Motorola Mobility, Inc.
600 North U.S. Highway 45
Libertyville, Illinois 60048 USA
Dear Motorola Inc.,
Congratulations on your merger with Google. Maybe now you can actually get back manufacturing Android devices that keep up with their vision. I’ve been a Droid loyalist since the OG Droid and by now, I’m sure that you can imagine I’m fed up.
Device after device, you and other manufacturers have saturated the mobile market with banality. Moreover, every supposed “top-tier” device that you particularly produced to raise the bar has lacked major features, falling far short of expectations. While we both know I could go on for days about your blunders, I’d rather focus on the Droid legacy. You began with the Droid 1. It pioneered the Android movement on Verizon and enticed the uprising of the entire platform over iOS. It was a solid device and with each iteration since, it’s as if you’ve been intentionally screwing your customers over. The Droid 2 had a larger Keyboard, but you switched the soft keys for no reason and you made it far less durable than its predecessor. The Droid 3 was even worse, with a larger screen, front-facing camera, and lack of 4G. That missing feature was quite odd, considering that, at the very same time you released an identical device in Canada, in which you included 4G antennas. To add further insult to OG Droid line loyalists, you released the Bionic with 4G in America, very soon after. Your marketing scheme is deplorable and I felt cheated up until I caught word of the new Droid 4 and all its glory. Finally, we had a Droid worthy of upholding the label. It boasted every feature that the top devices already had, and raised the bar with water-resistant sealing, the best keyboard yet, and still, the thinnest QWERTY slider on the market. But of course there was a caveat – a non-removable battery. The genius behind approving this ‘feature’ for your most powerful (i.e. most power-consuming) Droid ever produced needs a promotion *that’s called sarcasm*. What’s worse is the fact that you leave your loyal customers only one option for getting the defective or old batteries replaced – sending their device to Motorola Inc. and waiting for the week long turnaround to get them back. With Verizon, the average customer pays no less than $100/month. That said, we depend heavily on our devices. For you to have our phones for an entire week as if our communications mean nothing to us and it’s not 1/4 of an entire bill cycle, I feel you lack even the slightest iota of concern for the needs of your consumers. You inconvenience those who, as a producer, should matter most to you.
The only way I can see this problem being resolved is with you providing support (battery changes) through Verizon retail locations and never manufacturing any future devices with non-removable batteries. How did you go from boasting a removable battery as an advantage over the iPhone when the first Droid was released up to now producing the Droid 4 with a sealed in battery, alongside the iPhone 4 and 5, which now have removable batteries? You basically had everything, got immense consumer support, influenced competitors to raise the bar, then fell behind and stopped caring to satisfy the most loyal buyers. Get it together, Motorola.
Seriously,
Kaliym Rashaad
