weak. I mean does it really take Google to realize it's a security issue until the 11th iteration of the OS? This will only make OEMs lazier to implement proper camera APIs on their phones.