AT&T doesn't seem to be accepting the open nature of Motorola's Backflip and the Android platform. Backflip was officially available on Sunday on the AT&T network and with this the company's lays its first step on Android ground. The Motorola Backflip certainly has some unique features but certain software differences set the smartphone apart in a rather unpleasant way.

The device, rather mysteriously, doesn't have an option to install applications outside the official market of the Android. This 'Unknown Sources' setting is simply missing from the Applications menu. Apart from external app restrictions, the phone has been preloaded with a number of AT&T apps that can't be removed unless a certain backdoor hack method is applied.

Neither AT&T nor Motorola reps were able to elaborate on why the full Android experience is not provided on Motorola Backflip. The Google Android team said that they could not provide details about the decisions taken on software modification as the phone was not a Google-branded one. Keeping in mind AT&T's constant glower at Apple's mobile technology which allows tethering of apps, this move could be to implement restrictions on use of such apps.