A product manager at Motorola has admitted customers have "gotten a raw deal" over delayed Ice Cream Sandwich updates, and has promised to fix things, Droid Life reports.
Punit Soni, VP, product management at Motorola Mobility, has only been in the job a few weeks, but has taken to Google Plus to respond to frustrated customers Stateside. And it's quite some comment thread.
Owners of the US-only Droid Bionic are frustrated the device hasn't met its stated Q3 update to Ice Cream Sandwich. Here's what Soni had to say:
"We have a plan for Bionic. I am currently solidifying things to ensure we can publish it, commit and follow up. I think you guys have gotten a raw deal and we could do way better. But you are one of the top few things I worry about when I look at Upgrades."
He also promises Motorola will take complaints seriously, be transparent, and meet its upgrade timelines (which it has been published on its website for some time).
"I totally understand how you feel. And this should never happen. I am not going to throw out the argument 'we just got here'. We are taking responsibility for this. And we will engage with you, listen carefully to your concerns and most importantly, try to FIX things," Soni went on to say.
"So we are doing that. My team knows to take your complaints seriously, we are working hard to update the Upgrades timeline pages to reflect the right data, and then we WILL stand next to those timings and will meet them. As far as what is in our control, we will be transparent and we will commit to your happiness.
"Keep the feedback coming."
Of course it's easy to say the right things, the real test will be if the Google-owned Motorola can get itself in gear with the updates. Ice Cream Sandwich, let alone Jelly Bean, is still on a very low proportion of Android devices, so anything that helps remedy that is welcome in my book.
Previously, Motorola said ICS actually makes some devices worse, so it'll be interesting how this progresses.
What do you think of Android rollouts? Let me know in the comments, or on our Facebook page.
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Comments 4
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tgw123 23 September, 2012 12:36
Clearly to release any update that makes things worse is, well, worse than releasing nothing. That said, Google has owned Motorola Mobile for about a year so I cannot understand why the support has not been better of late.
For the record, I have had a Motorola MB525 'Defy' for almost 2 years on Vodafone. It ws released with Android 2.1 with a promise of an ugrade as far as 2.2 only. That took a year, but ever since I downloaded the upgrade I had big problems with my phone either freezing or refusing to turn on. That repeated even after having sent it away for repair via Vodafone and being given a 'fully reconditioned model, because yours could not be fixed quickly'. I havbe just had to repeat his process and am on my second recon'd phone. Thius far I am happy to report it has, by and large, behaved itself apart from the occasional pause, rather than freeze.
Vodafone did tell me that an upgrade to Android 4 (Ice Cream Sandwich) will actually be coming some time in October which was a welcome surprise. Less promising is if this article is correct and if the ICS upgrade causes problems. I'm not even sure what ICS offers but clearly if it is not properly worked out and causes problems then it should not be released.
Certainly Motorola in the past have been very tardy and not backed up their products with good enough service which is a shame as they are very promising. Compare that with Apple's levels of service and commitment to their customers. My local Vodafone store told me they had just had the first visit from a Motorola rep in about a year! No wonder they don't sell many phones in the UK. But there is great potential there and they do well in the USA, principally perhaps because they back sales up with service?
I should add that ever since the 2.2 upgrade some unwanted and uninstallable Apps appeared on my phone and this must be down to Vodafone themselves. I don't want them, constantly get 'update' messages and cannot get rid of the damn things. Vodafone should haev a care: we the customers don't give a monkey's if Voda want to make more money from such things; if it blights the user experience and pisses people off then they ought to stop it lest they drive people away!
One final thought: every UK network is obsessed with getting new business - new customers. They are often offered better deals than existing customers. This is bad business and a bad service. It also says a lot about the crappy service UK customers have to put up with. We are not respected sufficiently. It's not even smart. So to all UK business I say this - value and look after your existing customer base first and foremost! Otherwise you are always chasing your tails, trying to make up for those you have annoyed or who feel unwanted and who go somewhere else. That should be the bedrock of any business and from that commitment and firm foundation THEN go after new business. This has served Apple realy rather well over recent years you must admit. Copy them. I have never renewed a monthly contract yet with a mobile carrier for this reason. Last time 3-Mobile just offered me ageing and unwanted stock they were looking to offload as an upgrade. That was not good enough and I left. The same happened with T-Mobile and O2 prior to that. It remains to be seen what will happen with Vodafone. If they want me for another 2 years then I expect to be offered a good deal!
Loadit 23 September, 2012 13:55
Finally got ICS for my Razr Maxx and is working fine. But I don't see much in the new OS that made it worth while over Gingerbread.
anonymous 23 September, 2012 14:33
Hell will freeze over before I ever buy a Motorola product again. Owning a Xoom 3G in the UK, I meant as well have been a leper. Talk about ignored. No updates no news about updates = seriously angry customers
anonymous 24 September, 2012 11:58
I got ICS for my Razr Maxx too, didn't see much difference either...other than the screen snapshot shortcut (hold power and volume down button for 2secs)