In TMM 141, I complained a bit about the Motorola Q. I was writing a more in-depth post about it tonight when I took a break to get caught up on my unread posts in FeedDemon and I saw that Nick (and the CEO of his employer, Greg) have very nicely illustrated all of my complaints. So, I deleted my unfinished post.
Here’s the posts on Nick’s blog (I would encourage you to read both of these – well written pieces by Nick and Greg):
Do Not Buy the Motorola Q. If You Did, Return It and Get a Refund.
The Blackberry User’s Perspective on the Motorola Q.
A bit more ranting from me...
I am completely and absolutely confounded as to why Verizon did not ship the Q with AKU 2.0. How did they think they could be competitive with this device having no DirectPush? As Greg noted, the Q is a consumer device, not an enterprise device. The camera and lack of MSFP clearly make that statement. It is unfortunate that Motorola and Verizon have failed. Motorola failed to create hardware (battery life, keyboard layout) that would be seamless for Blackberry users to transition to and Verizon failed to include features (*cough* DirectPush *cough*) that Blackberry users would want in a Windows Mobile device.
Two quick tangents:
1) What’s the deal Motorola? You gave us the MPx200 – a very good device in its time (although if you had given it Bluetooth it would have been a great device, IMO) – and since that device you have given the Windows Mobile world…. crap.
2) This next complaint goes to all Windows Mobile PPC Phone and Smartphone OEMs and mobile operators: Give us devices without cameras. I know that you’re trying to position devices to be attractive to consumers, and as a fan of and developer for Windows Mobile devices, I applaud you. BUT. Do not forget the enterprise. Enterprises do not want just nice ruggedized devices, they have uses for ‘consumer-ish’ devices as well. Cameras are a security risk. Period. Financial institutions, goverment organizations, military – just a few of the places where cameras are not permitted. They are are also places where Windows Mobile devices can be very useful! And for enterprises that don’t consider them a direct security risk, they are an indirect one and one more thing they don’t want to deal with. So, help us out already.
A quick example about the camera issue:
My current project is for a US government organization. In the facility that we work in, cameras are not permitted. Net result: most folks leave their cell phones in their cars (and often run out at lunch to check VM/make calls) and many Windows Mobile device users have purchased ‘legacy’ devices (i.e. WM2003 PPC Phone devices [Sprint]) since they could not find a WM device from their mobile operator that did not have a camera.
After a few days of leaving my Qtek 9100 in my hotel room, I quickly came to realize how much I depended on my Windows Mobile device. Getting a non-WM device to use during the day was not an option. I had to find a WM device sans camera. Lucky for me, I did – Cingular’s 8100 (an HTC Wizard variant known as the Wizard110*). I found one on eBay for US$389 (and sold my Qtek 9100 to a co-worker). As a T-Mobile subscriber, I had no plans to switch to Cingular, so I SIM-unlocked it myself (do a bit of searching on the Internet and you’ll find it) and then, after I made sure it worked, I blew away the Cingular ROM and replaced it with a Qtek ROM. Do I miss the camera? Sometimes, but I’ll deal.
*HTC Wizard devices like the i-mate KJAM/T-Mobile MDA are the Wizard200 and the Cingular 8125 is the Wizard100. Start > Settings > Device Information > Identity Tab ..check the ‘Model No.’ field. It should list “WIZAXXX” for your particular variant.