Sunday, February 2, 2014

From the Editor's Desk: Uncertain times ...

We talked at length Friday about Google selling Motorola to Lenovo. There are the business implications, of course. And there's what it means for Motorola in the larger Android ecosystem. But the No. 1 question we've gotten in the days since the deal was announced was "Do I need to worry about Lenovo supporting the Moto X and Moto G as well as we've come to expect?"

The short answer is, I have no idea. And since the Moto X is still my daily driver, I've got a vested interest.

A few things to consider, though: It'd be in Lenovo's best interest to maintain the status quo. Nobody has been able to bust out updates like Motorola has when it came to getting Android 4.4 KitKat onto its phones. I'd love to see some sort of public pledge to that same level of service. (Sadly, though, I fear lawyers could keep that from happening.) If Lenovo really wants to make a difference, it'd also find a way to keep the low-cost pricing in the picture. I can't say enough about the importance of a usable$200 off-contract phone.

Back to updates. On the other hand, now that Moto's got the KitKat release out the door (and MRs to 4.4.2 are on the way), it's likely bought itself (erm, Lenovo, I suppose) some time, as we shouldn't see a new major release until late in the year.

Also consider that Motorola has offloaded a lot of features into traditional applications that can be updated through Google Play. Not everything, of course, but there's a lot that can be done that way. And, more important, is that doing things that way bypasses carrier certification, often the bottleneck in the update process.

Back to the original question, though. Would I, in good conscience, recommend the Moto X or Moto G right now? Absolutely. I'm still very much a glass-half-full guy. This Lenovo/Motorola deal isn't like Palm and HP. Could bad things happen? Sure. But that's just fearing the worst without a shred of evidence to support it.

Please don't prove me wrong, Lenovo.