AT&T's First Android Phone Doesn't Allow Non-Market Apps
AT&T's First Android Phone Doesn't Allow Non-Market Apps
Posted 03/08/2010 at 5:13pm
| by Ryan Whitwam
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So AT&T finally has their first Android phone, the Motorola Backflip. Whether or not you like the unusual design and Yahoo search (really?), it runs Android and it’s on AT&T. That by itself is remarkable. Now that the phone is available, users are finding yet another surprise that separates this from all the Android phones that came before it. It turns out that the option to allow apps from non-Android Market sources has been disabled.
It has long been held that obtaining apps from the Android Market was just a polite suggestion from Google. Users could get apps from various third-party stores and websites. Additionally, many beta apps are only distributed in this way. The reason for the change is currently unclear and no one is talking. This leaves the Backflip in much the same place the iPhone is, stuck with apps from only a single source, and in this case, a much smaller source.
AT&T has certainly had their way with Android here. Consider the removal of Google search, the addition of lots of AT&T bloatware, and now the locking down of app installs. This makes us wonder what AT&T’s Android strategy will look like. Will future Android handsets be similarly limited?
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Magius
March 09, 2010 at 6:34am
I am an AT&T customer, I know, I know... Anyway, having owned more than a couple of handsets from their stable I can tell you they modify their firmware every time. At one point they even removed the early version of the HTC interface from one of their phones and left the barren WinCE in its place, with all their bloatware of course.
All I can say is long live XDA!
Hopefully the Android community will be as dedicated.
ErikTheGreat
March 09, 2010 at 5:50am
I can't believe how nuts AT&T is. The very reasons to get an Android phone ripped out and locked down like some toy Apple device. I have one of these getting delivered today and there is no doubt I will refuse delivery now that I have read all the debachery they have inflicted on this poor phone.
Keith E. Whisman
March 08, 2010 at 9:18pm
Perhaps ATT somehow fears having to be financially responsible for tech support for non market apps. But again that makes no sense. I think they just don't want to provide all that good of a service. They want to make your experience with them a terrible one. I think that is what drives them. I do believe ATT is the oldest telephone company in existance dating back to the Bells. Like here in Phoenix you had a choice on what phone carrier you wanted it was Mountain Bell or Mountain Bell and the phone, you had to get it from Mountain Bell. Only they sold phones. I believe ATT started business as an long distance company.
JanSolo
March 08, 2010 at 7:43pm
Ohh AT&T, why do you have to make it so easy to hate you? Either AT&T is doing Apple a service by making the Android app that much lamer or they dislike their customers.
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