Martha, many thanks for taking the time to say "we're listening", look at it from the customer's point of view:
1. The 2.1 upgrade was delayed twice. Although personally I'm okay with this given that the upgrade that was delivered was of very high quality;
2. The post-2.1 upgrade (Mediascape/Timescape and possible the multi-touch simulation) has gone very quiet - focus has apparently shifted entirely to Arc. This is worrying;
3. With the X10's you've basically got attractive looking devices of high quality. Unfortunately, the relatively elderly software means that some apps that require 2.2+ are unavailable, and the lack of Flash means that web browsing on the X10 is only as "good" as the iPhone - a lesser device. Of course, the 2.2 upgrade would have permitted Flash and provides the updated application engine - which could only lead to a currently speedy X10 phone being even more responsive - highly desirable I would suggest!
4. We've then had SonyEricssonUK issue the "no update other than 2.1" on Twitter - nothing on the more official channels, like the product blogs.
5. To add insult to injury we then have the self-same SonyEricssonUK come out with this statement that the SE 2.1 upgrade is equivalent to a vanilla 2.2 one. This is so technically incorrect that the author of that tweet should be made to publically apologise imho.
6. The encryption layer applied to the bootloader precludes the use of non-SE ROM's like the popular Cyanogen ones. Although I'm lead to believe that the crypto has been broken, however that leaves the user in a dubious legal position in some countries.
What can SE do? As I see it, any/all of the following would be good starters:
a. Commit to the 2.2 upgrade. I don't think any reasonable person expects anything more than that (e.g. 2.3) and delivering that would probably extend the life of the current X10's by 6-8 momths;
b. Commit to a firm timescale on the post-2.1 update - which I'm now guessing can be regarded as the end-of-life update;
c. Give a firm statement as regards the X10's status - it's now seemingly widely held that this is a dead device, replaced by the CES-launched Arc family;
d. Unlock the bootloader - then at least if SE won't/can't support the X10's further, the xda-dev community can step in easily;
e. Acknowledge that there's wide disappointment with the way things have gone - possibly offer some (limited?) trade in deal for X10's to the Arc equivalents. That would perhaps serve to placate some of the angrier members of the community, and neatly give a large (?) userbase for the Arc devices. The latter is useful given that a lot of commentators are now pointing at the dual-core smartphones (LG Optimus 2X or Motorola Atrix) as the cutting edge, not single-core units like Arc.
Don't get me wrong - I still like my X10, and my frustration arises purely because of the suspicion that what is, currently, a very usable device could be made even better.
