Here is what a started to think after jb.
Android phones and iphone are challenging for the market lead. Apple so the iphone has a very big advantage over android phone manufacturers (i will continue to say Samsung for being more specific but it applies to all big android phone manufacturers) because they dont release to much phone to the market (in 5 years they only released 5 models) so they have a very long time to develop os and features for a limited number of hardware variations.
Now if you look at Samsung they release same amount of hardware if not more apple released in 5 years in 5 months. As the every phone has some different hardware Samsung also spent some software development effort for each phone. And every new os release from google make them spent again some other time to software development for making phones run the new os.
Ok i know samsungs and apples marketing schemes are different but this is not my point.
Now think like this. I am a note owner. Nearly got it on the first day of release. Waited for ICS update for a long time. Users start to complain about when it will come out. And just before the ics release google announces jb. First ics release for note was nearly a disaster (not even talking about emmc bug just os) not with the second release it becomes useful but now as all note community we are waiting for jb update. Now
samsung will surely release jb update to sgs3 and by high probability to note and sgs2 and nexus and with less probability to some other devices. And samsung has phones to release in the near future which are aimed for ics but will have jb update before or after release. Think about the software development effort samsung will spent.
I think i stated my point. This comes to me like android is shooting itself. Maybe this is not googles concern but i think they should rearrange their os release strategy.
Unfortunately, Google isn't in the business of manufacturing phones. They make open source software - what the manufacturers do with it is out of their hands.
thedrcarl said:
Unfortunately, Google isn't in the business of manufacturing phones. They make open source software - what the manufacturers do with it is out of their hands.
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Click to collapse
yes but it is free or open source or etc. this is their product and they are competing with apple so they should do something to protect their product.
thedrcarl said:
Unfortunately, Google isn't in the business of manufacturing phones. They make open source software - what the manufacturers do with it is out of their hands.
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Click to collapse
Oh google IS in the business of manufacturing phones. They bought the mobile unit of Motorola last year and with it lots of patents.
Despite the mobile phone market also tablets are a growing market and android is also available for netbooks.
But I think the main benefit for google is to enlarge the network effect by having billions of users and collecting their data. They do their business out of knowledge about their interests and in establishing communication channels to get them attracted.
Buzzwave said:
Oh google IS in the business of manufacturing phones. They bought the mobile unit of Motorola last year and with it lots of patents.
Despite the mobile phone market also tablets are a growing market and android is also available for netbooks.
But I think the main benefit for google is to enlarge the network effect by having billions of users and collecting their data. They do their business out of knowledge about their interests and in establishing communication channels to get them attracted.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You hit the nail on the head. Google uses Android to collect data and to determine what each user likes and dislikes. With this information Google sells ads for your viewing pleasure. Google doesn't need to make phones, they don't have to because their OS is working for them. The fact that they bought Motorola doesn't mean Google will be producing phones, the patents are what Motorola is all about.
Well I think apple does have an advantage being a hardware manufacturer and selling proprietary software. Their strategy for sure is different. Their aims are in hardware market and they need good software to be attractive. Google has aims in non-material products such as software and services and they only need the hardware to get the job done.
But as you see Microsoft is producing its new tablet Surface. They want to benefit from proprietary hardware that runs their software stable and reliable. And if users in the past were angry about software crashes or incompatibilities they blamed Microsoft. Indeed the hardware manufacturers may also be to blame and with mobile devices and hardware itself getting more and more intelligent (more functunalities such as gps, lte or whatever , more complex firmware) the requirements to hardware manufacturers on software development grow.
And as a customer it would be a pitty if google/Motorola would not go on producing decent android devices
My 2 cent's....
Google is doing his job very well with the Software.
But popularity war thats going on between the manifactures is ridiculous. They try to be always the N 1. And that is ok. But to release 2 or even 3 new phones in one year?!?!
Simple man can not be happy with a new phone. Because after 2-3 months he got to buy the new one, coz he wouldn't see the next update. And it's getting very messy.....
I think its worth mentioning that the existence of android development forums like this one prove that new versions of android can be ported to almost any device without huge difficulty. Therefore manufacturers should be able to keep up official updates with Google's releases.
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First of all most Samsung Android Phones dont get more than 2 updates, that is only the new ones will get the latest updates.
Like Galaxy S- Got 2.2 officially and 2.3(or maybe 4.0 ??)
Galaxy S2- Got 4.0 officially, will be getting 4.1 officially and thats all ..
Then it will be Galaxy S3's turn...and so on...
This strategy of Samsung sucks yet we cant do anything as it also works with BadaOS and other lowend non-android models....:/
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There were rumours last month about Facebook planning to acquire an Indian company for the first time. Facebook has been hunting down and acquiring all the small firms with great potential. Little Eye Labs was founded a year back by a group of program analysis folks at Bangalore. The startup specialises in building android performance testing apps which developers can use to test their apps. The amount involved in acquiring the firm is not disclosed.
Little Eye Labs had posted the news about this acquisition in their website. According to that, existing customers will receive a free version of application that they can use until June 30, 2014. The whole team will be moving to Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park, California.
The acquisition also hints that Facebook is really working towards mobile platform as more and more users nowadays are using mobile devices to do their internet activities.
Please see below for details:
https://forums.oneplus.com/threads/oneplus-software-maintenance-schedule.862347/
Because the OnePlus 6 was released May 2018, I would think this would mean Android Q (10.1?) with support until May 2020, and another year of security patches until May 2021.
This is pretty nice. This is just personal opinion but I'm not really worried about updates for this device as there is the huge developer scene for these phones anyways. It's nice to know that OnePlus is being upfront with their update schedules now.
Good to know, another positive when I sell it.
I bought a Nokia 5.3 because of the combination of cost, features and Nokia's commitment to the Android One program. At the moment I'm lucky to get an outdated security update every few months let alone the promised OS upgrades. According to the program I believe they were supposed to give monthly security updates and two major OS updates which never happened. I'm still stuck on 11.
Given that there seems to be no action by Google or any other entity to enforce these requirements, can I assume the program is dead?
You should ask NOKIA this question: they joined the Android ONE program.
Fair point. My experiences with corporate support have always been so bad that the part of my brain that would suggest that has shut down. That being said, the Android One page hasn't been updated in years and according to the Wikipedia page no new phones have registered with the program since 2021.
So I sent a support request to Nokia and ended up receiving a response within an hour! I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly they told me to go f**k myself.
I'm pretty sure Android One is dead. IMO of course.
thats why custom rom is always the best
A day late and a dollar short! Smh...
Google releases Android 12 Developer Support builds so devs can test old software without bricking their phones
Google's new Android 12 images include an updated bootloader, allowing for any dev to downgrade from Android 13
www.androidpolice.com
edit: Double post...already in the sticky. d'oh!