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| Google plans to ease the Android update problem |
| By Thom Holwerda, submitted by fran on 2012-06-29 20:50:35 |
| "Google is making another attempt to fix the Android update problem at the Google I/O conference. The plan is to give smartphone, tablet and chip manufacturers earlier opportunities to adapt their current and new hardware to forthcoming Android versions. Google said that it hopes that this will allow users to receive their updates faster. To achieve this, Android executive Hugo Barra announced a 'Platform Development Kit'." I have my doubts. |
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| PDK |
| By 0brad0 on 2012-06-29 21:01:09 |
| Although this is a step forward and having earlier access to be able to develop device drivers or porting/updating pre-existing device drivers helps it is not enough and I doubt this will help enough especially with "older" devices using Android. The device drivers need to be apart of the OS just like any other OS. |
 - Score: 2 |
| Nice but ... |
| By demosthenese on 2012-06-29 21:05:53 |
| Do the manufacturers really want updates that reduce your incentive to buy the latest shiny shiny? |
| - Score: 6 |
| RE: Nice but ... |
| By steampoweredlawn on 2012-06-29 21:40:55 |
| They could just pull an HTC and cripple it with an extra-heavy skin that makes the new version look and work like the old. Then the new one still looks shiny and enticing. |
| - Score: 3 |
| RE: Nice but ... |
| By 0brad0 on 2012-06-29 21:52:18 |
|
> Do the manufacturers really want updates that reduce your incentive to buy the latest shiny shiny? Without updates it drives customers away and not want the new shiny shiny. |
| - Score: 3 |
| RE[2]: Nice but ... |
| By WorknMan on 2012-06-29 22:06:42 |
|
> Without updates it drives customers away and not want the new shiny shiny. Exactly. When it comes to Android phones, I am pretty much Nexus-only, for this very reason. Hell, I can already get Jellybean for my Galaxy Nexus. I haven't updated yet, but a couple of my friends have. If the other vendors want to skin the hell out of their phones and the carriers fill them up with bloatware, they can sell their phones exclusively to those who care more about how the phone looks than how it functions.. Either give me the option to run stock Android, or kiss my ass. When it comes to tablets, it's mostly the same story, but Asus is pretty quick with their updates, and they're pretty close to stock anyway, so I tolerate them. Edited 2012-06-29 22:07 UTC |
| - Score: 3 |
| No incentive for mobile operators to update Android |
| By rklrkl on 2012-06-29 22:15:02 |
|
It's a classic issue that mobile operators want to support each new model of Android phone for as short a time as possible. Part of this is cost, but the ludicrous number of Android models they release per year (HTC anyone? Surely the worst offender here) doesn't help either. With an enormous number of barely-different models in their range, the easiest way to cut support costs is to only selectively upgrade a few models in a timely fashion and leave the others on a dog slow timetable or not upgrade at all. I think Google is missing a trick here - the fastest way to get upgrades to end-users is surely to ship a virtually unmodified (apart from maybe a custom boot screen and custom background image/live wallpaper) Android release? However, foolish mobile operators think that layering on their own custom UI with a trowel improves things - maybe Google should incentivise them to not do that? E.g. Pay each mobile operator a big bonus if they ship as close to a vanilla Android as possible (the closer they get, the bigger the bonus)? It's a win-win for the mobile operators - they have to do less work for each upgrade, they get money from Google for the less work and they get the near-vanilla release out quicker to the public, which in turn encourages earlier/faster sales = profit. Oh and Google should enforce a rule that if any device is released with a new authorised Android version (call that V+1), then all future new Android models from any company must ship with either version V or V+1. The fact that we're still seeing brand new Android 2.3.X models being released just as 4.1 is coming out really gets my goat. Edited 2012-06-29 22:22 UTC |
| - Score: 2 |
| RE[3]: Nice but ... |
| By Nelson on 2012-06-29 22:25:35 |
| The Nexus S took months to get ICS. The "Nexus" branding is no guarantee. |
| - Score: 2 |
| This is what happens |
| By Nelson on 2012-06-29 22:27:41 |
|
When you let OEMs and Carriers have free reign over the platform. Google sold its soul for Android dominance. This is just the pains of that blood pact. One day we'll realize that these people are the enemies and stop letting the wolves into the hen house. I'd expect Google, of all companies (even moreso than Apple) to be actively trying to give at least Carriers the go around and bypass the middle man. Nexus was a nice try, try again. |
| - Score: 2 |
| "Skins" are not the root of all evil |
| By ins0mniac on 2012-06-29 23:26:52 |
|
I see people bashing around the "skins" manufacturers add over standard Android. For me Sense is the reason I had almost only HTC phones since the WM times. I did actually try a Nexus S last year but I hated it and after not even a month I've got the Sensation. At some point I installed a "Senseless" ROM for the promise of a snappier phone, but again I couldn't stand it for more than a day. Maybe a lot of people think Sense is just an oversized clock with a weather widget, but it actually has the best contacts & dialer application I've seen on any phone and It also has full support for my language. There are other things as well, but those are the most important for me and I am willing to wait a couple of months or more for an update, but the cool thing is that I don't actually have to as the guys at XDA usually port new versions in a matter of weeks. Sure, Sense adds some bloatware and that's why the first thing I do when I get a new phone is to install a custom ROM which is cleaned and optimized, without removing any useful functions. |
| - Score: 1 |
| RE: "Skins" are not the root of all evil |
| By Nelson on 2012-06-30 02:00:05 |
| This, my friends, is what is known as Technology Stockholm Syndrome. |
| - Score: 1 |
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