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Google Can't Ignore the Android Update Problem Any Longer
An anonymous reader writes: An editorial at Tom's Hardware makes the case that Google's Android fragmentation problem has gotten too big to ignore any longer. Android 5.0 Lollipop and its successor 5.1 have seen very low adoption rates — 9.0% and 0.7% respectively. Almost 40% of users are still on KitKat. 6% lag far behind on Gingerbread and Froyo. The article points out that even Microsoft is now making efforts to both streamline Windows upgrades and adapt Android (and iOS) apps to run on Windows.
If Google doesn't adapt, "it risks having users (slowly but surely) switch to more secure platforms that do give them updates in a timely manner. And if users want those platforms, OEMs will have no choice but to switch to them too, leaving Google with less and less Android adoption." The author also says OEMs and carriers can no longer be trusted to handle operating system updates, because they've proven themselves quite incapable of doing so in a reasonable manner.
If Google doesn't adapt, "it risks having users (slowly but surely) switch to more secure platforms that do give them updates in a timely manner. And if users want those platforms, OEMs will have no choice but to switch to them too, leaving Google with less and less Android adoption." The author also says OEMs and carriers can no longer be trusted to handle operating system updates, because they've proven themselves quite incapable of doing so in a reasonable manner.
My z10 is now two years old. It runs better than it did when I first bought it. It now runs almost all Android apps without issue. I pretty much only charge it when I notice it running low -- I can't remember the last time it died overnight. The battery lasts at least 24 hours even with regular use. In an hour on the charger it is almost back to full charge. Then there's the security, BlackBerry Blend, the fact that if I lose it or it gets stolen it is a brick to whomever ends up with it.
For the life of me I do not understand all the BlackBerry hate on slashdot.
It is a carrier problem. Carriers are, to put it frankly, fucking evil. Look no further than their efforts to stop net neutrality and force their way in to being a middleman for contactless phone payments.
Apple's biggest innovation was prying the phone out of the hands of the carrier. When the iphone was introduced it was standard practice for a company to take a phone, disable it's features, then try to sell them back to you. So many of you kid's don't remember the bad old days of crippled phones. (Or you grew up on Europe where this nonsense never happened because of sane wireless regulation)
Look at an iphone. No un-removable carrier shitware or ripoff carrier app/media stores. You get updates the day they're released. You have an easy upgrade path to a new device. (Literally connect to wifi and log in with your apple ID. Everything comes back to your new device. Music, apps, ringtones, phonebook, settings, wallpaper, text history. Everything)
An apple device is an apple device, not an ATT device, not a Verizon device. You may not like Apple that much, but they're a whole other universe better than your carrier.