Droid Bionic not canceled, Motorola says, may slip to the third quarter

By last updated

Been here before, haven't we? Despite unsourced, unfounded and generally un-everything rumors, people keep insisting that the Motorola Droid Bionic has been killed off. Not so, a Motorola spokeswoman told Dow Jones Newswires' Roger Cheng.

It's been more than three months since the Droid Bionic was announced at CES (see our hands-on) and since then has been tucked neatly out of sight. But the unnamed Motorola official tells Cheng "Based on compelling feedback since the show, we are incorporating several enhancements to make this an even better consumer experience." A second-quarter launch is still possible (we've heard as much), but a push to the third-quarter apparently is possible, too. That either means stuff ain't ready, ain't good enough, or they're still figuring out what the heck to do.

But canceled, it is not. At least not yet. [WSJ via Android Central Forums]

Phil Nickinson
Phil Nickinson
39 Comments
  • Somebody should ban the guy who started the rumor here in the first place. Oh wait!!
  • I appreciate someone who can call themselves out! Nice!
  • Ya hah, Mr. "It's already proven that it's dead". But like someone else said way to man up and admit it. Plus I'm sure those guys that you relied on are usually spot on. But the amount of grief you gave me...I almost got a TB. It was a dark time man
  • I would still say your rumor was fairly accurate. The droid bionic in its CES form has essentially been canceled. Whether this statement means that they are using another phone that already had the enhancements (the rumored Targa) or are actually just retrofitting whatever changes they are making into the current droid bionic are yet to be seen. I would lean towards the former.
  • LOL It's alright buddy. Information was just misunderstood. it happens.
  • Cheers to admitting your mistake. A lot of people on this site are pompous a-holes who think they know everything. Then when you point out they are wrong, they seem to just . . . disappear. Way to lead by example!
  • CK = Fired You lost your rumor credibility for the rest of the week. You scared us all AND YOU COULD HAVE HURT SOMEONE!
  • LOL! Now what did I tell you about the granting of credulity? And that goes for you and your little sources, too. ;) Seriously, the best defense is exactly what you did.
  • They might as well cancel, the iphone 5 will be out around that time and any phone trying to compete with it isn't going to get much publicity
  • you came all the way here to talk about a iphone ?
  • We have a rule not to feed the trolls. Just let them be and they wither away. So on enough you will see those comments and just laugh.
  • I really appreciated your comment in the forums Phil. I also appreciate that you guys don't report rumors here, and if you do report something that is not yet announced, you make it very clear. It is why I feel it is the best place for Android news.
  • exactly !
  • Having Incredible HD flashbacks.....
  • Lost your chance Moto. By then the Evo 3D, Galaxy S2, AND the iphone 5 will have hit. So long!!!
  • Keep in mind guys this is nothing new. Nobody said the Bionic name would not go on. Only the previous hardware would be scrapped in favor of something else. So this is essentially nothing new. We are in the same boat. Specs are what we need at this time.
  • edit--removed, put under the wrong post, sorry
  • Enhancements...Gingerbread? More RAM? Different processor? I would also not be surprised if they scrapped the original hardware and brought in Targa under the Droid Bionic name. Either way, we are getting a dual core LTE phone soon enough.
  • Unless they are going quad, they better keep the tegra 2
  • no, not soon enough. should be here already, not in 3-6 months (maybe 9), which is what this indicates
  • I don't believe RAM is an issue since they are using DDR2 instead of whatever they are using in the phones these days. Nevertheless, hurry up and release the damn phone! My Moto Droid 1 is really starting to show its age.
  • So it probably will not be released before the Tiered data plans this summer. That is my big concern. I wanted to get grandfathered in to unlimited. Well they were vauge as always, (although I appreciate them making an announcment) so maybe it will still be out by June. I am sure that they want it out as soon as possible to beat the other big phones this summer.
  • This is where they up the RAM to make it inline with the Atrix so they can keep the CEO's promise to make all top tier phones Webtop capable.
    Yes. I know the DDR2 RAM vs. the world argument. I call bull. If you need 1GB of RAM space to run an app or OS environment, I don't care how fast the RAM is if there isn't enough of it.
    Plus, they'll likley put it on a slimming diet. They've seen that skinny sells.
    Lastly, if we look back at timelines for Android, this may be more in line with the reported merger of Gingerbread and Honeycomb into one OS.
  • Verizon should change their name to Delayzon.
  • Maybe the delay is because: Bionic= Tagra?
  • "Based on compelling feedback since the show, we are incorporating several enhancements..." They must have a bunch of clowns running things over there. Why don't they just get this "compelling feedback" from android users BEFORE they build the phone? They could easily design a solid phone if they just asked the readers and staff at AC, or even just by reading the website for a week. Wouldn't that be easier and cheaper? But who wants that when you can delay and "incorporate enhancements"...smh
  • Third quarter would be just in time for my upgrade. And since I still have two new every two discounts left (thank you verizon for grandfathering it) I will use one of the lines for this bad boy.
  • same here. i'm rockin droid 2 now but can't wait for tegra device. this would be nice
  • I really hope they improve that crappy VGA quality front cam.
  • Amen. That was a surprising disappointment. Killer phone and then... that. Work with me, here, people!
  • This is disappointing. But I still want to hear more about that Droid Targa.
  • The Targa is going to be renamed and released as the Droid Bionic. The device that we saw at CES, and is pictured at the top of this post, is not what you are going to get if/when you buy a Bionic this summer. That's the device that has been 'canceled'.
  • Come on now, we don't know that for sure. If you have a definite source for that, let's have it. Otherwise let's call predictions predictions.
  • You can have the Bionic. I am over Motorola. Just sold my DX which was my third on. Went ahead and bought the Thunderbolt and paid full price. Had nothing but lock ups, reboots and sluggishness out of my DX plus my wife has the Droid 2 and she just had to get a replacement because it started going blank and she would have to do a battery pull. I had an Incredible and bought an Iphone as my second phone and sold the Dinc only cause of the size of the DX. Never had one problem with my Dinc and wish I had kept it. I can say the same about the Tbolt. Has worked flawlessly and I love it. If I can help it will never have another Moto. We really take care of our phones and would hate to think what Motos would be like if you weren't. HTC is the way to go in my opinion.
  • You are certainly entitled to that opinion. I, for one, need a phone with great battery life so all HTC offerings are out of the question. Good thing we have options with Android! I have also never had any software issues with my DX or my wife's D2. Sorry for your luck.
  • thanks for confirming my decision. coming from a storm2, my plan was to get a tegra 2, LTE phone on a 1-year contract when my current contract expires in july. HTC is out because of battery life and no dual core (as if they plan on their phones becoming obsolete within a year so they can replace them with better ones ;). then the jackasses at big red nix the 1-year, and i hear there are troubles with the 3G to LTE handoff so far (strikes 1 and 2). based on the rumors and the fact that i want a phone that doesnt have to be reset all the time, i ordered an iphone the day before yesterday. this confirms strike 3--that verizon isnt likely to have the phone i wanted anyway. i agree that this probably means the current form of the bionic (code named etna i believe) is dead, but they are going to give the bionic moniker to either a previously unleaked model or to the targa. either way, im done waiting for what might be coming out "this summer". my iphone arrives tomorrow :)). couldnt be happier. besides i still get to play with android on my nook color and my wife's droid x.
  • 1GB RAM PLEASE
    THIS ISNT MID 2010
  • Tired of waiting, going to buy something else.
  • Why is everyone so worried this is delayed? Sanjay Jha said back in January that the Bionic would be released at the end of Q2, last I looked mid-April wasn't very close to the end of Q2.