By Well this isn’t good. Motorola’s apparently undecided on whether or not they’ll ever bring FroYo to the “European Droid” – otherwise known as the Motorola Milestone. In a forum post over at Motorola’s site, marketing director for the European region James King states that – due to all of the things that must be considered with any software upgrade – Motorola has yet to make a final decision on whether or not they’ll be offering Android 2.2 to their users.
Next European Milestone and 2.2 (Froyo). I have expressed over the last few days that the decision is pending. The team here has been collating key pieces of information and views from this community in the last month and providing input to relevant teams in Motorola so they are aware. I am pushing for that decision to be made as quickly as possible, and we can then all go from there. Some others ask why the decisions on upgrades take so long, and why does implementation then take much longer still. What I can say and have stated recently is that upgrades are not a walk in the park.
Sure there are short cuts that people can take, but when you have to integrate software to a specific hardware, then test it and integrate with third party applications, let alone any innovation from ourselves, plus then get approvals to make this all official and safe… its is a big undertaking that requires planning and resource and third party coordination to see this all through. As I say, once we have decision, we will inform. JK
Boo you shall, hiss you will. This doesn’t mean that FroYo is never going to come (in fact, I think there’s a very good chance you’ll get it), but Motorola has yet to even begin to put Android 2.2 through the adaptation phase for the device. For the time being, FroYo looks to be more distant in the future than we thought. It’s too bad you all can’t get past that pesky bootloader.
[via AndroidGuys]
YAY!!!! Im first!!!
Anyhow, Motorola advertised the Milestone as a “Full Flash Ready Phone” and it is even written in the box! Now where is the flash??? You guys are going to be in Big Trouble if you dont release FROYO.
Doesn’t the milestone run the same vanilla stock Android OS as the Nexus One? I mean, I know they have had the source code for Froyo for awhile now and it surely can’t be that hard to implement if it is just a vanilla OS. Oh well, another reason I am grateful for my Nexus One.
Meanwhile, CM 6.0 will be humming along on the Droid shortly.
Bootloader-lock still make sense for consumers? lawl.
How about a date for the US Droid to get Froyo?
I thought he said all that, then at the end said JK! But then I realized it was his name xP
The Milestone is Moto’s main android phone in europe (and Canada, brazil etc.)
To neglect it, I would imagine would hurt them in those markets! This news frustrates me
@chris ha! I didn’t even realize that. That would be quite the sick joke.
That is because of closed bootlodear, a selfish capitalism. They don’t want that NOBODY gives a new live to an old device. Our Milestone can do more with better systems, but Motorola don’t want it. So that crap about keep their users secured using eFuse and other such technologies are just empty words.
Regards,
Oscar.
@Jason: i pretty much lost all faith in Motorola, so if there will be a HTC phone with Android and keyboard, then i’m going to sell my Milestone and switch over.
If they don’t release Froyo for the milestone they should unlock the bootloader and let the people who want to load custom roms on their phone do it.
Aren’t the Milestone and the Droid the exact same thing? So wouldn’t this mean it’s not coming to the Droid too?
Wasn’t “flash coming soon” part of the marketing push when the Droid came out? IMNAL but wouldn’t that imply they’re obligated to release 2.2?
I hope everyone at motorola gets a serious case of herpes. Screwed me over for the last time. Gonna upgrade from my milestone to something completely unrelated to motorola
I love my droid. But my next phone will definitely be HTC. Between encrypted boot loaders and missing updates, Motorola has lost me as a customer for future phone purchases.
So long as it was being pushed as “Flash Ready” by Moto on the box if they don’t update to Froyo the EU courts are going to have a field day with them. The EU courts are VERY serious about consumer protection and don’t take kindly to corporations and false advertising either. Knowing the EU not only fined MS but made them pay and forced them to release protocols for interoperability and pull IE from Windows as the defacto standard. I see them chewing Moto up throwing them to the curb like the piece of garbage Motorola is now becoming. Just say no to Moto.
It really doesn’t matter for me if they are going to release 2.2 for Milestone or not, I’m probably not going to buy a Motorola after that announcement.
I was waiting to see if Motorola would announce “Milestone 2” or not and buy my next phone according to that, but now I can’t trust Motorola to support that device in the future.
Motorola shouldn’t be “debating” whether or not to upgrade the Milestone, it should be obvious that they should – thats proper customer relations.
One of the reasons that I almost bought the 1st gen Milestone is because I naively thought that a phone, with such a huge user base as the Droid/Milestone, would be treated accordingly and that Motorola would do anything to support their loyal customers, guess not.
I think that Motorola (and any other company for that matter) should announce on how many versions they plan to support upgrade (and how many years of patches) – and stick to that number. Want to support only 1 version of android? fine. but tell me before so I could figure out if your phone is worth it or not.
if they aren’t going to update themselves because it’s “too much work” they should just enable use of updates made by 3rd parties.
Just brilliant. I replaced my HTC Magic with a Milestone because HTC didn’t look like it was updating it past 1.6. Now that I moved over to Motorola they’re doing the exact same thing.. Time for Samsung then?
If they don’t update to 2.2, the locked bootloader will look like the worst move ever. By all means, lock the bootloader if you are going to provide updates, but to lock the bootloader preventing others bringing 2.2 and then to walk away is just sh*tty.
It would be product suicide for them to not put froyo on the milestone – certainly would kill Motorola’s chances in the Android market in Europe, as many developers have the phone and wouldn’t take kindly to Motorola not fulfilling their flash ready promise. At the very least they should provide a way to unload the bootloader, or the ‘haterz’ are really going to let rip at them.
Would I have a chance to return the phone? Bought it back in January based on the promise that it was Flash 10.1 enabled? I want a Nexus One now … Oh, too late.
The Milestone 2 is probably just around the corner and it will have the same display, the same camera, the same form factor, almost the same design, slightly faster CPU, slightly better keyboard — but: It will launch with Froyo.
As its specs are only marginally better, why would anybody buy the new model over the now cheaper old one, if the old one is updated to Froyo as well? I’m pretty sure Moto won’t update the Milestone at all, but if they do, they will do so only long after the Milestone 2 is launched, so sales of the new model are not harmed by the old one.
The autofocus bug of the Droid was fixed in a few days, while Milestone owners had to wait months. The current 2.1 update for the Milestone has horrible bugs (for example Alarms don’t work) which haven’t been fixed yet, even though 2.1 is being rolled out since the end of march. And to prevent everybody else from fixing bugs, Motorola has locked the bootloader.
Froyo will soon be on the Droid (it already is, if you count Cyanogen’s Mod). For the Milestone on the other hand Moto has simply purged all “Flash ready” advertising from its website.
Milestone — the first and last handset I’ve ever bought from Motorola.
Too bad for us… Motorola only cares about US customers, they have no mindshare elsewhere, so they don’t give a crap about us :\
Gawd – if that’s the case then Motorola are going to have to lose all hope in Europe. The Milestone is a nice phone, no mistake about it, and I’ve enjoyed it so far, but neglecting those early adopters who decided to give them a chance, and who have stuck through the bugs and issues it initially had… *and* to lock the bootloader… well, it’s not really treating the more geeky of your customers that well, is it?
But I also understand where they come from – it’s the phone as an appliance mentality – a locked down piece of kit that just does what it did when you bought it – no more and no less. The truth is, however, that although I was disappointed with my original iPhone the updates it received made it a much nicer phone after a year. In other words, Apple gave my trinket a good three year lifespan.
I’m starting to think paying that bit extra for an iPhone 4 wouldn’t have been such a bad idea after all. And that’s the danger – Motorola are playing in a very different market to the one they got used to. This about long life sophisticated hardware that costs a lot, rather than cheap disposable phones.
If they don’t do it, I won’t be buying another Motorola when I’m tired of this one. It’ll be whatever the reference Android phone is out there, or an iPhone 4.
At least today the phone does everything I want of it – but the 2.2 upgrade, with its dramatic performance upgrades, would be very useful indeed.
My HTC Magic is already running Froyo. My Milestone isn’t and probably won’t ever. Bad, bad joke. Lawsuit anyone?
It’s like Motorola has one team of people dedicated to making awesome hardware, and another team whose job it is to take said hardware and find new and innovative ways to cripple it and piss off customers…
I remember in February being on the verge of buying a Milestone from Telus. Then I heard about the locked bootloader and started seeing questions about whether it would even get 2.1 (while the upgrade for Droid was confirmed).
My decision: no way. I ended up waiting until the Nexus One came to Canada. It was a long wait, and of course the Nexus One cost much more, but it was one of the best decisions I ever made.
I’m glad Motorola is seeing some success with Android, but if they don’t start treating their customers better, it will be fleeting.
Please join!
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Return-your-Milestone/117830918264467?v=wall
They better update it.. either that or give us access to the bootloader. Otherwise I’m never buying moto again. And I think many others will do the same.
The Milestone is my first Android and first Moto device. I was quite happy with it and Moto, but having to beg for FroYo and probably not getting it – after I’ve bought the device just 7 months ago, would make me a one-time Moto client.
I grant all the mobile companies a learning time on how to cope with an open, fast-paced OS like Android. But heck, we’re at 2.2 now, they should have learned how to properly and clearly communicate which devices will get which release when by now.
@Currynoodles: same here!
looks like there are no manufacturers that can be trusted to actually update their phones?
I believe it may be time for Motorola to get slapped with a class action suit in both the US AND the EU.
They have yet to provide 2.2 and Flash for the milestone OR Droid, and said software was promised in either the first quarter of the year or first half. I don’t remember which, but BOTH have passed, and its time for them to get their asses sued. We need to organize this. Phandroid can you help? They’ve ruined the X as well. They’re going to give Android a bad rep.
Maybe it’s Android itself that is at fault here?
I don’t get what exactly about it is “open”?
Yes I agree, I bought this because of the the “flash ready” statement on the box etc. I expect to see this and will be very disappointed if it does not happen.
I think Motorola updates froyo for milestone.it will be a long time to wait.Surprisingly we have droid 2 and may be we may get a milestone 2.Still no rumours though. If milestone 2 comes out, we’ll have to wait for atleast 6 months from the release date. If not we may get updated to Froyo much earlier.In fact i was surprised to hear that Droid 1 getting froyo before droid 2 release….
Moto will have tough time in Europe if they don’t release froyo…..
Hey Motorola, You don’t support us, we won’t support you. I MAY have to buy a new phone to get full flash support, but if I do IT WILL NOT BE A MOTOROLA PHONE!
What about milestone in asia, Singapore, China, Hong Kong …? Before we purchase the milestone we notice the internel storage is too little for the application, so we question the motorola promoter, they said there will be a software update for application storage to SD card, if not what for we need 8GB of SD card, even expandable to 8TB also useless.
Fu(k moto lawsuit the sh1t out of them..lie after lie wait after wait for an update thats out of date by the time it hits the uk… love android but i want the update the same time as the americans why is my money and rights any different than theres…
droid usa will def get it cuz theres loads of customers there but uk will have to wait 2-3 months after… tmobile has network there and here why the long wait roll it out every where now!!!!
If the update will not come…. ich´ll never bye an moto again ist´s the first and last one i´ve ever byed an moto phone.
What a kick in the nuts for Milestone users. Even thought at the time no mainstream phone company in the UK was offering a bundle I bought mine in good faith expecting updates and flash when available and this is what we get instead. What a waste of £350.
From this information I am sure Moto is not mature enough.
What about milestone in asia? As the seller promised will an update for app to save in sd card, so now what? Motorola want to fight in the court with all milestone users or quickly come out the solutions to solve this serious issue. My friend is lawyer, if we gather enough milestone users, we will see u in court of cheating on the advertisement for those milestone users.
It looks like the weak link (as well as the strength) of Android is the manufacturers. I’ve had my milestone less than six months and already converted loads of people to Android (not necessarily Moto). Whilst I believe in the OS I have less faith in the personal agendas of the open handset alliance members. To not move the milestone up to 2.2, never mind 2.3 (when it comes) would quite literally be ludicrous and the inevitable backlash from customers is I am sure something Motorola can do without. Learn something from Apple here as they have recently felt the fury of their customers!
I look forward to Android 2.2 on my milestone because I am sure Motorola will see sense. And please, stick to the cool stuff that Google has given us and let’s cut out the third party crap!
I am one of the gullible users who rushed to get a milestone as soon as it arrived in my country. I have put up with alot of crap from this handset: lousy keyboard, small RAM, poor battery life, unbearable temperature after 5 minutes of phonecall, jerky interface, and last but not least, locked ROM. All for one reason, I like android. And now, this… I should’ve waited abit longer for desire or N1 or X10 or Legend.
Remember this motorola, just like me lots of people buy your milestones/droids/droidX because they like android, not you. We are the very people who helped pull you out of your slump, now are also the very people you slapped in the face. So, goodbye motorola, enjoy your profitable quarters while you can, they won’t last long. efuse my a$$
I wrote to Motorola India customer care regarding the Froyo update for Milestones in India. They replied saying, “we would like to inform you that as of now we do not have exact information regarding availability of upgraded version of Android 2.2 but it will be available soon in India”. So there’s some hope!!
Motorola singapore already inform the sales promoters not to promise anything on the update for milestone products ,this cause motorola sales drop. Singaporean will not buy any motorola products if they provide upgrade software. People will go for samsung glaxy s, htc or other brand, but not motorola anymore. Motorola is cheating on all the milestone users all around the world.
Starhub, please stop selling the cheapo motorola phones, we as owner of milestone are cheaped by motorola, please stop helping motorola to cheap and fool more of your users.
It is a very bad alliance for a product that with so much problem and complaint, and not, dead end product from motorola.
Think about it, Starhub, your customer and sales are going to be affected if you continue to walk with the bad guy.
Stupid angmo (motorola, go to hell)