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Motorola Milestone 3 no longer bound for Blighty

Brits miss out

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The Motorola Milestone 3 will not get a UK release, it has been claimed.

Phone retailer Clove says it was told by Moto that there are no plans to bring the handset to UK telcos but admits this judgement may be subject to change. Just don't hold your breath.

Motorola Milestone 3

It is widely speculated that poor sales of the Milestone 2 could be to blame. Brits are supposedly not keen on slide-out Qwerty keyboards and the retailer points to yesterday's discontinuation the keyboard-equipped HTC Desire Z as further proof.

The Milestone 3 is effectively a Motorola Atrix with a built-in keyboard. Scheduled to launch in the US this month, it is said to pack a dual-core 1GHz processor, 4in 960 x 540 touchscreen and an 8Mp camera.

We reached out to Motorola to address the claim, but it declined to comment.

On the other hand, according to the same retailer, the Motorola Pro will be coming to Blighty, despite earlier reports suggesting otherwise.

Motorola Pro

One for the Pros

The Android blower - announced at the Mobile World Congress in February - packs a 1GHz processor, 5Mp camera and 8GB of storage. The handset, which has a 320 x 480 touchscreen and a BlackBerry-style Qwerty micro-keyboard also boasts a healthy seven-hour talk-time.

The Motorola Pro is available for pre-order at Clove for £420. It will launch mid-July.

Motorola has also put out an update for Defy owners to bring them up to Froyo. The Android 2.2 Defy update is available now. ®

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They just don't get it do they!

Its not that we don't like slideout qwertyness it just the phones are always poorly spec'd compared to their none keyboarded brethren and then theres the customised ui's, stop it; produce a phone the same as the nexus s and add a keyboard to it don't add your own ui and you'll make loads of sales.

3
0

It isn't the hardware

I love having a slide out qwerty. It is the appalling customer support from Motorola. I have the original milestone - their flagship when released and yet they cut support for it almost immediately. Myself and others had to fight with them on the forums to get any kind of meaningful answers. Updates kept getting pushed further and further back. Froyo delivered 12 months late. No bug fixes between releases ( I think there was one from 2.1 to 2.1.1 but that was it). No further updates to come now they have finally chucked froyo at us.

Before anybody asks, yes it is Motorolas fault for the delays. All updates for the milestone are supplied directly by them as it was sold in the UK without a carrier, so I wasn't waiting for t-mobile or vodafone to push the update out. It was just shoddy customer service from Motorola

Maybe Motorola should have a look at the real reason their sales are poor and don't blame the 'qwerty' layout. When I first got my phone I told everyone how great it was and how solidly built. I stand by my comments about the build quality but once it became apparent that Motorola don't give a stuff about their customers once they have your cash I stopped recommending it to other people and have myself sworn to never buy another Motorola product again, no matter how solidly built or nice looking.

2
0

Me too

I waited until there was a winpho7 phone with a keyboard before getting my new work phone (had to be winpho7). On my 3rd phone with a folding/ sliding keyboard now.

Never understood why you want to lose half the screen while typing to an onscreen keboard or halve the screen size by having a blackberry style phone.

2
0

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