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Android Orphans: a Sad History of Platform Abandonment
MBCook writes "After seeing the announcement that Nexus One users won't get ICS, Michael Degusta made a chart to show how current the OS version on Android phones was over time... and the results are not encouraging."
if a device works on a given version of the OS, leave it the hell alone
This is the most convincing case to buy Apple products I've ever seen.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
Why is it that unlike desktops and laptops, mobiles are locked down so tight
I can install virtually any OS on my PC, why cant the same be done with mobiles?
I'm so confused. First of all, this doesn't list the Samsung Galaxy, which has stayed updated. Or the S2 for that matter. Did they specifically pick Android devices that are not being updated (there are many, I don't deny that)?
Second of all, the original iPhone 2G, which I have, is definitely not supported by iOS5, or even iOS4 for that matter. What are they smoking?
I can't help but think this is intentionally skewed for Apple...
Applications designed for newer APIs won't run on devices whose operating system doesn't support those APIs. And as applications get updated to correct security problems and add features, some of them also get updated to use the new APIs.
Some will say "buy apple" some will bash Microsoft. The truth is they all have downsides, but a device that's got out of date software before my contract is up is a deal breaker.
And no "if it ain't broke don't fix it" does not apply. No phone that I know of is Orange Book A or B certified, so they're all pretty guaranteed to have security flaws at the very minimum, and probably missing features I'd like as well.
This is news? I thought everyone knew this.
Seriously though, after Froyo I haven't gotten a single Android update. HTC swears up and down that their phones will get Android updates, but as I've said, this has only happened once. Why? As TFA mentions, manufacturers have a hand in this -- but only so far as they keep making better phones. This is creating a very fractured platform that pretty much ensures that what works on one phone doesn't work on the others. There's a reason Apple is sticking to a slow, slow release schedule and not letting anyone else make its phones.
The other half of the blame rests squarely on the carriers. Absurdly, they still, still , to this day try to lock down features on phones for a variety of lame-ass reasons. And they have to do this with every version of Android that comes out. Expecting a carrier to update something is like waiting for an ice age to end. So rather than approve OTA updates, they instead turn around and... start selling updated versions of Android as a goddamn feature in new phones. It's getting absurd.
Like Apple, we care about legacy handsets. There are still updates coming out for Symbian 9.5 handsets.
That's the beauty of the hacking community. Even with a locked bootloader, my Droid X is running the latest version of Android. (2.3.7)
There are tons of good builds out there for almost every platform. http://www.xda-developers.com/ is a prime spot to start looking. Heck, my phone started as a Windows Mobile 6.5 and I'm running Android on it. http://www.cyanogenmod.com/ runs on a large number of platforms also. Who cares if the vendor continues to support it, most people wipe the stock image as soon as they get it home and put a better build on it. Nothing better than free support.
The real reason: Because unlike Intel and IBM, ARM never managed to specify one standard boot process. Nearly x86 PC since the 1980s has supported BIOS, but every ARM platform has something different.
Look at Apple just releasing new hardware to force you to update! You sheep. Android is a FREE and OPEN platform. Why would anyone be locked down by iOS is beyond me. Keep it up Android and Android hardware suppliers, eventually you'll overrun the dark walled garden that is Apple.
</sarcasm>
(anything else I missed out on the typical Apple Bashing?)
-
My Optimus V doesn't technically have the latest released for it but Cyanogenmod and a root (Mind you rooting it took much longer than jailbreaking my iPod Touch) took care of that. But not everyone is this tech savvy, my girlfriend is still waiting on her update. And this is why people buy iOS devices for themselves, friends or family.
So I assume you never patch your OS with security updates, then. Would you mind posting the IP address of a few computers you use?
So that chart lies from the get go. Plus, Android being Open Source allows users to port newer versions to older devices as long as they're powerful enough to run them.
No wireless, out of date OS, less space than a Nomad. Lame.
Android is a fucking mess. Ridiculous nonsensical names. I mean, Froyo. Honeycomb? Really? Who came up with this shit?
How about version numbers so I know that this version is more or less recent than that version. Is that really asking so much?
And then on top of that the user or potential buyer needs to wade through all of the version restrictions on the various handsets. Oh no, you can't use Nutcracker on the Droid Extreme Elvis, that phone will only run Chicken Sandwich. To run Nutcracker you need the Droid Incredible.
And they wonder why the iPhone still sells by the millions
I don't get the chart, the 1st Gen iPhone is stuck @ iOS 3.1.3 - TWO full iOS behind, yet shows current? It can't even run most of the new iOS 4 only apps, much less iOS 5, simply because Apple abandoned it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_iOS_devices#iPhone
What source have "they" (I presume you mean Google) not published? No phone running ICS has been released. Google has explained why they didn't release Honeycomb and they've committed to releasing the source for ICS soon after phones running ICS have been released. Ignorant troll is Ignorant.
God is imaginary
millions of people are.
My wife has never upgraded her HTC Aria to the current OS, while I have. Why hasn't she??? THERE WAS NO NEED TO. Jeez people, get over it. Why did I upgrade?? Because I'm a geek and wanted to. I also had a memory issue with the HTC email program, and I was hoping it would resolve it, which it did. My wife doesn't use her HTC for email. In fact, she hardly uses it for anything except text message, phone calls, and the odd games here and there. Why the hell would she want to upgrade???
Now, if this guy weren't such an obvious Apple fanboy and decided to do some real work instead of just one that shows what he wants it to show, he would track down a sample population and find out how many actually give a fuck.
I rarely read replies, it's my opinion and if you thought about your opinion a little more, I'm OK with that.
Now that Android has some traction, Google needs to forbid all manufacturer/carrier UI modifications or at least give customers the option of choosing unmodified Android when they first turn on the phone. Yes, every phone will look the same but so what? It will be a standardized user experience, with fast updates straight from Google.
Given HTC/Samsung's/etc track record of supporting their phones it is the only sensible way of creating the ultimate user experience.
* Owner of a Nexus S who has tried all manufacturer UIs like Sense, Touchwiz, MOTOBLUR, etc.
Did he leave out all the phones that currently do run the most recent Android OS?
"Action without philosophy is a lethal weapon; philosophy without action is worthless."
I don't care about having the latest/greatest Android OS, but I wish the carriers were required to provide warranty support for the full 2 year term of your contract.
My droid 1 stopped working 19 months into my contract. I had bought the WPP wireless protection plan and figured it would have me covered, but when I called Verizon, they said that it only covered accidental damage and that I wouldn't be covered. They did offer to sell me a refurb phone for $150 or something like that, and offered me an early upgrade with a new 2 year contract term. I thought about "accidentally" dropping the phone into the sink and then making a damage claim with WPP, but I found a used one on eBay for a bit less than the WPP deductable.
If the carriers are going to lock me into a 2 year contract that I can't cancel, why aren't they required to make sure that the equipment they sold me works throughout the entire contract?
At the very least, carriers should be required to let me drop the voice/data contract and pay only the phone subsidy ($15 - $20/mo?) if I want to end the contract.
But that would be a non-traditional usage of the word "most".
... android is open source though, port it yourself? this is why google is good and apple/IOS is bad - because with apple you're at the mercy of them making your handset obsolete.
I run: Windows, OS X, Linux, FreeBSD. Just because you have a hammer, doesn't mean everything is a nail.
An original iPhone with iOS4 was slow as hell. An original iPhone with iOS5? I don't even want to think about that.
The Nexus One isn't getting Android 4, because the hardware is too slow for it. While I would love to have Android 4, I don't want it on my Nexus One. I would rather my Nexus One (while I still have it anyway) to actually be reasonably functional.
you from understanding the chart. The x-axis is "time beyond introduction date of the phone".
Phone manufacturers really suck when it comes to floating upgrades then later not actually providing them. Blackberry is really bad about it.
Never buy a phone expecting it will be upgradeable to the new version.
Android is a fucking mess. Ridiculous nonsensical names. I mean, Froyo. Honeycomb? Really? Who came up with this shit?
Dessert makers. Doughnut, eclair, frozen yogurt, gingerbread, honey, and ice cream sandwiches are all sweet items associated with dessert. Is it any stranger than naming Mac OS X versions after big cats?
How about version numbers so I know that this version is more or less recent than that version
Alphabetical order. Donut is 1.6, Eclair is 2.0 and 2.1, FroYo is 2.2, Gingerbread is 2.3, Honeycomb is 3.0 and 3.1, and Ice Cream Sandwich is 4.0. It's better than Cheetah (10.0), Puma (10.1), Jaguar (10.2), Panther (10.3), Tiger (10.4), Leopard (10.5), Snow Leopard (10.6), and Lion (10.7), which show no alphabetical progression.
Oh no, you can't use Nutcracker on the Droid Extreme Elvis, that phone will only run Chicken Sandwich. To run Nutcracker you need the Droid Incredible.
Oh no, you can't run iOS 5 on an iPhone 1 or iPhone 3G; you need a 3GS, 4, or 4S.
First hand experience: iPhone 3G running iOS 3.3x is SLOW. Running iOS 4 it's nearly unusable. So while technically newer versions may be supported I would not recommend it. The first couple of releases of iOS 3 is probably where you should stay if you own a 3G.
"The" Google phone. The only Android designed by Google. Also known as "The Developer Phone" (due to being the main development platform sent to partners). Had a vibrant community, with the Cyanogen mod team it had some of the best Roms (read OS versions) available.
But now Google has released a patch to break it so you can't install a new operating system (which is too bad because 2.3.7 roms were just becoming available) and breaking all existing non-standard installations.
Google is attacking their more experienced users, which is REALLY sad because Android is probably the most hacker, advanced users, best, platform available. Two weeks ago I would have whole heartedly suggested you go out and buy an Android phone with a physical keyboard to ANYONE, it was simply the best in every way.
Now, however, if the person wants real freedom I have to tell them to consider Nokia handsets with Linux distros, or OpenMoko.
They've made it so that well designed Android phones won't have longevity... sad really sad.
Try reading it more carefully.
apparently Android phone makers think they can get you to buy a new phone by making you really unhappy with your current one.
Well I was fairly satisfied with my Motorola phone, which came with 2.1. They were very slow getting updates out, so when 2.2 was finally available I loaded it as part of the early "smoke test" group. Motorola and AT&T both included so much useless bloatware as part of the OS update (locked and unable to be removed, of course), that it essentially has no room left for any other apps. So their update left me even LESS happy with the phone, and just 9 months after purchase (and 15 until the contract ends). So, yea, I want another phone, but I'll never buy another from Motorola.
"Somebody has to do something. It's just incredibly pathetic it has to be us."
--- Jerry Garcia
I know it's hard to get a meaningful metric, but this chart makes me wonder about the trustworthiness of the study. There are approximately two major Android releases per year whereas there is only one major iOS upgrade per year. Thus "two major releases behind" means an average of 15 months late for an Android device, whereas "one major release behind" means an average of 18 months late for an iOS device. Yet by the look of the legend, the first one is supposed to be worse than the second one.
God, root, what is difference ?
and a stupid one as well. It shows a fundamental lack of understanding Apple and Android.
Android is an OS. Different compnais put it on different phones. Thnis means different capabilities and corporate plansd
Apple is the entire chain.
SO you can only compare phones running android individually, and not group them as 'Android'.
The advantage of Androids hardware diversity is that competition can happen, and they aren't locked into a 'box' form 3 years ago.
The advantage of Apple is that they will update it even if the update isn't needed for your phone.
The fact that he marks out yellow sections between green sections shows his agenda.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
The sad fact is that while of course, the iPhone 3G won't get iOS5, you can roughly expect at least 2 years of updates for an iPhone. Whereas some (but not all) Android devices are given up much quicker.
Steve Ballmer's FUD is insofar correct in that if you want to update your Android-phone after the maker and/or carrier abandoned you, you indeed almost need a CS degree to update it on yourself.
The update process is indeed quite well-done on WP7
But Android is open! Open = good, closed = bad, therefore android is better! Idiot freetards.
after a year of no sign of an update and I rooted the DEXT with http://www.cyanogenmod.com/ [cyanogenmod.com]
works perfectly.
My Motorola phone, purchased in July 2011, came with Android 2.2. As of now there are no plans to update it to 2.3 so I went with a custom ROM. Before Gingerbread, the phone was usable. It was OK. Now with a custom ROM it's a much better phone. By comparison to how it functions with 2.3, my phone running 2.2 was terrible. It's battery doesn't die on me by early evening like it used to. I still charge it every night but if needed, I could wait until morning, something I never could do before. Manufacturers are doing no favor to Android by not upgrading every capable phone to the newest OS as quickly as possible. I have a lot of friends with Android phones who are planning on switching to iPhones for precisely this reason. They get Android-based phones initially because of cheaper upfront costs (which is less of an issue now with the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, and iPhone 4S hitting different price points) but then they quickly get fed up with Android and/or the manufacturer and turn to Apple. I do not personally know anyone who has gone from an iPhone to an Android device.
/.) see being able to load custom ROMs as a plus for Android-based phones (it is in some cases) but we should not have to resort to that to get a really functional and more secure phone. Security is the big issue with manufacturers not updating the OS. It's nice to tinker with the phone, it's like building your own computer and installing Linux, but at some point I also want a phone that just works. There is also no way that most people getting smart phones will ever load a custom ROM. As easy as it is, it is beyond the capabilities or interest of most people.
I know some people (many here on
I like Android and I don't mind dealing with ROMs and mods and rooting and all that, but manufacturers should be supporting their own products (some do, most don't very well) or else they will lose out to Apple. There's a reason consumers are more satisfied with iPhones and Apple than any other phone or phone-producing company.
iOS5 still doesn't support basic features of Android 1.x such as application side-loading, changing the keyboard, free high quality GPS navigation. It just catched-up on notifications. So better be stuck on old Android without any update than on the latest iOS.
What that chart doesn't show is the several months the iPhone 3G was practically unusable because the iPhone 3 OS didn't work properly on it. Once they finally manage to get an update pushed out that actually work, I stopped updating the darn thing. I would have far preferred they held it back till it worked on that hardware. Google is playing it smart and not causing old hardware to brick or become unusable for people. This is a good thing.
The old Slashdot would have been happy that Android was open source. The new Slashdot thinks it's a bug rather than a feature.
In reality, it's somewhere between feature and bug. It means the manufacturers can make a large number of different phones without a Legion of employees to keep them all up to date and it gives customers choice in both hardware and os. It kinda pushes people to be involved with their phone and to start hacking on their phones. Having said that, it's annoying when you outgrow the capabilities of your cheap phone before you're eligible for an upgrade.
Android should be licensed in such a way that disallows proprietary drivers.
Porting a new version of Android to a certain device is relatively trivial when you have all the source you need.
Many of this devices actually have working images of, say, Gingerbread, but they are unusable because the manufacturer refuses to provide the source of the touchscreen driver, or, most commonly, the video drivers. You get gingerbread working beautifully, but without wifi, no sound, and no video acceleration (and most phones don't have enough processing power to withstand software playback).
I have several tablets that are outdated just because of this.
WTF am I doing replying to an AC at 5 A.M on a Friday night?
it's almost as though the responsible thing to do is to settle on a stable API and then not change it.
Say you had no camera or no compass or a low-resolution display or vertex/pixel shader support whatever in the first version of a device, and in a newer device model, you want to add support for a camera or a compass or a high-resolution display or 3D chip capable of shaders. In order for applications to use these new peripherals, they'll need some sort of API. And in Android-land, that means an API version bump.
A few have already noted that the original iPhone doesn't run iOS 5 - but queried why the bar is all green for that. There's a good reason - the graph shows whether or not the phone could run the latest OS up to three years after release, not whether or not it can run whatever the latest, greatest version is today. Each phone is following an independent timeline on that chart.
So if we look at the original iPhone - released 29 June 2007 - that would qualify for a green bar all the way along provided it could run whatever the latest version was on 29 June 2010. iOS 4 - the first version to drop support for the original iPhone - was released on June 21, 2010. Meaning that strictly speaking there should be a very thin yellow line at the tail end of the bar representing the original iPhone to show that it was a week off being 3 years old when support was dropped.
Similarly for the iPhone 3G - it's OK for the bar to be green all the way across as long as the iPhone 3G could run whatever the latest version was on 11 July 2011. The writing was on the wall for iOS 4 in July 2011 but iOS 5 was not released until 12 October.
The OEM's support for most Android phones, OTOH, usually ends long before buyers are out of contract - and it's quite common to find that a phone is running an out-of-date version of Android from the day it's released. Considering the plethora of locked bootloaders on Android phones, this is much more significant than many make out. Yeah, install Cyanogen. Great. But most manufacturers that provide any sort of rescue mode build it into the bootloader rather than into hardware - which means that unlocking the bootloader is not without risk. Myself, I take the attitude that I don't want dick around with my phone like I had to dick around with my computer fifteen years ago. I have in my pocket my first Android phone, absent a dramatic raising of standards on the part of at least one Android phone manufacturer it will be my last.
It is a hardware issue (although the article says it otherwise). New versions have minimum memory specs for instance. It would be like trying to run Windows 7 on a 10 year old machine.
Every new releases have minimum requirements. These requirements end up limiting which devices can be updated or not. ICS for instance will require 256MB memory and some fancy harware acceleration. It's usually wise to respect this although you will probably be able to update your device using some custom ROM (Just don't get surprised when app Xyz fail to run on your gingerbread cyanogen mod on your 4 year old device).
We could obviously discuss whether this is good or not... as a developer I like this actually. The android fragmentation can be reduced by this minimum specs... you can release your software knowing that you will have a minimum ammount of memory to run and deal with.
On an email I get from "CodeProject" I saw a headline like "Occupy Android" talking about how older Android devices aren't getting OS updates while iPhone3GS gets the latest still.
As another commenter already said, older hardware does not run the newer OSes well and this is true of Apple's devices too. While quality of the delivery is certainly going to be one of the considerations, there are likely to be many.
1. The carrier decides a LOT about which device gets and upgrade and which does not. So go pester them about it!
2. Newer OSes may not support older hardware configurations. Putting out a generic collection of drivers and expecting the OS to auto-configure is a waste storage and processor resources. Aren't these things supposed to be as efficient as possible?
3. There is a lot for the carriers and manufacturers to manage already. Look to the community to support older hardware. This is partly by design and the purpose of doing the OS as F/OSS. As others have noted, ICS *will* appear on the older devices for which there is a lot of community support.
Someone out there is trying to create a sour feeling about Android out there and there is precedent out there that it will not work. Consider the WinTel PC vs the Macintosh. The situation is quite parallel in many ways. With PCs there is a WIDE variety of hardware configurations while Apple's is more limited. With PCs the OS choice options are wider as well while with Apple, the choices are more limited.
But here's the thing that Apple fans are leaving out -- Apple is PAINFUL when it comes to their Mac OS X and what hardware it will (easily) install to. I recall back when G4 and G5 were new and which versions of Mac OS X would work on what hardware. I regularly used hacking techniques to make the hardware report being faster and more powerful than it actually was in order to get the newer OS to install. And with each new OS version, more and more hardware drops from the "supported" list. So the FUD flying around about Android actually also applies to Apple stuff and does the ORIGINAL iPhone run iOS5? Is the performance acceptable? And I really doubt the original iPhone will be supported on the next iOS version... just wait and see.
No, it isn't evil.
Hitler .... code that hasn't been released? seriously? you need to reset your bar.
Child molesters
pol pot,
Hannibal Lector,
http://www.google.com/about/corporate/company/tenthings.html
Doing things you don't like, doesn't mean it's evil.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Before I rooted my HTC droid eris I was using the slow-as-hell 1.5 Android, and then Verizon did an over-the-air-upgrade for my phone to the even slower-as-fuck 2.1 Android. I finally rooted my phone and installed 2.2. It's considerably faster. Because of 2.2 I might am fine with having just this phone.
If I ever want to watch videos via the recently released alpha of VLC player, then I'll need a faster phone, but for now, this will do.
So yeah, it's mainly a software issue and how the developers have to go through google, then it the hardware, then the services, unlike Apple which surprisingly looks very developer friendly...
Anyway, I think google should handle the software entirely themselves. Maybe they should set up contracts with services like Verizon/ATT to support phones for a period of time, like 2-3 years instead of going to the manufacturers or have the services set-up departments (which cost money) to handle software support. I think the hardware has normalized enough as most phones coming out now have dual-core chips, and are good enough to do most internet tasks that google doesn't have to go through the hardware side...
When Apple upgrades their OS they only include features that will run smoothly on the particular phone. This means they are not truly upgrades as they sometimes run crippled version of the OS. Only a single hardware/software company can do this. Most recent example, Siri only works on the Iphone 4S. Consider that multitasking was not available on the iPhone 3 with iOS 4.
I believe that the chart should label have labeled these crippled upgrades as being behind.
My wife has never upgraded her HTC Aria to the current OS, while I have. Why hasn't she??? THERE WAS NO NEED TO. Jeez people, get over it. Why did I upgrade?? Because I'm a geek and wanted to. I also had a memory issue with the HTC email program, and I was hoping it would resolve it, which it did. My wife doesn't use her HTC for email. In fact, she hardly uses it for anything except text message, phone calls, and the odd games here and there. Why the hell would she want to upgrade???
If she doesn't need anything but texting and phone calls, why did she buy a smartphone?
Most people who shell out for a smartphone actually want it to be use it. I don't ever want to own a phone designed with people like your wife in mind. Only a raving platform apologist would seriously make that claim.
How long does it take, on average, from when a new iOS version comes out until there's a working untethered jailbreak?
Probably just another pro-Apple troll post. By the time a handset is truly no longer being supported by Android, chances are good that it's out of warranty and you may as well just unlock it and install a custom firmware.
Here we have an answer will satisfy the geek ---
and be absolutely frightening or meaningless to tens or hundreds of millions of others.
At the very least, carriers should be required to let me drop the voice/data contract and pay only the phone subsidy ($15 - $20/mo?) if I want to end the contract.
That's what the prorated ETF is supposed to be for.
The major upgrades to Apple iOS are more equivalent to Android Apps updates than to Android OS updates.
Look at the very latest iOS update. It added twitter or facebook integration to the gallery. This kind of stuff is an app update on Android. Siri?... same thing. Could be accomplished with an application independent of OS version.
android is open source though, port it yourself?
That's exactly what Cyanogen and the rest of Team Douche did when making CyanogenMod. But some of the bootloaders and device drivers needed to get a copy of Android running on a particular device are not open source.
Personally, I think that if they make you sign a two year contract to get the phone, then they should agree to provide updates for two years
Coder's Stone: The programming language quick ref for iPad
I rooted my Droid Eris only because Verizon stopped updating it
Coder's Stone: The programming language quick ref for iPad
I guess it says that my phone was current for two years, then abandoned? Great, I suppose somehow Android is worse?
With Apple you buy an iPhone 9 months after it comes out on a 2 year contract, keep it up to date and as soon as you are off contract, it can't run the newest iOS, all the apps you run are updated for the new iOS, and therefore can't be kept current or work at all.
Nice...but all green in the chart!
And don't get me started on how weak iTunes is (share a CD library on a network share, or own more than one iThing, anyone?)
Better than the competition good
All the wireless carriers offer deals that allow you to upgrade your phone every 2 years. Why would I care if my Android is 3 versions behind just as I'm replacing it? Most of the new things that come out are things that I'll either be looking forward to, or reasons I'll be rooting/upgrading my OS. The people who are just buying phones that they can use to 1) play angry birds, 2) get better updated GPS built in and 3) talk on the phone and send txt messages don't care about getting the updated OS. When I shop for phones for my family, my wife has one single requirement: It needs to have a physical full qwerty keyboard.
Most ignorance is vincible ignorance. We don't know because we don't want to know. --Aldous Huxley
Unless you're a geek who knows about custom ROMs, this is definitely the most obvious downside of Android I've seen to date.
We've already had quite a few Android phones - Nexus One being the most updated. All the other ones (Samsung, HTC and Motorola) were Abandoned without an update (or with with one minor update at best). Android just can't not win by screwing consumers.
In the article it says the original iPhone and iPhone 3G are still receiving software updates, this is just false: The iPhone has been stuck at OS 3.1.3 since that came out years ago, and the iPhone 3G is stuck at 4.2.1, and they will never see another update. This article makes Apple out to be far better than they are.
The problem with these stories is that they're written with the default understanding that Apple is God of the Universe. Walled garden with one line of phone maintained centrally is the way of the universe. Android phones are carrier-maintained. You don't buy a platform, you buy a phone from a carrier, who may or may not update your device. Another way to out that is you have the *choice* of where to get Android, and carriers have the *choice* of how to support it. As an aside I can also choose what kinds of apps I can install and run on my device. I may choose the wrong carrier or device or apps, but I enjoy actually having a choice at all, and that's why Apple will never get my money.
I bought the Droid X, thinking that it was an investment to get the "latest and greatest" in technology. After about 3 months, I heard a new OS was coming out for it. I waited expectantly each day as I checked for updates. I noticed that my phone didn't get the update until months after it was released, while my friends who had just bought the Android devices got it right away. Same with each update after. It only took a couple months for me to realize that my phone was already "outdated". I like Apple's approach, where they release the new iOS to everybody at the same time, before it even comes out on the new phone. That's excellent customer support right there. Which is why I'm now sitting here waiting for my new iPhone 4S to arrive today. :)
when you violate Rule #1 of the Rules of IT that Should Never Be Broken: Never let programmers program your applications.
When you let programmers program your applications, you get "Ooooh, shiny!" instead of something easy to use.
But look, you get all these shiny, glowing buttons who bounce on the screen! See, see! What, you want to use this? Easily? I'm sorry, we are programmers, we don't do that sort of thing.*
Programmers need to be kept on a short leash and given clear, concise and explicit instructions on what needs to be done. Not how, that's micromanaging, but what. You won't get shiny, but you will get usable.
*My apologies to Sneakers for bastardizing one of the best lines of the entire movie.
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
So many people are accusing the author of the article as being an "Apple Fan" and are leaping to defend Android.
Well, I actually love Android, and have been using Android phones ever since I ditched my iPhone (original 2G.. ditched it due to AT&T's inability to provide acceptable service.) The iPhone and the software was great. Android is also great.
The author of the article is making a really valid point. Sure, there may be a couple of Android phones out in the wild now that run the latest OS -- but the fact remains that the vast majority of Android phones either 1) Never ran the latest version of the Android OS, and/or 2) Never will run the latest version of the Android OS. Yes yes yes, you can read dozens of forum posts and risk bricking your phone by running some unsupported scripts and executable to try to root your phone and replace the OS with a version that is not supported by the vendor. This really only applies to a very tiny fraction of Android users, though. The fact remains, that purchasers of Android phones are getting shafted and do not have access to the latest versions of the OS in most cases.
Google has explained why they didn't release Honeycomb and they've committed to releasing the source for ICS soon after phones running ICS have been released. Ignorant troll is Ignorant.
Excuses are just that, excuses, the point is they haven't released it.
I may forgive them if and when they release ICS, in the meantime, I'm not a troll. I'm a noid.
My understanding is that while Android is open source, Google doesn't accept upstream contributions to the source code. Each time a manufacturer gets the current version of Android to work on their hardware, they need to make some tweaks to the code. Since Google doesn't accept source contributions, as soon as a new version of Android comes out, the hardware manufacturers have to repeat the entire process for the new version, plus make any additional adjustments needed for compatibility with Google's new code.
This puts a lot of unnecessary pressure on hardware manufacturers within a skill-set they don't necessarily want to maintain or excel at (operating system development).
If Google accepted upstream contributions to the source code, then conceivably, when a new version of Android was released, a manufacturer's prior contributions (fixes, etc.) would already be in the code. At least then, the manufacturers wouldn't need to figure out how to re-apply changes they've already made to a prior version of Android.
If anyone has more information on this, and how Google is collaborating (or not collaborating) with the open source community, I'd be very curious to know.
What does a new version of Android do that an older version couldn't? It's not like you're missing a whole lot with an older version of Android, especially considering that most apps out there aren't version specific. How often does Apple screw consumers with upgrades? Old apps cease working in newer versions of their OS's and very quickly new apps come along that wont run in older versions of the same OS. And from what I've seen people have generally encountered decreased performance by upgrading iOS.
That said, I do agree that there are problems. Because Google is unwilling or unable to standardize the OS we're left to the whim of the hardware maker and, even worse, the carrier. Of course, the option to root the phone exists, but I think that's an unreasonable expectation for the average person. The iPhone is desirable enough that the carriers accepts sticking with a generation for a year or longer. With Android, however, the carriers and presumably hardware makers as well, seem fixated on offering new devices in quick succession. That pretty much ensures no legacy support because all they want to consumer to upgrade to a new phone.
Still, unless you've got a fixation on having the latest and greatest, Android, even an older version of the system, easily offers a better experience than iOS.
It would be pushed by their carrier. Mine was upgraded by the carrier OTA from 1.6 to 2.1 just before 2.2 came out, and then forever abandoned.
Never had an iphone, never wanted one, but, that being said, they have the OS update thingy correct! Control the OS update at the vendor level, NOT the carrier level. It just isn't in the "best" interest of the carriers to put the latest & greatest OS on the phones. Makes it much easier to talk sheep into extending their contract by saying the old phone doesn't have the new stuff, but this shiny new phone does. I wish google would take the apple approach to the OS updates and control it from THEIR end, not allowing the carriers to bloat it & cripple it, THEN, if you are lucky, release it.
By most he is confining himself to the set of "people who give a shit what the difference between Android 2.2 and 2.3 is". Apple's fanfare (and iTunes lock-in) basically requires that the user be intimately aware of what version they are running. If they are behind, they will feel emptiness inside (and they wont have access to app updates and new iTunes downloads). Android, on the other hand, just "works".
get yourselves opensource friendly phones like openmoko (there is the nice new gta04 on the way), or nokia n900 or n9. then you can install what ever distro you want on them.
Apple can declare whatever version they choose to be "current". If all versions of their phone run the same OS, then they'll always be running the current version, even if they have a much more advanced development version. What is "current"
Also, "major version" is pretty arbitrary. Google could have considered Honeycomb and Ice Cream Sandwich to be incremental upgrades to Gingerbread. A better comparison would be the age of the current release rather than count of major version.
A big issue is Android phone manufacturers pump out all different "levels" of phones to reach as many people as possible. Apple makes one phone (two or three if you wanna get picky) and reaches as many people as possible with that.
In other words with Android you have: HTC, Motorola, Samsung each producing 5+ models per year resulting in 15+ different Android phones for a current year. When my HTC EVO 4G was brand new, it was $200 but I could have purchased the HTC Hero for less. However, I knew that in a year or so, that Hero would be so old and out-dated that it wouldn't be worth my time and money. I forked over the extra cash knowing I was buying a phone that would live much longer.
With Apple you have one. They release roughly one phone per year. If you wan an "Apple phone" you buy the most recent or maybe a version behind, but really, who's buying the iPhone 4 right now when you can get the 4s?
The problem people get into is they buy Android phones that are already on their way out. The EVO is still available from Sprint, but there is no way I would buy that now. It's substantially cheaper than any other Android phone Sprint offers (maybe with the exception of a few free with contract options) but why would I buy a phone that's going on two years old?
Android manufacturers need to step up their game and stop pumping out as many different phones as they can. Focus that "creative" energy into developing a couple powerful and sharp phones per year. I've had no issues with my HTC phone, but with how fragmented the HTC line-up is currently, I don't think I even know what the "best" available phone they offer is... I'll likely be going to the Galaxy Nexus assuming it comes to Sprint.
Isaac
Or one of the many other ROMs you can get for Android phones when your carrier no longer updates.
Wonderful.
BTW how long do you think handset makers and carriers should be forced to update phone software for?
Why is it so hard to only have politicians for a few years, then have them go away?
And what has to do the fact that no phone has ever been released to publish the source? Nobody has released the next version of Linux, but I can access the source code already. Same for webkit, Mozilla, KDE, and what not. That's the way it is in open source project.
Doing things you don't like, doesn't mean it's evil.
They released Android under an apache license.
As of version 3.0 they have said they are releasing under a closed license, at least that's whet the Wikipedia page says.
Yes, the Apache model allows that, but the point is, it's no longer open source. So as of now they have left the party. Promises aren't worth spit. The fact of the matter is that at this point in time Google is not developing an open source phone operating system.
I bought a nexus one because they said they were. And now I'm pissed, yes.
You can go to Samsung and update to 2.3.3 (Samsung Android Update), but its really hard to find what version the carriers have over the air for those not willing or able or aware of this procedure.
And it shipped with 2.1 when 2.2 was already out. So although excluding the Samsung Galaxy line is annoying (it might be more recent than the 15 month cutoff in the analysis), the Samsung Galaxy line seems to suffer the same problems of other Android phones.
And this is, in fact, why I didn't buy an Android phone: you have to assume they are software EOL'ed the moment you walk home with the phone (if not before!)
Test your net with Netalyzr
People look at the upfront cost, not the data-plan cost (which dwarfs the cost of the phone over 2 years) when buying smartphones.
Thus people see the $100 or even "free" Android phones and buy them. How many Android phones are still >$200 9 months after release?
This is why Apple has kept the 3GS in production, so they have a "free" phone to sell for AT&T.
Test your net with Netalyzr
i thought on manufacturers did this, not google. this is why its great that you can root. I have a G1/dream. apparantly it can't run >1.6 I have 2.2
Hat a good 2 years run, that is more or less the standard for updates nowadays. Apple also supports its iDevices mostly only two years.
I was aware of this when I bought the N1 1 1/2 years ago and I am fine with it.
Lets see what the modders can do, but for now I am perfectly happy with it running on Cyanogen Mod 7 and if that one is the last Android version the device will get, then I am perfectly happy with it.
(Btw. the Nexus s is currently dirt cheap for people who want to upgrade)
(1) The "study" ignores many Android devices, and seems to suspiciously ignore the ones that are best-updated.
(2) The "study" only considers carrier OTA updates. Many of these phones can be updated beyond that with alternat AOSP roms (e.g. Cyanogen) by rooting (which is also trivial).
(3) The "study" implicitly assumes that a Major Release is a common measurement of increased functionality for the user between iOS and Android. In fact the two move on features at very different rates relative to "major releases"
(4) The "study" assumes anyone even cares about which Major Release is on a consumer non-techie's phone. Many people just don't give a damn, and iOS or Android from 3 years ago works fine for them.
$4.88 phone from Dollar General - lasts two months on a charge, $49 a year service - what's not to love? Smart phones are for ID10Ts
But that would be a non-traditional usage of the word "most".
Non-traditional meaning wrong.
As in, "Most people earn more than $350,000 per year". Right?
I have a Samsung Galaxy. It has the same OS version I bought it with a long time ago. Why? There is no way for me to update it.
I use Wifi and I hate phones. I have no phone contract, so I have nobody to go to for updates.
This is the most reasonable explanation for the outdated software.
Apple provides updates, regardless of my lack of a contract. That is easy. My iPod is up-to-date.
I have a Nexus One, the orphaned device. I bought it because it was an open phone with an open OS, released under the Apache license. As of 3.0 the OS is proprietary. I guess I won't be updating it any more since the only dev team is under NDA working on closed source.
Google has explained why they didn't release Honeycomb
This one. Just because they justified it, doesn't make it not evil.
Ignorant fandroid is ignorant.
Like speed and stability and security improvements. Isn't that why there are Linux updates coming out all the time?
Slashdot "libertarians": Small government for me, big government for those I disagree with. -1, I disagree with you
EG, on Verizon, the Fascinate didn't receive 2.2 until April 2011, or 5 months after the general release for the Galaxy line, while their Continuum variant, which is still being sold as new, has never been updated and remains on 2.1 .
You can try to manually update through Samsung's updater program to 2.3.3, but really, even for the Galaxy line, as deployed by US carriers, the thesis holds: Android phones are practically EOL'ed the moment you walk out the door with it.
Test your net with Netalyzr
A lot of the phones listed as abandoned now comprise an ever-shrinking part of the Android market. Many of them are first-gen devices on-par with the G1, the first Android phone. Most 2nd and 3rd gen Android phones have been getting updates to FroYo and Gingerbread from the manufacturers because they learned a lot from those 1st gen devices. For reference, consider Google's numbers on which OS each active phone is running: http://developer.android.com/resources/dashboard/platform-versions.html
The reality is that a developer can likely create an app for FroYo and up that will still be mass market. People running Eclair, Donut, or Cupcake are in an every-shrinking segment of the Android ecosystem. And honestly? Those of us who bought those 1st gen devices kind of knew what we were getting into or probably should have known better. I have a Moment and recognize that I'm bleeding a bit for being an early adopter. (That said, the updates from SDX for FroYo have been awesome. They're also working on Gingerbread.)
Current Android phones are better able to handle updates than their predecessors, so they get better updates. This article is kind of a non-news item.
There is a difference between "insightful" and "inciteful" other than spelling.
Typical consumers don't know or care what OS they are running, muchless what it means. If they can make phone calls, get email and check a website or two, they are happy.
Never say never. Ah!! I did it again!
Just a week ago Google said that any phone that runs Android 2.3 can also run Android 4.0. I assume that is true.
Now we hear that a phone that does run Android 2.3.6 cannot be updated to Android 4.0, because it is too old.
Either the first statement is wrong, or the second is dishonest. In any case Google is losing a lot of support over this issue, and they still have no plan to address it.
So the list only needs to go back to phones introduced within that period to do a study of Android.
For comparison it includes iPhones going back even further than that. But if you want to include the original iPhone, let's build the chart line for it.
It was on the current phone version of the OS for almost exactly three years (released June 2007, incompatible iOS 4 released June 2010), which would make it green through the chart just like the rest of the iPhones. The last update for it was Februrary 2010 with 3.1.3, so the squiggly line goes a touch over halfway through year 3. IIRC, Apple stopped sales of the original iPhone when the 3G was released, so the square only goes up to the first year.
Still looks very good compared to any Android phone on the list.
Now let's reconstruct the Galaxy S, which was launched in the US right around the author's cutoff date for his survey. The problem here is different US carriers had releases and updates at different times, but I'll go with the most favorable.
Launch June 2010 with Android 2.1. Android 2.2 was also released at this time, which made the Galaxy behind from the beginning. The first evidence of US Galaxy customers getting 2.2 was in January 2011. Android 2.3 showed up on US phones in December 2010 with the Nexus S. The first US release of 2.3 for the Galaxy is this month. Android 4.0 was released this month.
So, the Galaxy S gets released yellow, then:
I don't think its inclusion would have helped Android's case. The Galaxy S2 was released far too late for the survey.
This looks MUCH worse if you go with the Verizon Continuum. It was released in November 2010 with 2.1, so it started yellow, then went orange the next month. That lasted until April 2011 with the 2.2 update, when it went yellow. Then this month it turned orange again. The squiggly went through April 2011, only six months of support, and it's still being sold. It's not likely to get Gingerbread.
He kinda cherry picked what phones he used to make the point he wanted to make.
When I switched off my original Motorola Droid a few months ago it was up to date and had gone through two major upgrades in the time I had it..
With Android being so diverse and wide a market I say picking your MFG is the important part. And what I see in that list.. HTC is the brand to avoid. But I already knew that. Motorola or Samsung for me please.
Internet explorder 9 who really gives a sh!7 about the big blue E anyway
Web developers who want to make sure that their web site or web application runs on 30 percent of desktops.
Apple is clear and upfront with all customers about the walled garden. Just like Disney is pretty clear when you buy a ticket to Disneyworld that you are going to be restricted in what you can do within their walls. People who go to Disneyworld want to have a child-friendly environment and therefore don't mind that there aren't liquor stores and strip clubs within; you can always go somewhere else if you want those things.
Similarly, if you want a malware-infested fragmented cesspool in then you can buy a different phone.
But that would be a non-traditional usage of the word "most".
Yes, non-traditional as in: When reading the GP, replace the word "most" with "a tiny percentage of".
#DeleteChrome
I currently own an Iphone 2G unlocked for Tmobile. The latest OS available for the device was 3.1.3 and it was definitely slower that the 2.x releases that were released midway through the original Iphone's lifespan. I've used the Iphone from the original 1.x releases up through 3.x and as each new major revision came out the phone became less snappy and useable and more bogged down with unnecessary features. I didn't really *notice* the new features as I've stopped using my phone for anything but making phone calls and text messaging (not picture messaging because that's not supported out of the box and I'm too cheap to buy an addon program). Opening up the text msg window can take 3-4 seconds on average.
Now, that being said I've also installed a custom IOS rom called Whited00r. I'm not sure if there are other custom roms worthy of attention but this Rom breathed new life into the phone by bringing in features from later IOS versions and making them compatible while also trying to optimize the software to run faster.
http://www.whited00r.com/ There is an IOS 5 beta (really 3.1.3 or 3.1.2 with major hacks/changes) for the Iphone 2G and they also support the Iphone 3G, Ipod Touch, etc..
Anyways, I finally made the plunge and I'm getting the HTC Amaze 4G. It's running the latest major revision but not the latest minor revisions. If I wanted something without custom interfaces (Sense 3.0) I could just switch to Cyanogen mod or something similar which last I checked they have at least one rom running the latest revision and if not 100% working then it's 99.9%.. and the phone was released Oct 12th.
On side note: I've had the Google G1 (didn't like the way it felt in my hands) and the HTC Evo 4G (really liked the Sense interface).
All phones will be replaced with the next shiny device whether it's Iphone, Android or what have you and will stop being updated or if updated might not be worth it. Apple has the advantage of only needing to support a small number of devices with absolutely no custom interface difference between carriers/vendors since they're the only vendor - 5 phones, 2 tablets, and 3 or 4 ipod touch devices?. Android is open to all and as such there are hundreds of phones and other devices and no standardization on hardware and the software can be heavily modified which some vendors feel they need to do differentiate themselves - most just meet the minimum specs for that major OS revision. Not every hardware vendor is going to care about the user experience like Apple does sadly but at least updates are still rolling out if not exactly when the major revision hits but usually within a few months for still supported devices.
These two major operating systems take two different approaches and both have their pluses and minuses. It pays to do your research and go into a phone purchase with your eyes open.
Oh! Ye olde "Open Source" vs. "Open Dev" model argument. Wonderful fall-back position. Totally Clueless, but it might just fool a few equally ignorant iUsers. Bravo!
...some x86 PCs are locked down..
Really? (Genuinely curious if you have a link for that...)
For example, see "Xbox" on Wikipedia.
Newer phones that will supposedly support ICS have embedded MMC (eMMC) which comes in much larger capacities
I haven't heard of eMMC until now, but let me guess: eMMC isn't too different from a microSD card soldered onto the motherboard. Would that be remotely accurate?
Strange how that all gets muddied up when Android is being touted as "open".
I suppose it should come with a disclaimer or something.
Because the carriers see you as a bag full of nickels with feet. Their object ive is to tie your feet together
What will tying up my feet accomplish?
and empty you out (if necessary, one nickel at a time).
I'd be willing to give the carriers my money one nickel at a time if they were to charge me, say, a nickel per MB for 3G or even EDGE data the way they charge per minute on prepaid cell phones. Then they'd get their nickels even with a phone as open as goat man. But last night in Walmart, I've seen crap like $15 for one day of access. Until smartphone plans are compelling enough to get me to switch from my current $5/mo dumbphone plan on Virgin Mobile USA, carriers won't get my nickels.
a private media company
Among the major commercial TV news channels, only CBS is privately held by the Redstones. ABC, NBC, Fox, and CNN are all publicly traded on NYSE or NASDAQ.
should be allowed to promote or ignore whatever candidates they want without government interference.
Exclusive rights in radio spectrum are government interference.
Consider it this way...suppose you built a blog on your own web site.
After five blogs are available to a city, would the federal government step in and say "nope, spectrum is too crowded, no new blogs"? If not, bad analogy.
Bu leaving out the Verizon iPhone 4, the chart makes Apple look much better than it is. Verizon never really upgraded its iPhone until IOS 5 came out. It provided security patches only.
That particularly bugged me since there were a couple of features I had really wanted.
Apparently, they didn't bother with the feature upgrades until the code that forked for CDMA got merged in 5.
Let's start with the length of the cell phone contract and work from there. If they're going to sell 2-year contracts, you should reasonably expect that the phone you buy will receive updates during that time.
Here's my definitive answer:
Locked bootloader? No contract.
Unlocked bootloader? Contract acceptable.
Locked bootloader with $CONTRACT_DURATION guarantee of security updates with a 90 day window before the carrier is forced to release the contract? Contract acceptable.
Honestly, and I rarely say something like this due to lobbyists ability to fuck up good intentions, this kind of stuff should probably be legislated.
Boot Windows, Linux, and ESX over the network for free.
This chart is only useful if you define what a major version of android is. It seems that everyone is taking 2.1, 2.2, and 2.3 to be three different major versions of Android. That doesn't mesh with my concept of version numbering. It seems to me there would be 4 major versions. 1.x, 2.x, 3.x, and 4.x. If this chart even attempted to use 3.x as a major version for phones, it is horribly biased as that version was never, and probably will never be, used on phones.
If you're concerned that a phone is not being supported to go from 2.1 -> 2.3, what exactly are you worried about, enhanced copy/paste functionality? Support for the barometer sensors that your phone doesn't have?
I used to own an iPhone 3g. When iOS 4 came out and I updated, the phone slowed to a CRAWL. This was apparently a common thing, as the iOS 4 was more geared towards the hardware in the iPhone 4 or possibly the 3GS. So, it now took noticeably longer to open ANY app, even the ones built into the phone, answering calls was laggy, it was not good. With no way to "legitimately" downgrade to a previous version, I ended up feeling like I HAD to jailbreak, just to retain the performance of the previous version! So, the chart suggesting that the 3g is still being "supported" with new updates is entirely misleading. New updates are that are designed for better hardware are being FORCED on it. I like Windows 7, but I wouldn't want to be all but forced to put it on a 10 year old computer that still runs XP just fine, that would be counter productive. (For those who try to say you aren't "Forced." If your iPhone ever crashes and you have to do a restore, it'll demand you go to the latest iOS. It happened to me.)
Like speed ... improvements
Oh, is that why iPhone 3G runs so fast on iOS4?
Technically the original iPhone got 3 years not 2.5. The clock doesn't stop when 3.1.3 was released. It stops when 4.0 was released, the first incompatible update. So the chart does seem accurate, at least for this device. I didn't look up any others.
For a regular consumer a question is what will support be like if he buys an Android phone? What is this like vs. buying a phone with the competition's operating system, iOS?
These are rational questions for a regular customer, and they are answered quite well. It even helps answer a third question: If I buy an Android phone, which brands have the best history of support?
... that is messed up. It's the Mobile Business.
Every single mobile manufacturer are doing now (with or without Android) what they always had done in the past.
The bad ones abandon the device the sooner they can, the good ones offers support for sometime, and the pristine ones back their users until the end of times.
Lisias@Earth.SolarSystem.OrionArm.MilkyWay.Local.Virgo.Universe.org
FTFA:
7 of the 18 Android phones never ran a current version of the OS.
12 of 18 only ran a current version of the OS for a matter of weeks or less.
In case you didn't spot it yet: yes, he's talking about 19 out of 18 android phones here.
He may be right. Or maybe he's just bullshitting us all. I don't know where his data came from, and I'll remain sceptical.
Thus I am missing, according to Wikipedia, these things:
My phone's pretty slow, so all of the speed and memory optimizations, and JIT, would be extremely useful to me. It also has little onboard memory, constantly running out despite relatively few apps on it, so installing apps to the SD card would be very useful.
Basically, all of this seriously extends the useful life of the phone, which the carrier and manufacturer obviously don't want. They want me to buy a new one.
If you want a great example of poor customer support within the android community take my HTC Desire, within 8 months of purchasing said handset brand new HTC decided to cease releasing any updates. Meanwhile my co-worker has a Nokia N series handset that is three years old that is still getting updates.
The device (phone/tablet) vendor may not actually have the source. I've personally had to deal with sub-device vendors that only provide the driver in binary form. The only thing I can think of is that they're terrified someone will steal the code and make a cheap clone of their hardware.
Alternately, the drivers may be licensed from a third party and the device vendor may not have the legal right to redistribute the source.
...I had the EU version of the Droid, the Motorola Milestone, over here in the UK. The most poorly supported phone I've ever had, and when they finally got around to releasing Android 2.2 for it, a full SEVEN MONTHS after the phone's identical American version, the Droid, got it, it made my phone so slow and unresponsive that I stopped using it... (and yes, this was even after a factory reset and formatting my SD card...)
In addition, 2.3 had been out for a number of months before this point too. The chart quite clearly shows that Motorola are consistently releasing these products but without the support required to keep their customer base happy into the second half of their phone contracts......
Releasing too many phones with too little difference among them was a mortal mistake Nokia made for many years. About two years ago, when I was thinking of buying a new phone, I looked at the available Nokia offerings. There were maybe more than 20 different Nokia phones at the time. 20! And from a distance most of them looked just the same. Their four digit model numbers made things more confusing. Once I decided NOT to buy a Nokia phone, life was much simpler. There is a big lesson Android vendors need to learn here. With Apple's iPhone lineup, it is very easy for a customer to decide which iPhone to buy. With Samsung, HTC, Motorola or Sony, it is a much more complicated and potentially frustrating shopping experience.
Because there is a big world beyond US borders, and some countries like Canada have 3 year contracts.
As of yet, not one single iPhone has been sold that has not been supported for the entire 2-year contract.
Not true. The iPhone 3G was being sold internationally until superceded by the 3GS in June-August 2009. The last 3G update was November 2010. That's 15 to 17 months of updates for people who bought in the month before the 3GS was released. If they bought on a 24 month contract they were out of luck.
iPhone 3GS: "It was released in the U.S., Canada and six European countries on June 19, 2009,[3] in Australia and Japan on June 26, and internationally in July and August 2009."
iPhone 3G: "The last release of iOS to support the 3G was 4.2.1, which was released on November 22, 2010."
Most of those updates aren't for Linux (which is just the kernel), they're for things running on top of Linux. In Android, and I presume iOS, you can have your apps update themselves automatically, or choose to confirm updates. Most security holes will be in the applications themselves. If you're installing malicious software manually, there isn't even a need for an application to utilise a kernel exploit to do what it wants on your phone.
which is totally what she said
So buy a Nexus S or Nexus Prime. Both of those do not have small application/OS storage areas. You'll see these being officially updated for quite some time.
I bought my Nexus One with the full knowledge that it had limited application space and probably wind up on the chopping block sooner rather than later. Did I care? No. I cared about freedom of software choice (both for applications and in OS / unlockable bootloader choice), and updates were just a fringe benefit.
Almost all developers target the largest percentage of the population, which means any phone with 2.1 or 2.2 can practically run everything. Google even provides in some cases a "compatibility layer" for developers, minimizing or eliminating any need to work to ensure their applications work on earlier versions.
Besides, at the rate the hardware is going, the Nexus One is already showing it's age speed-wise despite being one of the forerunners of 1GHz.
I tried to develop for Android. The platform is fragmented as fuck. Not surprised by this.
Objective C is fucking dumb, too. Only thing worth developing for is WP7, and that has no market share.
Fuck cell phones.
See, you people all blame Google, when it's far from Google's fault at all. Not to mention Apple has total, complete control over the OS, the phone, and updates. Google does not have that, and I don't really think the providers would allow that to change. It let's them customize their phones for their network. Up until recently, AT&T was the only one with the iPhone.
Google has no way to push updates on it's own, and even if it did, the providers would likely block that. If they did come up with a way, you can bet your breakfast, lunch, dinner, and car that Apple would go berserker over it. Lawsuits everywhere. I mean, they're already doing that anyway. It's the Providers who are at fault, here, not Google. Plus, you do have to realize that like a computer OS, they keep getting more powerful, then computers need more power to run them. The same goes for phones. The newer the OS, the stronger the phone must be, no exceptions.
An older computer cannot run Windows 7, or 8(requires at least 1GB of memory), likewise, older phones cannot run stuff like Gingerbread, Honeycomb, ICS. The only way is to build a special version of that OS for that phone. Apple, as they have only about 7 phones, only 4 of which are currently supported, can do that. The teams for CyanogenMod do exactly what they do, make that special version. Apple has the resources, time to do that. Not to mention they handle the phones themselves. Google doesn't. HTC, Samsung, Nokia, LG...they all handle their phones themselves.
Don't blame Google for this. You cannot expect a company to manage that many different phones that need that many different ROMs for those phones. Gotta be at least 151 different Android phones out there, not even APPLE could handle that. 4 is something not bad. Pokemon-levels is not.
Exclusive rights in radio spectrum are government interference.
CNN, for example, is a cable/satellite *only* channel. Does the principle still apply?
For one thing, It applied back when CNN's parent company also owned the WB network, and it still applies with CNN's parent company in an equal partnership with CBS to run the CW network. For one thing, exclusive rights in radio spectrum in satellite bands are government interference.
I'll find them cheap on ebay soon! I can upgrade my G1 to a N1!
A more fair comparison would be the history of iOS vs Cyanogenmod. That chart is an indictment on the networks who are selling the contracts and neglecting customers, not a reflection on the OS.
I had an iPhone 3G, and to be honest I'd have been happier if they'd have NOT kept updating the damn thing. When I was half-way through my contract they did a major version update, and the phone bogged down to the point that I sometimes couldn't answer calls! Remember, the 3G didn't multi-task, so the problem wasn't that I had junk running in the background - the phone itself was just slow enough that sometimes the UI couldn't keep up.
So you know, I'd have really been happier if I'd been left behind on that one instead of having to manually figure out how to fall back to the older version myself just to be able to answer my phone.
I got a Samsung Vibrant, used off craigslist, about 6 months after it was released. Until then I'd had dumb-phones or old blackberrys/palms, and a brief stint with an original iPhone, so a shiny Android phone with a super amoled screen was amazing! The software was fun, but I could instantly tell that there were a lot of rough edges. Mostly a matter of inconsistency in UI design, like long-press drag icons to move them around, but dragging them to the trash icon on the bottom does not uninstall the app - it just removes it from the home page. Which means nothing if the icon was never on the homepage. Little things like that.
But a bigger issue was the performance of the device. Running stock 2.1 it was slow, laggy, ate through battery life like I wouldn't believe. This is after factory reset. It was a pretty badly flawed phone. I finally rooted & installed 2.2 (teamwhiskey nero, I think), and it was a world of difference. Not only does 2.2 have a lot of subtle UI refinements that really help, but performance was much better, no more lag, and the battery life more than doubled. Seems hard to believe, but I tested a lot before & after and it was fairly consistent.
Now my phone is still on 2.2. It's unlikely to ever get 2.3 officially, and I'll be lucky if there is a strong stable 2.3 aftermarket for it. ICS? Seems very unlikely.
This is sad. I love the flexibility of Android as a platform. I love that I can get apps to lower my volume, dim my screen, automatically turn the ringer on/off on a schedule, and so on. I can even install aftermarket tweaked versions. It's similar to what I love about PCs. But I can really appreciate the closed-off tightly controlled garden that is iOS, because it produces results. I never want an iOS phone, but I truly wish Google stood behind it's product the way Apple stands behind iOS devices.
And I suppose that's the problem. Android is a platform that others take & use. It's up to Samsung to update Android to work on the Galaxy S phones. And then it's up to TMobile to update/test/release Android to work on my Vibrant. And both of them spend time where it makes sense - and not on old phones that don't "need" the latest Android version. The iPhone only has Apple.
Before owning an Android device, I assumed that open source would mean that updates would be easier to come by than closed source, since there would be less barriers to getting updated software. But due to Google's hands-off nature, and the fragmentation issues, it's much harder. It's sad to think that unless I buy the top of the line phone (Nexus S?) every 2-3 years or so, I'm unlikely to stay current with Android. And that's an understatement - it seems like most for-sale Android phones are not up to date at any given time. It's ridiculous/incredible to think that many high-spec'd phones are outdated before they're even released.
Imagine in 2 years Apple announces the iPhone 5 with some incredible new features (HUD projection display on car screen, wireless 24/7 wearable earbuds, coffeemaker). They release 16GB, 32GB, and 512GB versions. Then they announce that the 16GB will not be released with the latest iOS version, but will definitely be updated in the near future. Then they delay updating. Then they cancel the updates, and it never happens. Meanwhile the 32GB version is released with a current version but includes crazy UI-modifications from verizon (replacing iTunes with "Verizon Media Hub and Entertainment Bucket", etc), then is never updated. The 512GB version is updated, but only 6-12months late, and at the same time Apple is getting ready to release the next device.
First Slashdot response in maybe five years here. Wow, that chart is misleading. My girlfriend bought a 3G from an Apple store. Support died in her SECOND year. It's not "years since initial release" that counts; it's "years since last unit sold retail", which is *enormously* more telling. Apple sucks at this, while all of the Android devices I know have gotten 2+ years support from last retail date.
Windows gets blamed for keeping so much antiquated code, to be able to run across such a wide range of platforms.
CPU manufacturers get shit for keeping their chips backward compatible.
Apple gets major shit for tying everything together into one microverse.
And now we are upset that we can't have both.
Please tell me how the fuck we can:
1) Keep the CPU die small
while
2) Keeping backward compatibility
while
3) Allowing forward compatibility
while
4) Providing an OS framework that will work on devices made years ago
Please... I'm fairly certain there's a business model in there. Then I can take it, get rich and become /s
one of the uncaring fucks that make up the 1%.
-AI
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion
Most vendors love and [ab]use techniques of artificial obsolescence which, shockingly, includes most vendors of hardware with Android who shamelessly stuff it up with incompatible, bloated and/or locked versions ?
Who would have thought of such a thing ?!
Actually, no corporation wants users of its products to use them at their full potential or to uncover more of such in them as if those users owned the products (which they do, but to have some rights over them those rights have to be upheld. which they, universally, don't). Especially, not after designated product life-time is up which doesn't come from product qualities so much as from business planning.
And all those excuses about "ARM boards being oh-so much different and software quirks for them being oh-so much incompatible" are bullshit. On "Oh-So Big Problem" pedestal this kind of picture looks laughable. If those companies really would want to overcome this they have would done it in a blink of an eye.
How many international organizations and foundations are out there where all or most of those ARM-board vendors have membership in ? And they are not capable of coming up with basic hardware enumeration standard and universal portable BIOS concept if they'd wanted to ? Bullshit.
Whole concept of Artificial Obsolescence is ugly, unethical crap. This is not okay. Too bad that, apparently, writers of the article don't have much problem with it. Instead they are not happy about support being dropped even before the end of presumable commercial life-time of these devices.
who dares wins