Marco.org

Dustin Curtis:

Why does Motorola continually pick gimmicks and then force truly awful phones designed around them through the pipeline?

Because that’s the only way a company like Motorola, a hardware company with minimal software resources making Android smartphones, can differentiate its products from the iPhone and the other hardware companies with minimal software resources making Android smartphones.

And it works, to some degree. These manufacturers need to enter edge-case, often gimmicky territory with their designs and features because the iPhone won’t go there. It gives them an edge in the feature-checklist reviews.

No other smartphone manufacturer has succeeded in attacking the iPhone head-on, not because they’re stupid, but because they can’t. They don’t have Apple’s manufacturing scale, component deals, content and accessory ecosystems, or software resources.

Their willingness to develop and ship gimmicks are their biggest advantage, because no matter how many people buy iPhones, there’s always going to be that one guy who thinks he needs the 3D camera kickstand projector phone with the shitty screen.