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Is Kitkat Killing Lollipop Uptake?
BarbaraHudson writes Remember how Windows XP was "good enough" that people took forever to upgrade? The same might be happening with Kitkat vs Lollipop. "According to Google's latest Google Play Store results for early January 2015, less than 0.1 percent of all Android devices were using Lollipop. By comparison, the last major Android release 4.4, KitKat, reached 1.1 percent of its audience in its first month out. In January 2015, almost two months in for Lollipop, KitKat is still number one with 39.1 percent of the market. It's followed by the various Jelly Bean versions, 4.1.x with 19.2 percent; 4.2.x with 20.3 percent, and 4.3 with 6.5 percent. Trailing them is Ice Cream Sandwich, 4.03-04 with 7.8 percent, followed by antique Froyo, 2.2, with 0.4 percent."
recently I saw a microsoft ad that featured a device that always has the most recent OS. Seems google gets some competition. lets hope it aint gonna be MS.
Legally forbid derivitive/distributed android operating systems from preventing the user from upgrading.
Block all but the latest major version, and last N minor revisions from Google Play.
Reap the rewards, and move on.
What would using Lollipop do for me that whatever version of Android I'm currently using not? Is there a major benefit?
They haven't pushed the OTA upgrade to my Nexus 5 yet.
Usually jump all over new ROM's, new OS updates, all part of the fun. Though... I'm still not sure about this new Material look to everything. Running on a AMOLED, and rarely go outside, I prefer the black background, holo look. So... the 'xp feel' is spot on, I'm in a good place, everything works, and it looks good.
Waiting for an amusing sig.
Or maybe the phone manufacturers are being dog slow at rolling out Lollipop upgrades for their recent phones. We don't all have a Nexus.
------- Mark
My phone (Galaxy S3) doesn't support Lollipop (and it's looking like Cyanogenmod isn't going to support it either).
To be honest, my phone works "good enough" for me. I'll upgrade when it gives up the ghost.
I haven't upgraded my laptop in 8 or so years, because it works "good enough". Same goes for my DVR, even though it doesn't support HD. The only reason I got a new TV was because my old one died (that said, being able to watch YouTube and BBC iPlayer directly through the TV is brilliant).
Summation 2
My own impressions of 5.0 haven't been too good. The lockscreen doesn't give you the unlock input (eg: PIN) without pushing a button to ask for it, the animations have been stepped up -- the kinds of animations you can't turn off from the Dev menu -- and it generally looks copmletely childish. That's not what I personally want.
If you're running 4.4 check out all the new Google apps from the store. That's what you're getting from Lollipop, but also with the launcher, etc. No. No no no. I uninstalled the gmail update as fast as I could.
This is the trend in tech - things become more colourful, flat and generally dumbed down. I don't mean dumbed down from a user knowledge point of view, I mean "UI designed in MS Paint" down.
Remember how Windows XP was "good enough" that people took forever to upgrade?
No, but I do remember that Vista was found to be so wanting that many people went back to XP, and those that had waited heard the horror stories and stayed put.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
Kitkat is killing Lollipop uptake the same way cars are killing rocket-car uptake.
There is no Lollipop upgrade available for any of my devices yet.
Apart from Apple fanboys, I don't think anybody is stupid enough to buy a new device just to get a software upgrade.
Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
Not only do more people hesitate with updates these days. But many don't find the added features worthy of risking glitches, broken apps, or having it slow older hardware. Not only that but with Android many devices are left at the mercy of the cellular carrier to push out Android updates to devices. I think many times, updates are delayed, or simply not allowed to force people to buy new hardware. I don't think anyone can fault Microsoft on extended support it maintains for its Windows on PC's. But I remember having a Windows phone that would never get Windows 8 and only finally received a partial reprieve with 7.8. Apple is probably the worst offender for supporting operating systems as IOS upgrades basically forbid the user from downgrading and OS X users end up with a methodical and tedious means of going back to a older OS X version. Unless they maintain a pre upgrade Time Machine back up of previous OS version. I personally upgraded my Macbook Air from Maverick to Yosemite and mistakenly did so without checking if all the apps I use support it. My Verizon Manager for my data card did not and lost any function of it with Yosemite. It was a bit of a hassle to get back to Maverick. I do not like OS upgrades pushed out and forced on users, because a Apple, Google, or Microsoft feel they want to get more users on a new OS. Sometimes new is not better for some users, and sometimes I think its better to experience a new OS on new hardware.
In my experience, OS upgrades are never very good running on older hardware.
No. XP was only "good enough" compared to some of its successors. That was the point.
If you WANT me to upgrade, you have to give me a reason to upgrade. I'm not going to do it for your convenience, or to give you free money, there has to be a tangible benefit to myself.
As such, updating to Lollipop is really a couple of new bells and whistles which most people really couldn't care less about. KitKat is "good enough", as are some previous versions still. But without an incentive to upgrade, why take the risk and suffer the bother to do so, if it's even possible?
Last time I upgraded my Samsung S4, it destroyed my satnav app and stopped me doing a couple of things I'd always done before, lumped more crap in that I could no longer properly hide or uninstall, gave me the inability to stop Location going to Google services without suffering constant badgering, and that's about it.
In terms of what it gave me, it was a couple of rearrangements of the top bar.
Give me a reason to upgrade and I'll consider it.
Well maybe people would upgrade if every new version wasn't slower than the previous version and Chrome wouldn't get buggier and buggier.
Google for goods sake fix all the bugs before pushing out new versions with even more bugs. Do some QA testing for heavens sake, I mean you have the resources. Don't be evil.
Given http://mobile.slashdot.org/story/14/06/11/1747251/new-permission-system-could-make-android-much-less-secure wouldn't the answer be that poeple do not want to upgrade?
Even when they make the upgrade available for my device (planned in march I heard) I won't upgrade untill the XPosed framework is properly functioning on Android 5. And I want to be sure it's rootable. XPosed (with XPrivacy) is too important for me, and indeed 4.4 is running goog enough. I don't care about the new look.
And it includes me. Android is getting bloated more and more with every release. Also, every release is more Google-focused and less user-focused.
.sig: No such file or directory
I don't think the comparison holds up well, because in the case of XP users had control of the upgrade while in the case of phones it's usually the handset maker and to a lesser extent the carrier in charge. Adoption of Lollipop is mainly a function of how many handset models ship with it installed and how quickly people are upgrading to newer models of phones. Most of the flagship models are shipping with some flavor of 4.2 or 4.4 on them, and enough people seem to have bought those models in the last year that it'll probably be summer at the earliest before we see the next cycle of upgrades start in earnest. The only way we'll see Lollipop uptake pick up faster than that is if Google manages to convince the handset makers to roll 5.0 out to phones like the Galaxy S4. It'd also help if carriers stopped insisting on different "models" where the difference is strictly in branding and the actual phone hardware is identical.
If upgrading Android would take something like apt-get full-upgrade from the device or at worst booting some ISO on my PC with the device connected, I'd do it. But devices are locked, I can't upgrade my phone above 4.1 and drivers that would allow me to install bootleg distros are unavailable in source code form. So yeah, I'm sticking with 4.1 as long as my phone works and its battery still keeps me online for 5-6 days.
They have switched over to Apple. They got tired of Android. and they're not waiting for Lollipop.
My experience is that a fresh install of Android 5.0 on a Nexus 7 (2012) made it unbearably slow compared to Android 4.4, and thus I had to go back to 4.4 which will probably stay on it for the remainder of the device's life.
It mentions that people were not upgrading because XP was good enough but with Lollipop the problem is that for so many (almost all) devices it's still not available.
I would upgrade right away if it would have been available for my phone.
I'll update my Nexus 5 to Lollipop once XPrivacy (http://repo.xposed.info/module/biz.bokhorst.xprivacy) becomes available. XPrivacy is waiting for Xposed to add ART support to the framework.
Alternatively, I would consider installing Cyanogenmod 12 M1 (http://www.cyanogenmod.org/blog/the-l-is-for-lollipop) which has some of the same capabilities of restricting application permissions as XPrivacy (although less fine-grained).
Very broken. The dialer isn't even reliable. (https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=81593)
Not to mention that the interface is more inconsistent than ever.
OEMs are wise to wait a bit and I now fully realize that as a Nexus owner, I'm a beta tester. I might reconsider my next purchase.
Using Nexus 7 (model 2013) I have upgraded about a month ago, but it turned out to wrong decision. Everything is slower now, I observe more frequent crashes and the Material Design is ridiculous and incomprehensible. I don't understand thinking of Material Design designers, but it seems that while graphics is simplified without respect to intuitive understanding (infamous "triangle, circle, square" comes to mind) , procedures often became more complicated. For example, to access settings, 2 swipes and 1 touch (pull the top menu, expand the top menu, select Settings) are necessary now - quite a regression.
When Sony release the OTA upgrade I will do that.
Until then, I'm on Kit Kat.
I'm beginning to think that Android has a real fragmentation problem. The recent things happening with Cyanogenmod alone make my head spin.
It would be best if Google focuses on offering a top-notch Android experience and - at the same time - alow for Geeks to fiddle with their devices, root them and such.
If Google implements a fixed release cylce and does end-user marketing whilst catering to the geek crows (opinion leaders) at the same time, then they can
leapfrog the vendors messing with their own versions of android and allow for more seamless updates. In fact, I think they should offer customisation services for every vendor who want's their own visuals in the launcher and specifically support vendors who stick as close as possible to the mint Android experience.
Whatever they do, they have to put some effort into curbing fragmentation, because that's the number 1 thing that bugs Androids attractiveness.
Likewise, if Apple sticks to they minimised choices and manageble line of systems and devices, they'll continue to have the edge in that department and maintain their market, no matter how powerful Google gets in the low- and midrange global markets.
My 2 cents.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
Whoever wrote this piece doesn't have a clue about how Android upgrades actually happen, or thinks everybody buys an unlocked Nexus phone straight from Google. Please go and investigate about how carriers need to certify each upgrade and how also Google has to re-certify them to make sure carriers don't put too much bloatware in them (or at least that's what we've been told). I have a carrier Moto G 2014 and I'm still waiting for the Lollipop rollout. In fact, most of the people lurking in the top Android related sites are in my exact situation, and complaining about it.
Regarding the slowness in Nexus devices after the upgrade, just disable the full device encryption and you'll have similar performance to KK.
No, vendors and carries dragging their feet as usual is what kills Lollipop. Like my good old HTC One S which stopped receiving updates after a year from release.
Lollipop is FUBAR and for suckers.
Kitkat and Lollipop are firmware construction kits. When I can download Android from Google without telling them exactly which device I will install it on, and it works on my device, and bugfixes are made available and don't require that I reinstall the whole thing and wipe my device, then I'll consider Android an operating system. Come on folks, everybody loves the shiny, but can we please not throw out everything from the last 30 years? When I look at the mobile "operating systems", I feel like I time traveled to the 80s.
I agree.
We are basically "slaves" of our hardware makers. If I could go back to 4.3 to have access to my SDcard back, I would. I am waiting for the Lollipop update just for that feature, as Kitkat didn't bring much useful stuff, for me.
And I don't even like most of the changes they made with Lollipop (Material design is aesthetically nice, but not much more usable, and it wastes a lot of space with useless "informations". The new buttons in the bottom bar are... stupid. I lack a better word).
I flashed my nexus 5 as soon as possible, have used the 5.0 and 5.0.1 factory images. Lollipop is, as we speak, just not as stable as Kitkat. No major brand wants the 'your-update-fucked-up-my-phone' articles, so they will be very conservative.
I can't believe I scanned this whole thread and didn't see a major important reason to install upgrades...security fixes. I admit I haven't used Android very much, but isn't there a XSS vulnerability in 4.4 that will *never* be fixed by Google? From the ouside, the long term support of Android versions with security fixes appears dismal. Too often, the flaws can't be fixed without "breaking API" and so the fixes Wai until the next version.
I'd update to Lolipop if they'd let me -- Nexus 2012 3G here. Still waiting on the update to be pushed.
Apps crash randomly, slow and apps don't resume from being minimized are the common issues I have on my nexus 4. I don't blame them for staying on kitkat at the moment.
People have to wait for their vendor or carrier to release an update, or use an alternative ROM like Cyanogenmod. In the case of the latter, Cyanogenmod only started releasing official nightlies for a limited range of devices 2 days ago. Prior to that, it has been a case of scouring forums to obtain unofficial releases of alternative ROMs.
Even after the upgrade has been released, people actually need a chance to perform the update. For some people, that may be several months down the road -- e.g. when they know that they'll have a chance to perform the update and get used to the changes. It isn't a matter of being good enough. It is a matter of giving people an opportunity to perform the upgrade.
Would love to be using Lollipop by my manufacturer has not released an image. How can I use something that is not available?
Its not like the OTA update is just waiting on everyone's phone. This entire article is based on the percentage of people with the newer phones. I have a Note 3 here, 2.3GHz 3GB RAM, Where's my Lollipop?
Sorry to be a pedant, but there is an important piece of context missing here. One of the reasons that people stayed with XP was that the alternative [in the consumer segment at least] was Windows Vista. Vista was an awful release, which certainly seemed to put more emphasis on, for example, appeasing the copyright lobby, than it did on providing useful enhancements to features that an OS should be providing.
I am not familiar with the differences between the two Android releases in question, but in the case of Windows, pretty much the *only* useful thing it offered domestic users was a widely-available 64-bit version [that had better driver support than XP-64-bit]. Ironically an OS should be all about good driver support, but in the case of Vista this benefit was far out-weighed by the downsides... Bottom line is that Vista little material benefit to the vast majority domestic users. It was far more useful at generating revenue for MS than bring benefits to the marketplace.
Now, if the same can be said of the new Android release, then this is a reasonable comparison.
talk to them, not everyone gets the option to upgrade their device on their own ( actually for all practical purposes, most people ). It also takes time for them to do this. Hell, some have not even gotten kitkat yet, or ever will..
This isn't like windows where you can go out, buy a box and it will 'just work' ( with normal disclaimers ).
Need too factor in the normal hardware upgrade cycle here too... ( and cell phone have a different TTL than tablets )
kitkat > lollipop
who the fuck would trade their kitkat for a lollipop?
Part of the problem is that Lollipop offers little new, but does destroy existing functionality. Google Calendar is much less usable than before. Personal and business email is now handled by the same application, making it much more difficult to keep private and business separate. Etc..
In return, we now have fancy animations when you touch the screen, gee, golly, wow. Oh, and existing, well-known icons have been redesigned; just as an example, to go to your home screen you no longer press the house icon, now you press a circle. I'm sure some designer is real proud of that, but they must have forgotten the user-testing.
Lollipop is Google's version of Windows Vista. I'm sure they'll fix it, but in the meantime I wish I could do a rollback to KitKat...
Enjoy life! This is not a dress rehearsal.
The difference is the large scale of change in the OS. Google have changed the default runtime to ART. Breaking a lot of manufacture skins and bloatware. Obviously this makes porting Lollipop a lot harder then the transition from 4.3 > 4.4. Hence why the slow release from manufacturers.
Why is early adoption of new software deemed a good thing by BarbaraHudson? Straight after google released the update there were reports of issues all over the net as yet again an update rollout stuffed a significant number of handsets. This often happens with new software platforms and the early adopters are the ones that pay the price. Anyone with half an eye on reliability will be sitting tight on the older 4.4 untill some other over eager people report back that all is well with the update on their handset model. Almost every update rollout has some degree of error, jumping in on day 1 is a fools game.
...the phone manufacturers who don't get software updates out to their cell phones....
not google.
Probably the best reason to use lollipop is that apps start faster, use less battery and the whole thing feels more responsive. This is due to the new ahead of time compiler. The UI experience is fairly take-it-or-leave-it though - it's slick but it's not hugely better than in 4.x and some stuff like the playstation style abstract buttons are frankly just stupid.
Nah. I'll just wait for the next release 5.0.2.35.32X.s25.22ish "PneumoniaPudding"
And that will solve all my problems.
Several of my friends and I have Nexus 5s. Lollipop basically made them unusable. I turned off animations, which helped, but apps still crash constantly. It's honestly made me think Google has probably jumped the shark.
Indeed one of the biggest problems of Android devices. Most consumers who buy Android phones have no clue about this but the level of software support for Android is terrible. On my phone I'm stuck with Android 2.3.x, the phone still works fine so I see no reason to buy a new one.
Having merged the notification and settings pulldowns, it now takes an extra drag to access the frequently used settings like rotation/brightness/wifi. (I would include logout as well, but that functionality has been inexplicably removed--now it is only possible to switch users.) The new 3d task switcher is also annoying, and makes very poor use of space in landscape mode. The new black/white soft keyboard is awful. There may be worthwhile improvements, but the UI is a step backwards, or at least needlessly different in many ways. (like arbitrarily changing the soft button icons; not a big deal, but this sort of thing does confuse people.)
Also, they have decided to close "Using Android devices as USB peripherals", without actually providing the functionality. I'm used to Apple waving away perfectly valid bugs and feature requests; sadly it seems this may be typical on Android as well. The things that matter continue to suck, while they both busy themselves with revising the UI in superficial ways, often introducing yet more obnoxious animations, which only serve to add delays into the UI.
I had a perfectly functional Nexus 7 before Lollipop. After the upgrade, which I performed in a trusting manner, the performance is horrible, with apps taking forever to load and some functions just gone forever. This has been by far the biggest disappointment I've had since owning Android devices.
Now I've got to figure out how to root the damn thing and either go back to KitKat or find out if I can run some custom ROM on the thing. And I hate dicking around with that kind of stuff. There was just no need for this update.
Further, the UI is much worse. The three little icons at the bottom are way too tiny for a tablet, the screen you go to in order to kill off apps that are running in the background takes forever to load and instead of a simple swipe, I have to find this little "X" in the upper right corner, like in Windows. I hate it, absolutely.
There is not one thing about Lollipop I have found that I think is an improvement in any way. Maybe it's something under the hood that's keeping me safer, but I doubt it.
Now yesterday, there was another update to Lollipop, which made a tiny improvement in the perceived speed, but it's not even close to enough to make my tablet as nice as it was just a few weeks ago. Thanks for nothing.
You are welcome on my lawn.
With contract holders and locked phones being forced to use the version that their master lets them, we cannot get the benefits of the upgrade. My Verizon phone is 4.4.2 and will be until they upgrade it.
I have Lollipop on my Nexus tablet, and while some apps are noticeably smoother, presumably because of the new precompiled runtime, the OS as a whole is noticeably slower because some common activities requre multiple touches to open multiple windows where before they were just one.
Even if the upgrade is available for a device, there's no clear reason to want it. It still lacks the one thing that I actually want in Android: meaningful control over app permissions.
I'm not updating my Nexus 4 because I need Xposed framework, and it doesn't work with ART Java VM (the only one available on Lollipop).
"There is no Lollipop upgrade available for any of my devices yet."
There is no Lollipop update for almost all devices!. How the hell should anyone update.
Seriously, do the jack asses that write these articles think that you can just install whatever the heck you want like a PC? I think they have a fundamental misunderstanding of the Android ecosystem.
from a cluless noob probably. iSheep ?
The storage management on 4.4 is a mess, and 5.0 fixes "most" of it. Thought still wish i could give the mediascanner database and the storage access framework the middle finger, as it fixes none of the issues Google claims it fixes...
comment first, facts later. http://chem.tufts.edu/AnswersInScience/RelativityofWrong.htm
if it is that much better, samsung would already be pushing the updates to my more recent devices.
one problem was the timing of the release. they put it out just a month ago, but everybody bought their Christmas toys *2* months ago, and that meant they had to be in the factory *4* months ago. It wasn't out nearly in time to make the 2014 sales, so it has no chance of an upswing until this summer or next Christmas.
"But remember, most lynch mobs aren't this nice." (H.Simpson)
-- Joe
All this candy isn't good, people have to stop at some point.
Android 5 is banned at our office.
It simply doesn't authenticate correctly to exchange using activesync.
And the latest 5.0.1 update doesn't fix the issue.
Many people have complained about this online, google doesn't care to fix it.
I've been waiting for Lollipop, especially for my 2012 Nexus 7 which continues to be slow despite clearing the cache partition. I am also still waiting for an update on my Nexus 4, my daughter's Nexus 4, and my other three family members Moto Gs.
My understanding is that 5.0.0 and 5.0.1 both have serious bugs. One of them is especially bad if you are using Canadian French settings. Since I am located in Canada, I wonder if they are slowing down the rollout here out of an abundance of caution.
I wouldn't mind the wait nearly so much if Google was more forthcoming with explanations. Their consumer support leaves much to be desired.
In the meantime, 4.4.4 continues to work perfectly for me.
Actually, to sum up what I said in the linked to article, Lollipop came out with multiple problems and Google was really slow both to get the first OTA and the updates out. It's not because as the person who posted this to /. suggests because people were sticking with KitKat because it was good enough. Now, if Lollipop 5.02 goes no where then that may be a real argument, but it's not one you can make today.
It is pretty much expected that the version of android that ships on the phone will be the only version it will ever get. If you are lucky you might get minor upgrades or a major upgrade.
I would think that somewhere, some candy maker's lawyers are getting their panties in a twist about protecting their Trademarks
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
She dislikes the look of the SMS app and I haven't found a 3rd party that's not following the new Material design...
She dislikes the stupidly separated calling and contact management. Can't edit a contact from the dialer list... WHY? Long press does nothing at all so there's no reason it couldn't just keep the original function. Then from the Contacts list it's more presses/steps to make a call or send a text than it used to be.
And so on and so on...
Did they fix easy file transfer on Android? Kitkat on my Droid Maxx HD, and I can't for the life of my easily transfer files between in and my linux devices. Oh, what? You nee other apps that require 'absurd' access to contacts, device location? Fuck you! I'm not installing that!
That there isn't a simple app, like scp in a browser mode, makes me wonder just what the hell the Android, and app dev's are smoking! Oh, I remember now. 'The Cloud', 'The Cloud', 'The Cloud'! See also, 'bloated Android App 1.x' , with advertisements, that reports back to the Internet, when what I'm doing is local Intranet!
Android environment is turning to shit, and Apple IOS, is actually worse! Guess I really need to look at CMOD!
It would help if Lollipop was everything they claimed it would have been. KitKat works great, has great support, and is FAST... I installed Lollipop on my aging nexus 7 (2012) and even with 5.0.2, it is painfully slow and unusable. I dropped that OS on the tablet back down to 4.4.4 and have a working machine.
Truth is, even with the 6 month "beta" test of Android L, the OS is still buggy, and manufactures are still draggy there feet on this release.
Nexus 7 LTE 2013 still doesn't have an official factory image for lollipop (there's reasons for it, bugs and stuff, but still). If recent-ish nexus devices don't get it, its no surprise a lot of people don't
Google themselves are doing a lackluster job of selling Lollipop as well. Seriously, I see ads all over the place extolling the virtues of the new Nexus phones and tablets, the "first devices designed *for* Lollipop". You know what I don't see on those ads? Any device actually *running* Lollipop. It's always just a black screen. And to all those who say that there *are* device updates, we just haven't gone looking? The average user shouldn't *have* to root their phone. I will argue to the death for their right to do so, but if the manufacturer and carrier doesn't want to commit to a release date for the upgrade, then the average person using that phone is going to keep using KitKat.
Lollipop would have to be available on a large number of phones for this to work out, not just Google Play editions. Carriers are the real speedbump here.
Just as soon as there is an official CM12 build for my D855 LG-G3 with accompanying gapps. I was hoping more CM developers were going to hop on this phone.
I have the 2nd edition nexus 7, no option to OTA upgrade yet. My spouse has the 1st edition with the buggy memory, no OTA upgrade for that either.
It's not like users have a choice. Only nexus devices get the Lollipop update first. Unlike windows, users can buy the software and install but android depends on the manufacturers if it's not a nexus or GPe phone. My nexus 5 is still stuck on kitkat, so not all nexus phones received the OTA.
There is at least one known major memory leak in Lollipop. The planned early upgrades for Nexus and Motorola devices have been halted until it is fixed. There's probably more wrong with it that isn't known yet too. You can't extrapolate adoption rates from an update that isn't available to the vast majority of users.
I am becoming gerund, destroyer of verbs.
Dear Boneheads,
The question is NOT -
Why do I want to upgrade?
The question is -
Why are new versions released without a compelling reason to upgrade.
And the answer is -
this release was not done to benefit users.
And the future is -
Future releases will include hooks designed to force users to upgrade in the great MS tradition.
Sincerely,
Mike the Marketer
That freedom to allow 'geeks' to fiddle with their devices is the same freedom the vendors use to customise (and occasionally improve) the experience.
I don't follow. Geek-type freedom would also allow the user to uncustomize the experience.
The idea that Apple owns the high-end and Android is only mid and low end is hopelessly out-of-date. Perhaps in the US, but the rest of the world Android sits at around 80% share and that is not just mid and low end devices.
Have Canada, UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa gone with Android? Or does iOS own the high end throughout the English-speaking world? The answer is important to app developers who speak English and don't yet have the resources to translate an app into the two dozen languages of the European mainland as well as dealing with the #VATMESS.
Apple is in the same boat, but the new "superflat" UIs that are the current fad are horrible. It's rarely intuitive how anything works or what is or is not an interface element. I get that UI developers think buttons, switches, and sliders are ugly, but if you remove all of them it's really hard to use the device. People still aren't trained to swipe randomly all over the screen to try to figure out what mystery gesture does what, they just think the features are removed. Heaven forbid the UI tell you what gestures are available too, that would be cheating. Phones should be like puzzle boxes apparently.
I read the internet for the articles.
I have a Nexus 4. When I check for updates, it still says no update.
WordPress phone?
Comment removed based on user account deletion
If I want to create a folder I should be able to create a folder. Too much protection. less user control. I'm working on hacking a Micro Center Windows 8.1 tablet to run Linux natively now. If this is the direction Android is taking I am done with it.
Google has yet to make the Android 5.x available for many devices in many countries. Canada, Nexus 7 (2013), and Nexus 4 -- Android 5 OTA still not available here.
My KitKat Nexus 4 was advertising an update for a few weeks. I ignored it, since I'd heard there were some issues with Lollipop.
Now, my Nexus 4 isn't even advertising the update, and it says my system is up-to-date. So I'm not sure why, but apparently the Lollipop update is no longer available to me for some reason. Yes, I'm sure I could go manually download the update and push it to my phone, but frankly I'm not that motivated.
If they want people to upgrade, not only do they need to push the upgrade through carriers to users, but keep it available to those who waited for all the bugs to be worked out!
That's not a crisis, it's the way things should be.
I've been in the business 30 years now, and I've never seen anything like Google's attempt to support older versions of the platform with backports new APIs. In Android you can target an API level like 20 (Lollipop) but support installation on an older API like 16 (early Jelly Bean). On API 16 all the stuff that goes around your app (notifications) and under your app (the VM) will still be "archaic", but the app itself will look modern because of the backports in the support library. Of course you should still *test* on older devices because not everything may work, but getting something to work across the vast majority of devices (> 86% run API 16 or later) is practical for a competent programmer.
So a user who doesn't immediately jump on the upgrade bandwagon can still run the latest version of the vast majority of apps. You miss out on some of Lollipop's bells and whistles, and most importantly on the new VM which reported extends battery life by 1/3 on some devices. You also miss out on all the bleeding edge bugs, of which reportedly there are still quite a few. If your device is perfectly good, it remains practically useful even if it's four years or so behind the bleeding edge.
That's something new. Forced march upgrades have been the norm over my career, but there's no reason to take that stance when you're talking about mobile devices. Most people replace them every two years or so, and in any case the Li-ion batteries soldered into the things begin to lose capacity after three years regardless of use. And with hundreds of independent Android device makers version fragmentation is inevitable, so it's sensible to make it benign.
It makes no sense to wring your hands because everyone isn't jumping on the bleeding edge release when there are so few practical consequences for anyone. It's almost as if the lack of a crisis is perceived as a crisis. People eventually *will* move to Lollipop because they'll eventually replace their old devices. Manufacturers *will* put Lollipop on their devices to get the battery life and performances, but in their own time. In the meantime their customers are OK on KitKat, and so should they be.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
... or it could be the fact that you can't get it on hardly any phones. I've wanted it since release, but since Mfrs take years if ever to update, I still don't have it.
But, from everything I've read, upgrading to Lollypop is a sucker bet.
Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
All of my 2-3 year old iOS devices can upgrade to iOS8. Before that (DD's iPod Touch from 3 Christmases ago, iPad from 4 years ago) - you're out of luck, and it will never, ever get upgraded.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
I have two devices, one on 5.0.1, one on 4.4.2. Why? Not because I'm slowly upgrading or testing, but because that's all I can have. My nVidia Shield got 5 a could weeks after it launched from Google. It popped up an OTA update and I took it.
However my Note 3, no update is available. I can't update it to 5 without rooting it and putting on some unofficial ROM. Samsung hasn't released an update to my carrier and even once they do, who knows how long it'll take my carrier to release it to me.
That's the thing: Mobile upgrades aren't like desktop upgrades. When Microsoft or Redhat releases a new OS, you can upgrade right then. Nothing stops you from getting the latest upgrade and doing it day 1. Well no such luck on a mobile. It has to get released for your device. That means that your device manufacturer first has to release the update, which can take awhile depending on who they are and how much they screw with it. For some devices that is all, but for most that are phones it doesn't go to you, it goes to the carriers. They then have to customize and so on and decide when they want to release it. that can again take time.
So it can be many months to get an update. Sometimes it doesn't get released for your device at all, but even if it does, it can be 3-6 months or more before you have the option.
I actually want to revert to an older version than KitKat where I can actually *use* my SDcard, unlike Google's decision that they can't be used for anything but mp3s and camera pictures.
At the help desk I work at, we have a stream of people complaining about Lollipop's (STUPID!!!) decision to drop Exchange/other mail support in favor of Gmail-only.
I have two Nexus 7 tablets; I upgraded one and am seriously considering downgrading it back to 4.x, even though that's a bunch of fiddling. The new OS is slower, ugly (this is subjective, but their new style doesn't do anything for me), less responsive (especially just as you bring it back up from sleep), and I think lots of the UI is less useful (eg. the drag down system-y menu doesn't immediately have the stuff I want like it used to).
If you search for Android downgrade instructions, you'll find forums full of people with similar complaints who want to go back.
Let's not stir that bag of worms...
The new ART compiler that replaces Davilk may be more efficient and fast, but it has some compatibility issues. There are a number of programs that'll run on Davilk but not ART. Some of them warn you on the play store to set 4.4 to use Davilk (since you had a choice there). Well, 5 is ART only so no go there unless the programs upgrade.
My understanding is that the Dalvik optimizations on the newer Android versions tend to lead to faster apps and/or less battery drain.
I currently have a software-unlocked phone. I'll probably update to a newer version of Cyanogenmod with rooted Lollipop eventually, but at the moment I don't want to break my root or end up with a carrier-locked phone I can't use.
I'd blame the carriers, more than the laziness of people. Most of the time, the carrier, for obvious reason, or manufacturer, will delay or not update the device, to talk you into updating to a new device, with the update already installed.
Another reason for the slow uptake of Lollipop is that Lollipop is "anti" rooted devices, so to do the OTA update you must either factory reset the device, or spend time manually updating the device.
I held off on upgrading to Lollipop on my Nexus5 after reading about some of the problems people were having. Shortly before the 5.0.1 update came out, they took down the 5.0 OTA update, so now I'd have to download the files and update manually. I probably won't bother since Kitkat is good enough.
WordPress phone?
Yes. The operating system is written in PHP for security.
Since Lollipop has a lot of bugs and nothing of the new features is any better than the old ones (lockscreen, face recognition, calendar... I hated all new changes), why would you upgrade?
5.1 might be worth it.
Many early adopters wait for the 5.0.1 bugfix, which is available for the nexus 6 and nexus 4, but *not* the nexus 5 yet. What hope do owners of other phones have?
From what I've read, the Dalvik runtime is going away with Lollipop, and not all apps run correctly (at least yet) with the new ART runtime.
So assuming that Lollipop is even available for your device (and relatively bug-free), will all the applications you use run with ART?
As we know, a shiny new OS does you no good if it won't run your apps.
... Upgrading to Lollipop made stuff worse for me ... I want to go back to KK.
- Lollipop doesn't know how to play a WAV file anymore so I can't listen to my Asterisk voice mail.
- Wireless charging stopped working reliably. My phone pairs with the charger but doesn't seem to charge. It's warm when I pick it up in the morning but battery is almost dead.
- Battery life has gone down. My usage patterns haven't changed but I can no longer make it through the day without a charge...
I find it interesting someone produces a research report on who's running what version of Android as if the consumer (and we are talking about consumers - that mass market they referred to) has any choice. I run whatever Verizon pushes out to my Moto Droid Maxx. Don't tell me no one is using the new OS...tell those who decide what version we use.
never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes
Since upgrading to Lollipop, my Nexus 5 is experiencing the 'black screen of death' several times a day. Maybe word of that is reaching folks!
The carriers want to use updates to the new versions of the OS as a sales point, for use with Planned Obsolescence. Google decided to make it harder for vendors to do that by moving towards updating the OS itself. Guess what? That path has less adoption because MFGs aren't pushing it out.
Of course there are other factors at play, but when you have a trend in adoption rate abruptly changed look to what changes in the to-be-adopted system have been made. It's the "New Coke" Effect, not the "XP" effect. Explaining the lack of adoption as XP-like ignoring the MS Window's stagnation with XP for so long before the Vista & 7 offerings is reaching at best, uninformed at worst, and most likely just a shot in the dark by some dumbass.
I would update if available, but my S5 may not receive that option for some time; the only new phone with lolipop my carrier offers is the nexus 6, I want a phone- not a tablet
Kitkat itself was pretty bad. Kitkat was the first Android release that crippled your phone with the inability to use your SD card in apps, no matter what your phone maker intended. In order to make KitKat usable, you had to root it. No more phone updates for me, period.
Or my Nexus 7. Come on Google. It's been two and a half months, and the some flagship Nexus devices are still on 4.4.4? What's the point of getting a Nexus device if it doesn't get updates?
What's killing Lolipop is not "good enough", it's availability. And the fact that less people are modding / rooting their phones to allow them to update themselves.
And telcos are exceedingly slow. My S5 will probably never see Lollipop thanks to AT&T.
XP was considered good enough by the users, so the users refused to upgrade. With Android, users want to upgrade but the manufacturers and/or carriers are holding back the upgrades. The update for my Galaxy S4 keeps getting delayed by both Samsung and Telstra Australia - I'm stuck on ICS.
I just got myself a new Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5 a month ago. It came with Kitkat, and there is no option to upgrade. I don't know if this is due to vendors' lazyness or because it takes so long to port the OS to all the different devices that can run it.
To be fair, after a few weeks of using Kitkat, I am perfectly happy and don't lose my sleep over the upgrade.
MS obviously will continue to pay astroturfers like you to instill hope that MS will finally do the right things, even though in 30 years, they have never done that.
Word Perfect?
It is just not available on the most popular phones. Therefore, no mystery. If you can't load it, it won't show up as being used.
I have the Galaxy S5, but it will not let me. I just keep getting a message telling me that Andriod 4.4.2 is the latest version for my phone.
Perhaps that is the problem - lack of releases.
What you are's a "TraNsTeStiCuLaR-MonStroSiTy" transsexual freak http://images2.wikia.nocookie....
To reboot the phone you hit F7, N, Y?
If you are on a Verizon account, you can log into their webpage, go to change your plan, and on the second page with all the checkboxed features, find the one for VM and disable it. For other vendors, I am unsure, but when I had ATT, I just called them and had them turn it off.
Here's a 2A car charger You have a TON of in-car charging options these days! You're welcome :D
Its better. Its like Windows XP vs. Windows 8.
I think with no more devices that support Lollipop, it makes it hard to upgrade to it. KitKat hit the ground running with phone companies jumping on the roms out of the gate making updates available for many devices... Lollipop comes out and theres still only like 5 devices that have an update available for it.
See "browser wars," etc.
That's pretty-much it. Few people are on the Google lifeline, getting updates as they happen. Most are tethered to some vendor who is waiting for all of the minor issues in a major update to be ironed out. Expect the big players (Samsung, HTC, LG) to push updates within the next 6 months. Some of us are on lollipop due to third party roms like Cyanogenmod, but even some super popular third party roms like slim aren't there yet. Even with cm, I have lollipop on my tablet (v500) night but not my handset (i9300).
Low uptake is not due to consumers, but rather due to availability.
I have a 2013 Nexus 7, and ended up waiting a month before I received my Lollipop update. This was due to bugs encountered in the original release, which resulted in the rollout being delayed until the 5.0.1 release. I received the 5.0.1 update shortly after it was released.
I have started to experience hard crashes of the OS over that past few days. The UI will lock up wherever I am at (Facebook, VLC, Netflix, home screen, etc.), and after about 20 seconds it will reboot.
I would switch back to KitKat if possible. This is mostly due to the recent rebooting. However, overall UI performance also contributes since nearly all UI operations (especially transitions) lag regularly.