Motorola has an oopsie, Android 2.1 update for the DROID not rolling out this week?
Potentially bad news for DROID owners as word out of Motorola's support forums suggest that the Motorola DROID will not see the rumored 2.1 update drop this week. According to Matt, forums manager over at Motorola …
Context & Ripple Effects
The DROID is Motorola's flagship bet on Android, and update expectations have been running hot since Google's Android 2.0 source landed and hobbyists had it running on the year-old G1 within days — setting an unofficial benchmark that carrier-gated devices were struggling to match. HTC, by contrast, had already committed to bringing its Droid Eris up to Android 2.0, raising the stakes on Verizon and Motorola's own timeline.
What changed today is only a signal, not a schedule: Matt, who manages Motorola's support forums, indicated the long-rumored 2.1 build will not ship this week. Notably, the word came through a forum post rather than a formal roadmap — a sign that Motorola's update communication runs through support staff fielding rumors rather than planned announcements.
First-order effects
- DROID owners stay on Android 2.0 for at least another week despite weeks of 2.1 rumors, with no official date from Motorola or Verizon to replace the speculation.
- Motorola's support-forum staff are now de facto spokespeople on the update, absorbing owner frustration in threads instead of a product team controlling the message.
Second-order effects
- HTC's Eris update commitment becomes the comparison point Verizon shoppers see: a cheaper sibling device moving to newer software while the flagship waits, pressuring Motorola to either ship fast or explain why.
- Every slipped week strengthens the case for enthusiast ROM communities, which already demonstrated with the G1 port that the source code moves faster than the OTA pipeline.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, Android handset makers face a structural credibility problem: the open-source model publishes code immediately while OEM/carrier rollouts lag by months, making 'when do I get it' a standing purchase objection rather than a one-off complaint.
- Forum managers and leaked builds may harden into the industry's default update channel — informal, deniable, and impossible to hold to a date — unless vendors adopt public roadmaps.
The trend: Android's fragmented update pipeline is turning OS-version delivery into a competitive differentiator between manufacturers, with carrier-gated flagships losing ground to faster-moving rivals and community ROMs.