Motorola Wants to Stay Close to Stock Android, Verizon and Other Carriers Want Skins

Once Google finally signed all the papers to acquire Motorola officially, we all had high hopes and dreams for what the company could accomplish with the owner of Android behind them. The new RAZR line is certainly a nice start, and Blur even got dumbed down a little bit, but people are still wondering “why didn’t they ship with stock Android now?” Speaking to reporters last night, a Motorola executive said there is one thing that stops them from pushing 100% stock:  carriers. 

Motorola Senior Vice President, Rick Osterloh had a few words about Motorola in general last night. Inevitably, the conversation lead to Google’s acquisition and the changes that it has brought. This was his answer on being asked about shipping devices with stock Android:

Going forward, we’re going to try to be as close to the base as we can be, because we think that’s the right thing for users. We think users also want fast upgrades and upgrades for their phones over the long haul, so we’re going to be focus on that as well. It’s a little bit different than what a lot of OEMs are doing and certainly what Motorola did in the past, but going forward that’s going to be our strategy.

It sounds like Moto has certainly seen the light on how stock Android can be useful as far as quick upgrades and troubleshooting goes. But Osterloh went on to say that the carriers aren’t exactly in love with that idea, saying that “our partners sometimes want customizations.”

Motorola arguably wouldn’t be in the position they are now without Verizon and the DROID brand, but it sounds like Verizon and other partners of Motorola have a lot more say in the software of devices than we thought they did. What do you think? Should Motorola fight to have stock Android on their phones? Or should their be at least a little customization from each manufacturer to differentiate Android devices?

Via: The Verge