Motorola requires you to have an account to unlock your bootloader. To get the code required, they say that you CANNOT SELL OR GIVE AWAY YOUR PHONE. They also say they can take away your access to use wireless networks if the believe you are causing harm, a.k.a. if they want to. They also require arbitration.
Quoting from their policy:
Devices that have been unlocked are for your personal use only. Once you unlock the device, you can only use it for your personal use, and may not sell or otherwise transfer the device.
If you cause problems, your wireless network access can be disabled. You authorize Motorola or your wireless carrier to disable your device and/or its connection to a wireless network if we believe your device is causing any harm, or is unauthorized.
Mandatory arbitration of any claims. You agree to arbitrate any and all claims related to this Agreement and/or an unlocked device other than those involving intellectual property or unfair competition claims. The arbitration will be governed by the Commercial Arbitration Rules and the Supplementary Procedures for Consumer Related Disputes (collectively, “AAA Rules”) of the American Arbitration Association (“AAA”), as modified by this Agreement, and will be administered by the AAA. The AAA Rules are available online at adr.org, or by calling the AAA at 1 800 778 7879.
I’m not convinced. This company has purposely avoided OS updates because it’s profitable to them. It causes people to buy their phones more frequently over a shorter period of time, thus offsetting the cheaper price they offer them at.
If this is true, I suspect we will see a noticeable increase of price on their phones and much less discounts.
They might deliver on the base promise but the other point is that Motorola is extremely unreliable with regards to the frequency of their updates. The OS update will come a year after a Pixel or Samsung and around the launch of a new version. See the razr 40 series, which has only recently received Android 14 (released October 2023), right before the release of Android 15. You could maybe argue that is to be expected for a smaller player in the market but the same applies to security patches, which are all over the place and often several months out of date. Even if Motorola hasn’t actually abandoned a phone, it can sometimes feel like it for the owner because you just never know when they are going to push something (if ever).
Or the ever classic: launch one version behind the current Android version. Provide security update once a year and then taut that it’s aon OS update.
