Google Takes Another Shot At Making Android Great On Low-Budget Smartphones (phonedog.com)

At its developer conference, Google unveiled Android Go, a project wherein Google will offer a version of Android that runs swiftly on budget, low-specced smartphones. With the new strategy, Google hopes to further improve the low-budget smartphone ecosystem in developing markets. Android Go will be focused around building a version of Android for phones with less memory, with the System UI and kernel able to run with as little as 512MB of memory. Apps will be optimized for low bandwidth and memory, with a version of Play Store designed for those markets that will highlight these apps. From a report: Another feature of Android Go will be data management. Android Go will let you easily see your data usage, and thanks to carrier integration, it'll also let you top-up with more data right on your device.

Comments

Re:Great more fragmentation.

[TWX]

Seems to me that the best approach would be to get a bunch of Galaxy S3 phones and other older phones, and use those as the development platforms for mainline Android. Once whatever new reference version is developed on those, then you start looking at newer/faster phones for possible changes needed for the newer chipsets.

I don't know if it's still this way, but for a long time the business model was to based low-end stuff on yesteryear's high-end stuff, with the possibility of minor or moderate revisions. Intel's own 486 chip was produced until 2007 and eventually saw speeds of 150MHz, and clone producers like Cyrix also continued to produce 486-compatible chips long past their normal conventional PC application. I expect that CPUs and chipsets in older high-end smartphones continue to see mild revision and production for what become mid-grade and eventually low-end phones, after all, if these chips weren't still used then money spent developing them in the first place wasn't spent effectively.

It's fine for the rich consumer to spend money on the eight core phone with 4GB RAM and 128GB storage, but developers should always focus on the single core model with 512MB RAM and 32MB storage. After all, that which runs acceptably on the low-end model should be screaming fast on the high-end one.

We need it everywhere.

[J. T. MacLeod]

Judging by the horrific performance Android has on even high-end phones, I'd appreciate it if this showed up on all phones.

no really, fuck android and google

[cats-paw]

Bloated, spyware, crapware infested OS with barely functional stock applications.

I now completely understand why so many people buy iphones and why there's so much malware on android.

we need an open cell phone OS now more than ever.

Re:Great more fragmentation.

[TheRaven64]

To put 512MB of RAM in perspective, that was how much I upgraded my machine to after installing Windows 2000 (upgrading from Windows NT 4, where 32MB was a bit cramped, 64MB was nicer and 256MB was very comfortable). Both of the before and after systems:

• Were fully preemptive multitasking 32-bit systems.
• Had memory protection.
• Had a TCP/IP stack and connected to the Internet, with web, email, and IM (and usenet!) apps all running happily.
• Ran a GUI on a monitor with a resolution of 1600x1200.
• Could happily run MS Office and StarOffice.
• Ran half a dozen applications at the same time.
• Ran 3D games.
• Rarely needed to swap.

I used to run GEM and Windows 3 (not at the same time) on a machine with 640KB of RAM, but that was definitely cramped. The main reason that 512MB is no longer enough is that the web has become a bloated monstrosity. Web pages are now on average larger than the original Doom, yet have a user experience no better than 10KB of text with light formatting.

Re:Great more fragmentation.

[TheRaven64]

Why on earth is Android 6GB?!? That's bigger than a clean install of macOS, including all of the standard apps. It sounds like the solution is to stop bundling so much crap and focus on a sensible base system that people can then install useful software on top of.