Motorola promises developer phones, Jelly Bean, and an incentive for those left behind
Motorola has just announced that most of their smartphones released in 2011 — and likely all the ones released in 2012 — will be receiving Jelly Bean by the end of this year. That’s great! Seriously, it is.
While all the other folks are banking on using Ice Cream Sandwich as an intermediate update to hold folks over, Motorola will instead be funneling all of their assets for update development into Jelly Bean.
Waiting for Ice Cream Sandwich before going over to Jelly Bean could have meant a wait well into 2013. But unfortunately a couple of Motorola’s devices released that year are technically unable to handle Jelly Bean.
For those users, they’re offering a $100 credit to anyone who trades their incapable 2011 Motorola smartphone in toward an upgrade to some of Motorola’s newest offerings. It’s a lot more than we could have asked for, and for that we thank Motorola for giving users a way to enjoy the latest and greatest without having to pay for it themselves entirely.
Finally, Motorola has made a commitment to bringing out developer devices for those who wish to tinker with Android.
While its bootloader unlock tool should be available for select smartphones coming out this year and beyond, developer edition devices will be ideal for those who want a certain phone that a carrier is blocking bootloader unlocks for.
These devices tend to be offered off-contract, but Motorola hasn’t released anymore details as to how they’re going to handle this program.
And those were just a few of the many exciting announcements Motorola made in New York City this week. Don’t forget that they also announced the Motorola DROID RAZR HD and its MAXX variant, as well as the Motorola DROID M.
Hit those links for more detailed information on those announcements, and let us know if you’d be willing to take advantage of the device trade-in offer if your Motorola devices ends up being left out of the loop.