>>Nope, we have Canadian or European Milestones, not Droids

>I haven’t tried the Bing applications because I don’t want to.
Frankly that’s just silly. Sorry, but how can you be mad about something without willing to try it ? I was never impressed by Apple hardware until I compared old HTC mobiles (it was 2 years ago) with Blackberry and an iPhone. I bought the latter, even with my dislike for Apple.

>>I’m very experienced with Microsoft and its applications, services etc. and choose not use any of it on my mobile phone or personal computer. This is based on years of frustration and a general dislike for Microsoft.

>but I still want my Google apps. Why? I like my apps and I like Google.
Where does it say that you won’t be able to use your Google apps ? If they restrict you from using other apps, you have a point. Until then not. And you should seriously reconsider ‘linking’ Google too much. They are just as ‘evil’ as all other big companies. Disclaimer : I use their tools as well.

>> I’m aware of Google’s evilness but when choosing between two ‘villains’, I’ll choose Google over Microsoft any day ;)

>but just the principle of it makes me cringe.
All companies do this. You will not find one who doesn’t. Unless you jailbreak/pwn/unlock/defreeze or whatever nifty name someone comes up with. Phones come from hardware vendors. Hardware vendors limit the software that will work on their device. That just the nature of the game because everyone wants to avoid becoming the next Windows; an OS that has to support all possible combinations of all existing hardware.

>>But I do jailbreak, unlock, ….my phones ;) I hate to spend 500 euro on a phone and then be told ‘you’re not allowed to do this or that with it’

>when I buy an Android phone, I want it to be as ‘Googly’ as possible!

Then you should buy a phone from Google itself.

>> I probably will from now on since I have been annoyed by the Android fragmentation for a while now

>>Maybe I should explain it this way:

I was happy with Android in general until Motorola got its hands on it ;) I already threw out anything Microsoft produces out of the house so I don’t want it on my phone either. Thus, I am horrified to find out even Android (in theory a Google product) will have Microsoft software when installed on a Motorola device. That leaves me banning Microsoft + Motorola in this house ;)

>I haven’t tried the Bing applications because I don’t want to.
Frankly that’s just silly. Sorry, but how can you be mad about something without willing to try it ? I was never impressed by Apple hardware until I compared old HTC mobiles (it was 2 years ago) with Blackberry and an iPhone. I bought the latter, even with my dislike for Apple.

>but I still want my Google apps. Why? I like my apps and I like Google.
Where does it say that you won’t be able to use your Google apps ? If they restrict you from using other apps, you have a point. Until then not. And you should seriously reconsider ‘linking’ Google too much. They are just as ‘evil’ as all other big companies. Disclaimer : I use their tools as well.

>but just the principle of it makes me cringe.
All companies do this. You will not find one who doesn’t. Unless you jailbreak/pwn/unlock/defreeze or whatever nifty name someone comes up with. Phones come from hardware vendors. Hardware vendors limit the software that will work on their device. That just the nature of the game because everyone wants to avoid becoming the next Windows; an OS that has to support all possible combinations of all existing hardware.

>when I buy an Android phone, I want it to be as ‘Googly’ as possible!
Then you should buy a phone from Google itself. Not from any other vendor. Would you complain when for instance Dodge sells the Caliber car (which uses the Volkswagen 1.9 diesel engine) that it’s not like a VW from the inside ? That the dials are different ? That the engine doesn’t accelarate the same way ? No, you wouldn’t because that car comes from another vendor.

However don’t get me wrong, I would love a phone with the ease of use of a combination of the iPhone OS en Android, with the looks of the iPhone, not locked with iTunes and able to copy/paste stuff from any computer OS to another. And be able to add for instance flac support by adding a codec to the machine. Perhaps even another mediaplayer or what not. But that would require a hardware vendor that sells phones without an OS I guess.

Isn’t the Milestone adapted for the European market? The Droid actually allows unsigned ROM’s so it’s different from the Milestone in that regard. But I guess the Milestone’s just the easy spin off after the Droid.

I haven’t tried the Bing applications because I don’t want to. You might be right about them being more useful in the US, I actually heard that somewhere else too, but I still want my Google apps. Why? I like my apps and I like Google.

I don’t want Motorola to choose which apps I have installed. I guess I could uninstall Bing (although I’m sure they’ll come up with something to prevent this) or install the Google apps (they can hardly stop this, I hope) but just the principle of it makes me cringe.

Other consumers might not care as much but when I buy an Android phone, I want it to be as ‘Googly’ as possible!

And no matter how much money is or isn’t involved (as if Google for instance doesn’t/didn’t pay Apple at first), Bing maps are much better for the american mainland than Google maps. They are based on a newer technology and have more interesting features. I’m not just pulling this out of my hat. There have been many reviews on various websites (being pro or anti microsoft) who saw an advantage for Bing compared to Google.

It does not work as well (yet ?) in Europe but that might just be a matter of time.

This said however I do agree that any kind of closed down garden with set applications, standards and rules isn’t always a good thing. Sure, it can keep things neat and tidy (Apple), but is also very restricting. Full blown open source ‘do whatever you want’ on the other hand isn’t that great either. In reality that will make prices of devices go up (as the vendor hasn’t any possibility to make money on deals as these, sell specific apps, contracts …) and open new and interesting ways for crackers to unleash trojans. Which doesn’t say they won’t be found and stopped, but with a bigger probability of already infecting several devices before it’s stopped. Point in case : standard iPhones have never been infected (yet). Unlocked iPhones have already been.

Conclusion : you can’t have your cake and eat it.