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C'mon Google...I know you do can do better than Apple or Microsoft. Need to improve this update thing now that Android is gaining momentum to mainstream market. Things like this will lose users to go back to other OS especially where security and latest update is needed.
iOS 4 has 90 percent share amongst iOS device owners. What about Android 2.3? 0.4 percent, as of a couple weeks ago. Yes, that’s zero point four percent.
Okay, I realize it’s a little unfair to compare iOS 4 to Android 2.3 since the latter was just released and is only available on one phone (again, the Nexus S). Still, the fact that it’s still only available on one phone weeks after being made public says a lot.
But for the sake of this being slightly more fair, let’s compare iOS 4 to Android 2.2 — an OS which came out well before iOS 4. The adoption rate there? 51.8 percent. That’s still pretty pathetic.
Obviously, this isn’t the Android users’ faults. The problem is that the OEMs and carriers are holding these updates up for a wide variety of reasons, 99 percent of which are undoubtedly bull****. Here’s a perfect example. Supposedly, the Android 2.2 update is all ready to go for Samsung Android phones on T-Mobile, but Samsung doesn’t want to push it out so that they can entice people to buy the newly announced Vibrant 4G+ instead.
Lovely.
Instead, many Samsung T-mobile Android users are struck with Android 2.1. An OS that while perhaps only a year old, is now two full revisions old in Android land. A dinosaur, in other words. And they’re hardly alone. Some 35.2 percent of all Android users are stuck on this same version of the OS.
Imagine if 35 percent of all iOS users were stuck on iOS 2 (which is so old that it wasn’t even called ‘iOS” at the time), while a few of us had iOS 4 and the majority of us had iOS 3? Yeah…
Even more humorous is the fact that over 12 percent of Android users are still stuck on Android 1.5 and 1.6. I mean, Android 1.5 is nearly two years old now. And again, more importantly, it’s four major revisions ago. iOS hasn’t even gone through four major revisions yet.
So it’s sort of like if a few iPhone users had iOS 4, the majority had iOS 3, a good number had iOS 2, some had iOS 1, and then nearly 5 percent were stuck using MotoROKRs.
Google, meanwhile, keeps promising that this sad trend is going to improve. They’re sure that the carriers are eventually going to see the light and get in line any day now. Those 99.6 percent of Android users who’ve seen Android 2.3 — but can’t use it — are waiting awfully patiently.
Meanwhile, the iPhone will launch on its second U.S. carrier in less than a month. And it will launch with either iOS 4.2.5 or iOS 4.3. The same OS that every single other iOS user will have access to.
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source: http://techcrunch.com/2011/01/17/ios-android-breakdown/
From the replies on that article:
Android users on Android 2.0, 2.1, 2.2: 87%.
iOS users on iOS 4.0, 4.1, 4.2: 89.75%.
What's the percent of people upgrading to Windows 7?
Hell, I'm still on XP and like it.
Even more humorous is the fact that over 12 percent of Android users are still stuck on Android 1.5 and 1.6. I mean, Android 1.5 is nearly two years old now. And again, more importantly, it’s four major revisions ago. iOS hasn’t even gone through four major revisions yet.
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Umm.. yeah.
It's easy to update at a snail's pace.
I guess Android is updated so often that it's hard to keep up sometimes.
There's 3 kind's of lies.
Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics.
That article sure has alot of statistics.
dekeijzer said:
From the replies on that article:
Android users on Android 2.0, 2.1, 2.2: 87%.
iOS users on iOS 4.0, 4.1, 4.2: 89.75%.
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Click to collapse
I saw that. But this "the above ones are probably best to compare with Android revisions because .X updates in iOS tend to be pretty minor (bug fixes), while .X in Android are usually pretty major (new features)." He is trying to say .x in iOS is not same as .x in android and that the 89% of iOS is not the same as the 87% of Android users
zeppelinrox said:
What's the percent of people upgrading to Windows 7?
Hell, I'm still on XP and like it.
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Click to collapse
In windows world, I guess it's like 7 vs 7 with service packs. For XP, XP & SP1, XP & SP2, and XP & SP3. I guess iOS 4.x, or Android 2.x is equivalent to 7 and 7.x or XP and XP.x. XP to Windows 7 is not the same and too different. XP is not the oldest, Windows 1.01 is the oldest OS of "Windows" iOS 3.x to 4.x is not that different. Windows 1.x to 7 is drastically different...probably 99% differnt even the HAL are different already.
Even if Android did not get only a yearly update I wouldn´t go to apple
Said that it would be great to have more frequent updates indeed.
orb3000 said:
Even if Android did not get only a yearly update I wouldn´t go to apple
Said that it would be great to have more frequent updates indeed.
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Android might lose battle to iphone in the long run to business community if they don't clean this up. Business and Enterprise mobile deployer likes me like to be up-to-date on patches and security...not behind. Android currently lacks enterprise control like mass group policy stuff. I already worked with Windows, Apple, and Blackbery, but wanted to try something new thus giving android a try, but if they don't have anything for enterprise deployment or control like group policy and stuff later, then folks like me or enterprise admin, would be force going back to BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, iphone or whatever that can be managed remotely.
Well iPhone certainly is not going to be any better in enterprise management than Android. But you are correct that if Google doesn't give up it's insistence on cloud based data the corporate managers will go back to Blackberry. (WinP7) does not seem very business friendly either but I do predict MS will one day release a pro edition that will please those needs.
Android has great potential in this area thanks to linux base but I just spent two days trying to get my partner's contacts sorted out between all the cloud based contacr contributors.
Sent from my DROID2 GLOBAL using XDA App
Asphyx said:
Well iPhone certainly is not going to be any better in enterprise management than Android. But you are correct that if Google doesn't give up it's insistence on cloud based data the corporate managers will go back to Blackberry. (WinP7) does not seem very business friendly either but I do predict MS will one day release a pro edition that will please those needs.
Android has great potential in this area thanks to linux base but I just spent two days trying to get my partner's contacts sorted out between all the cloud based contacr contributors.
Sent from my DROID2 GLOBAL using XDA App
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Isn't cloud computing supposed to be easier? lol
I'm on Android 2.2 on my HTC Wildfire.
Its full of annoying little bugs and lags. Feels like Beta software still.
Can't imagine how horrendous 1.5 and 1.6 was if 2 years down the line the OS is still full of annoying glitches.
Been a Google fan all my life but Apple is starting to look appealing...
Google is not responsible for updating all of the Android phones out there.
Google updates a few phones themselves, the Nexus series, the g1, the g2, and the Mytouch 3g. The actual updates to phones say the Evo, the Galaxy S, the Droid/Milestone, that's up to HTC, Samsung, and Motorola. Apple makes the device, and the operating system, and is not open source like Android. They have 2 series of phones they support still, and 2 they don't. This article is full of crap.
kobesabi said:
C'mon Google...I know you do can do better than Apple or Microsoft. Need to improve this update thing now that Android is gaining momentum to mainstream market. Things like this will lose users to go back to other OS especially where security and latest update is needed.
source: http://techcrunch.com/2011/01/17/ios-android-breakdown/
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You know maybe.. just maybe if you read this article on a website like BGR or Engadget, you might have caught the fact that only .4% are on Gingerbread is due to the fact that only the Nexus S ships with Gingerbread. So wow, I wonder why Apple's percentage is so huge and Android's is so small!!11!!!1!
Maybe we (Android users) happy with not latest OS version?
I flashed Froyo 2.2 half year ago and don't seek for newer version.
This statistic only says how developer can push newest OS.
I just read this article, a good eye opener for those craving for ICS
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2394929,00.asp
Google needs to look to Microsoft as an example of how to get updates right. Compared to the grinding misery of the Android non-update schedule, Microsoft's transition from Windows Phone 7 to Mango is going pretty smoothly.
Like Google, Microsoft has to deal with different OEMs and get its software approved by carriers. Like Google, Microsoft has to deal with different form factors—phones with physical keyboards and without, for instance.
Yes, Apple gets it right too, but that's a little boring; Apple has only one OEM (itself) and a handful of models, so it's much easier to push out updates to iPhones and iPads.
Earlier this year, Google and its OEMs formed a consortium to pledge to deliver prompt updates, but absolutely zero concrete work has come out of that group. Every single U.S. Windows Phone will update to Mango within weeks. Two-year-old iPhones can get iOS 5. But owners of Android phones and tablets just a few months old have no clue when, or whether their gadgets will get Ice Cream Sandwich (or for that matter, sometimes still even Gingerbread.)
Microsoft keeps its Windows Phone line down to one screen resolution and chipset, and doesn't allow manufacturers to skin the OS. I don't want to see Google take on the first requirement, as competition between chip manufacturers has been a major force driving Android's advances. But even if one chipset at a time got Android updates, it would still be a major step forward.
If manufacturer skins are really stopping updates, it may finally be time for Google to find a way to punish OEMs that can't keep up with the pace of change. Google likes to trumpet its openy-ness, but the company has always blessed and punished OEMs by giving or withholding the Android Market and Gmail apps that are necessary to have a decent Android device. Google needs to set a time limit for OEMs to implement changes.
Ice Cream Sandwich looks great. So when can we get it, how can we find apps for it, and how can app developers address the widest variety of Android devices easily? That's what Google needs to answer clearly and concisely.
and it made me think alot.
I'm an android fan, but i feel this author's opinion is quite true.
whats the point of having a good and new OS but its just available on a over priced nexus phone?
android updates are slow (i mean around 6 months or probably never). and silly manufacturers are further delaying it by their custom UI. This is just sad sad news for android.
i better stop reading news about ICS, just to make myself less miserable.
in my country, malaysia, the sgs2 is still at 2.3.3. which is another reason to forget about the ICS.
I agree, that's probably the biggest stumbling block of Android. When Apple fanboys say, "When Apple releases iOS 5, most iPhones (3GS onwards) can join in the party immediately. With Android, you have to wait and you might not even get the update at all", I have no response to that, because they are right.
One thing though, Microsoft controls the hardware specs of WP7 phones very closely. Sure there's differences here and there, but not as far reaching as a Galaxy 3 vs a Galaxy S2.
Well, heres my opinion about this subject:
No, it will not make things worst, i have been using android since donut with an HTC Magic, from which i had tried 2.1 and 2.2. Never resourcing from HTC's official releases.
I'll put it simple, for someone who needs a smartphone, almost every verion of android will do, you get to manage emails on the go, music, photos, market+apps, you get the point.
Now for someone that takes "what version of android i'm running" into consideration, there are solutions to run the latest. Me for example, i do take it into consideration, and i'm running 2.3.5 on a LG2X which only has 2.2 officially.
If this was real reality, what about X86 OS's? i mean, win3.1, win95, win98, win98ME, win2K, winXP, winVISTA, win7 and now win8... And im only talking about microsoft.
Theres no such thing has fragmentation. As for the development problems regarding which target android version will "I" develop to. Cmon, theres good coding or bad coding. OFC theres some API's that are only available since version X of the android version, but still, good coding would prevent the use of this API even if it means having less functionality.
I believe android is in the right track, ICS looks to have some nice improvements, although the main development i saw was design ("Make me awesome"), i believe there has been some improvements regarding stability+smoothness+usability.
Next stop is: "Google needs to look to Microsoft as an example of how to get updates right." Wait a second, google has made the most successful mobile OS and it needs to look to Microsoft for *whatever*?
"Yes, Apple gets it right too" No! if in Sascha's opinion Fragmentation is a problem, Apple is having the same issue, but it is coming later than android, mainly due to the 23454345672384 OEM's android has versus the 1 OEM Apple has! I mean, 1 oem, 1 OS = iPhone, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPod Touch Xgen, iPad, iPad 2.. FFS! fragmentation? a single oem has made more devices than most android OEM's has! (not true, but quite)
[EDIT] Sorry im berserking.
"Microsoft keeps its Windows Phone line down to one screen resolution and chipset" if this was done in the Android habitat, there would be no sense in making different versions, varying prices, and so on. Fragmentation is good in some aspects, one of them being the different prices devices can get.
As for the version and updates problem, how about attacking the OEM's itself instead of Google? Since google is the main "victim" of this article, google has made all it can do to get it "corrected" (if this is a problem) and it even does not own the OEM's companies! All phones launched by google have had some nice updates, keeping it with the most recent OS all the time. (Yes i'm talking about the nexus lineup, Nexus One is 2 years old, so i guess it will not get ICS, still iphone 2G will not get iOS 5 neither.)
[EDIT2] Now i'm haywire.
Just take a look at the article comments, the writer ends up having no arguments. FFS He's calling WP7 an example for updates! saying that the OS provider has the obligation the get OEM's in line...NO! thats the good thing about Android, it is free, free to use, and free to transform. Every OEM is responsible for what they do with the devices they sell, and the OS they ship it with.
Thats like saying that my Dinossaur pc doesn't run windows 7 and call it Microsoft's fault, because my PC only have 96MB of Ram! Isn't that almost Apple-fanboy talk? The os provider must develop the HW for it to run properly.
Logi_Ca1 said:
When Apple fanboys say, "When Apple releases iOS 5, most iPhones (3GS onwards) can join in the party immediately. With Android, you have to wait and you might not even get the update at all", I have no response to that, because they are right.
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Click to collapse
That is true, except for one thing. There is a response.
If you want iOS, you have the choice of black or white. If you want Android then you have the choice of hundreds of different devices. It's a trade-off that I am more than happy with. I prefer choice over regular updates, especially when the OS is already good enough anyway.
Usually you get leaked firmwares before official release anyway. So I don't see the issue.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda premium
drelite08 said:
Usually you get leaked firmwares before official release anyway. So I don't see the issue.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda premium
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I don't think that's a valid point since only a small minority of Android users know about xda and the fact that you can flash ROMs. Every iPhone user in the world will know about OTA updates.
Sorry but there's no apple fanboy like Joshua Toposlky, he is the only one in the world (sarcasm =P) that can see the bright side of both sides of the war.
Archer said:
I don't think that's a valid point since only a small minority of Android users know about xda and the fact that you can flash ROMs.
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Click to collapse
Thats why i did say that for a smartphone user, every android version will sufice.
Archer said:
Every iPhone user in the world will know about OTA updates.
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Click to collapse
This is almost not noticeable in the android environment because of the OEM's, not google's fault
[EDIT] OMFG! Now this is stupid, this is SO STUPID! Check this out, he makes a table of the new features that the new iOS can do, an compares it to other OS's... so lets start:
Location Based Reminders: Only iOS
Quick Camera Acess: iOS and WP7
Advanced Photo Editing tools: Only iOS
Advanced Voice Commands: Only iOS
My answer to this is: I am not going to open another URL coming from PCmag
The way Android works is that Google do not have that much control over it after the OS is designed, it gets open-sourced then it is down to each individual OEM to build a rom and get their carrier partners to approve it.
Google have deliberately chosen to not do it the more formal way as it will defeat the entire original purpose that android had.
Obviously there is more complicated steps in the process when it comes to the licencing of Gapps....
However google and the other major partners have expressed their wish to reduce fragmentation and move to ICS as soon as possible, but that article was right in that we have not been given any strict words. However any phone currently running android 2.3 and is still getting worked on (i.e. not EOL) should receive an ICS update. I know that samsung are working on very quick timetables and the SGS2 rom should be out very quickly, but based on the past experience companies like HTC may take a very long time.
in WP7 Microsoft give a rom to the OEMS to do very minor tweaks, this is then approved and released.
I think what people are missing
Here guys is the fact that android os is the only open source os out of three three majors!
This means that u don't really need the oems to have latest up to date os version. As we can c clearly in the case of cynogenmod project. Moreover, the android build it's reputation on being the most comprehensive os with most capabilities to consume the most of the hardware. This is a big plus for everybody.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk
Ray1 said:
in my country, malaysia, the sgs2 is still at 2.3.3. which is another reason to forget about the ICS.
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Click to collapse
I have just read this now, and i must say WTF? what you mean? you want 2.3.7? You have officially the latest released Android version, and you call it "still"?
svceon said:
I have just read this now, and i must say WTF? what you mean? you want 2.3.7? You have officially the latest released Android version, and you call it "still"?
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I'm sorry i offended you. Please dont get upset.
but the upgrading firmware or version is very frustrating.
i saw in youtube and other tech website that the latest gingerbread is 2.3.5,
2.3.4 suppose to have the video call in google talk
2.3.5 suppose to have better battery life.
(i hope i'm not mistaken)
dont you feel its sad? i spend a big BIG sum of money to buy this phone (RM2099), and naturally i expect it will have good support. OTA updates should be ideal, KIES is acceptable as well, but 2.3.5 is no where to be seen even on KIES.
Ray1 said:
I'm sorry i offended you. Please dont get upset.
but the upgrading firmware or version is very frustrating.
i saw in youtube and other tech website that the latest gingerbread is 2.3.5,
2.3.4 suppose to have the video call in google talk
2.3.5 suppose to have better battery life.
(i hope i'm not mistaken)
dont you feel its sad? i spend a big BIG sum of money to buy this phone (RM2099), and naturally i expect it will have good support. OTA updates should be ideal, KIES is acceptable as well, but 2.3.5 is no where to be seen even on KIES.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ray1, i'm not upset, don't get me wrong =P i just thought you were saying that you wanted ICS now, and that you were frustraded that you didn't had. i'm only upset by PCMAG by it's acumulated stupidity.
As for the updates, there are a lot of 2.3.4/5 roms in the SGSII development sub-forum, why dont you try to flash one?
Another thing about firmware and OEM's updates:
When i buy a car, i dont expect it to be upgraded when the next generation of engines are released. When i buy a car i bought it because i needed it or i wanted it as it was being sold.
If you want the latest hardware in your phones, then don't expect to have the latest software.
linkin85 said:
If you want the latest hardware in your phones, then don't expect to have the latest software.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This doesn't make a lot of sense
Ray1 said:
I'm sorry i offended you. Please dont get upset.
but the upgrading firmware or version is very frustrating.
i saw in youtube and other tech website that the latest gingerbread is 2.3.5,
2.3.4 suppose to have the video call in google talk
2.3.5 suppose to have better battery life.
(i hope i'm not mistaken)
dont you feel its sad? i spend a big BIG sum of money to buy this phone (RM2099), and naturally i expect it will have good support. OTA updates should be ideal, KIES is acceptable as well, but 2.3.5 is no where to be seen even on KIES.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is no Google talk video call in 2.3.4 nor 2.3.5..
the fact that the author wrote "Google needs to look to Microsoft as an example of how to get updates right" made him lose any ounce of credibility that he had (if he had any to begin with.)
they released WP 7 without half of the proven needs on a smartphone (eg. cut and paste), released an "update" which was basically a primer for your phone to be able to OTA update when the new "patch" was released. and it didn't even adress the issues that had people *****ing about the phone. Mango was promised to be released last year, and it's already october 2011. I got rid of my windows phone within 3 months of buying on.
so what if apple releases iOS 5 to all iphone users? half of them probably doesn't even know what's on the new OS. the other half are still marvelling over siri as some technological breakthrough. it has got to be the most boring OS i've seen. everyone holding an iOS phone/tablet/ipod looks the same as the other person holding it. oh great, you can change the wallpaper...whoopdiedoo...and buy a 200 dollar case for it! wowie.
i was a loyal windows mobile user for many many years, having used them since O2 still manufactured awesome products. I loved it for how much I could customize it to suit how I'd like it to be. I'm not paying 1000 bucks and have the company tell me how I should want it to look. I'm sorry, but a homescreen with 16 icons on it just doesn't look appealing to me. I have been blown away by what the android OS can do.
how ICS release can be bad for android users baffles me. I bet the author was wetting himself when apple launched the white iphone.
This ''issue'' can be avoided by installing CM7. This way your phone is like a nexus and has the latest updates.
Umm this isn't really google's fault by any means; whether or not ICS comes to our devices is up to the manufacturers, and it's is up to us as consumers to let them know that we don't want a customized UI, but standard android instead.
Vote with your wallets and send manufacturers complaint letters and you shall have what you wish for. Just look at the locked boot loaders issue as an example of what can be done when enough people complain and commit to a cause.
1) don't rely on Official Roms all the time, plenty of leaks for 2.3.4 and 2.3.5 have surfaced
2) Just because you are not yet on 2.3.4 doesn't mean you won't get ICS, you don't have to go up every single OS step in order...
Again Android liberty. You can pick the OEM. If you want the fastest update buy a nexus. Slower OEMs will sell lesser product in the future. And I didn't get the idea of the article. Is limiting the OSs with resolution and chips a good thing? If so what are we doing here?
Sent from my GT-I9100
I'm new to AT&T and the Samsung Smart Phone world so I thought I would share this and see what the community has to say. From my experience with Sprint and HTC I noticed that receiving new Android updates was like waiting for hair to grow. Granted some grow faster than others, it is still time consuming. With my HTC Hero back in the day... I NEVER received an update. With the EVO3D I saw ONE update. With the HTC EVO LTE... I didn't have the phone long enough to care. Feel free to add your experiences and theory on how long it'll take our S4's to snatch the newest update of 5.0 or, at the very least, 4.3.
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Source
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Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie is expected to be released in October 2013 and reports say that the upcoming software version will support older and low-cost devices to prevent fragmentation between Android smartphones and tablets.
Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie and K Release Build
WallStreetJournal reported the Google's upcoming plans include a "K release" in fall as the company "wraps up development on the next version of Android." "K release" refers the famous Android 5.0 aka Key Lime Pie which will refresh the Android OS environment. Recently, Google released the source code of Android 4.3 Jelly Bean featuring major bugs fixes and some additions not found in previous Jelly Bean versions.
The Samsung Galaxy S4 Google Play Edition and Snapdragon-powered variant were found compatible with Android 4.3 and will be available soon to other flagship devices such as HTC One and Sony Xperia Z in 2013. Moreover, Nexus devices, including Nexus 7 and Nexus 4 could receive push update of Android 4.3 once Google officially releases it publicly. The iteration of Android devices are now being finalised by Google.
Older and Low-Cost Devices will be Made Compatible with Android 5.0
Included in the report released by WallStreetJournal, Android 5.0 will be made customised to suit low-cost smartphones and not exclusive anymore to high-end devices. Google has been making a lot of noise to bring affordable Internet connection to billions that currently do not support proper Web connectivity.
This may also mean that older phones released 2-3 years ago will become qualified to run Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie. It will incredibly increase popularity and market share of Android devices if the major software update has a tailor-made version for low-end smartphones and tablets.
Android 5.0 Opens Door for Expansion
Google is thinking to expand again and plans to target other electronic devices such as appliances and computers; making the Android OS limitless.
"With the next release of Android this fall, Google is also moving more aggressively to use the software in additional kinds of devices, including laptops and appliances such as refrigerators," included to the report of WallStreetJournal.
"According to Google, the majority of Android devices currently being used rely on a version of the software released in 2011 that has fewer capabilities than newer releases. Some industry experts say that the most recent versions of Android are better for higher-end devices than lower-end or older one that had, for instance, 512MB of memory."
The only way to solve this crisis about compatibility and stability among Android devices is to come up with an Android OS version optimised to all kinds, whether high-end or low-end.
The Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie major feature would be the "optimised factor" not found on earlier versions of the OS, and its release, according to Google, would be a "remedy to the issue of RAM restrictions for older devices and freedom of developers to optimise their apps for all Android devices no matter what version it runs."
Delakit said:
The Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie major feature would be the "optimised factor" not found on earlier versions of the OS, and its release, according to Google, would be a "remedy to the issue of RAM restrictions for older devices and freedom of developers to optimise their apps for all Android devices no matter what version it runs."
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This is great, I know a bunch of guys with smartphones from 2010-2011. Those phones aren't really good with RAM management given the low amount of RAM they work with. Mostly 512mb. We'll have to see what carriers will do about updating these old phones. It would be really nice if they did get the update. And as for us with the higher end devices, It'll mean a snappier, smarter and better multitasking OS. :good:
OverHertz said:
This is great, I know a bunch of guys with smartphones from 2010-2011. Those phones aren't really good with RAM management given the low amount of RAM they work with. Mostly 512mb. We'll have to see what carriers will do about updating these old phones. It would be really nice if they did get the update. And as for us with the higher end devices, It'll mean a snappier, smarter and better multitasking OS. :good:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
this reminds me off that Google article were they promised to support device for at least 2 years(I think)to help with fragmentation and that never happened. I tend to believe the industry not really interested in keeping devices software current because so many of us buy the new phones to get the new software.
Sent from my LG-E980 using xda premium
This has always puzzled me since I switched over to Android 5 months ago. I noticed that most carriers don't push the latest update for months to come, if ever in some cases. For example, my SGS4 ATT hasn't been officially updated to 4.3 yet, but 4.4 is being released soon. Its not like as soon as 4.4 is released, everyone can update to it, like iOS. My question is, why is this? What's the point in Android releasing another major update when the majority of non-rooted phones aren't even running their latest update?
Sent from my SGH-I337 using xda app-developers app
It's not googles fault the oems can't keep up. Google even gave them the tools they needed to port software to newer versions of Android. If google took longer to release, that's longer oems would take
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S4
Google
I think a big part of it is that Google knows that the people with the know-how will go get 4.4 themselves and start testing/coming up with fixes for bugs and such. Yes, we all do it for advanced features/rooting, but at the same time Google can go look at bug fixes online just like the rest of us can
bubblebuddyi said:
This has always puzzled me since I switched over to Android 5 months ago. I noticed that most carriers don't push the latest update for months to come, if ever in some cases. For example, my SGS4 ATT hasn't been officially updated to 4.3 yet, but 4.4 is being released soon. Its not like as soon as 4.4 is released, everyone can update to it, like iOS. My question is, why is this? What's the point in Android releasing another major update when the majority of non-rooted phones aren't even running their latest update?
Sent from my SGH-I337 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Simple, most updates are minor and bit by bit remove the "Open" source features of AOSP.
Next android version will include the ability to have custom Messenger app that can recieve SMS. Google will probably replace it with a propietary version that integrates with g+ and other services and end up not support AOSP version. Its only natural because propietary software earns alot more money and google can earn money both from ads and its services.
Yes, android as we know it is being left to die by google.
Also, the thing others said here are correct, OEMs do not have the interest to update or support a device for more than one year, thats their cycle. This adds to android version fragmentation.
Its the same reason there are over 30% of devices still using gingerbread 2.3
Android devices are usually advertised heavily, distributed, supported for 1 year, and abandoned. This goes mostly for midrange devices. Flagships might get special treatment-
Low end devices are never updated to rarely if never updated to new versions. Of course, this policy might differ based on OEM.
LG uisually releases 1 update and thats it. Samsung does 2-3 updates for higher end devices. Dunno about HTC or Sony, but they should be the same.
it may be availble for all device
as far as i know google is planing to bring all android phones under one roof with same os.. they had worked on pusing updates through playstore .. so we may see soon that we are getting our os upgrades directly from playstore
Pipo
Keep an close eye on official release& waiting!
Thank goodness for developers who take the updates and then make far better roms than the carriers could ever do.. These updates are more for the artists that make the art that is the rom, or am I wrong?
M919 running Virgin GP ed. ROM
I think for the moment the answer is you simply don't need 4.4.
If you have 4.1 and up your phone will support all the new apps coming with 4.4, in fact they're already available...
We won't see universal Play Store upgrading for the foreseeable future, because remember, Google wouldn't want the hassle of handling hardware support for every single phone out there, they have enough on their plate with their Nexus line.
The road taken, if you will, probably is for the best, where Google develop their services independently of the platform as much as possible.
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What do you think when someone asks you about the worst part about Android? Chances are, Android fragmentation is one of the first things that flies through your head. But I've been thinking about it and I haven't noticed anything to suggest that I am not alone.
It is well known that Android owns the smartphone market globally. It has done this by being open source. This has become it's greatest strength and it greatest weakness. For the first point, it is currently on over a billion devices all over the world. As for the second, I think you can guess: fragmentation. God knows how many different companies have taken Android and twisted it to their laggy and unsupported preference. I would really like to point towards the manufacturers that basically releases a new phone every month to three months. These include Samsung, Blu, and countless others. Here looks like a good place to say that I HATE THOSE LITTLE COMPANIES WITH THEIR CRAP TABLETS ON AMAZON. Anyway, Samsung probably is the worst right? With their big fancy skin and slow updates....well look at Blu! They have at least two dozen phones, tablets, and everything in between, most of which don't get a single update (to the next large update like 5.0, 5.1, etc. This doesn't include small patches, though I'm sure that they don't give many of those). Now I know that this is starting to turn into a rant, but that's OK. I'm almost ready to point out my...point. :l
If any of your friends, co-workers, acquaintances have iPhones, you might have heard the "why does my iPhone 4 on iOS 6 not support this app" complaint (or something similar). I've found that most apps work with Android Jelly Bean, ICS, or even Gingerbread, all of which are as old or older than iOS 6. Android apps support older versions of Android better than iOS does, which has very few fragmentation problems. Quick note: Some people haven't updated their iDevices to the newest version, so please don't give me crap for it. So that is my first supporting argument, which is a little harder to go against than my final point.
Quick recap: there to many different skinned versions of Android. This might seem to contradict my rage about "THOSE LITTLE COMPANIES WITH THEIR CRAP TABLETS ON AMAZON", but no one cares since most people probably agree with me on that. We should all calm down about the slow updates on our devices. Don't get angry at me and say that I must have a Nexus or a Motorola and I've never known the struggle; I have the LG Optimus G AT&T version and it hasn't gotten the official Kitkat release. Actually, I haven't even gotten an official update since 4.1.2. Thanks to custom ROMs, I'm on Lollipop right now. But that isn't the point. Maybe we shouldn't think of Android as "be together, not he same", but more like "be not the same, not together." That didn't quite work the way I hoped...
So I'm starting to think of Android a only a base and that we should think of skinned versions of Android more like Linux and it's distros. Ubuntu is based off Linux, but it isn't Linux (not actually sure if there is a pure Linux...would it be text based?). It rather another creation of it. The candied named Android versions are just new standards and aren't really necessary. I'm pretty sure that Samsung could take the current version and just add the security and new features in as they need it. Well, maybe some dev could correct me on that? Anyway, I'd like to end this summing up this thread (b/c it isn't very organized to my eyes) by saying that it's OK that you don't have the newest update and that Samsung really should add in the new features if not update the whole OS.
:silly: