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Android Oreo Passes 1 Percent Adoption After 5 Months, Nougat Finally Takes First Place (venturebeat.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the slow-and-steady dept.

According to Google's Platform Versions page, Android 8.0 Oreo mobile operating system finally has 1.1 percent adoption. Like Android Nougat before it, Android Oreo took five months to pass the 1 percent adoption mark. VentureBeat reports: On the bright side, Nougat this month has passed Marshmallow, meaning the second newest Android version is now the most widely used. The latest version of Android typically takes more than a year to become the most-used release, and so far it doesn't look like Oreo's story will be any different. Google's Platform Versions tool uses data gathered from the Google Play Store app, which requires Android 2.2 and above. This means devices running older versions are not included, nor are devices that don't have Google Play installed (such as many Android phones and tablets in China, Amazon's Fire line, and so on). Also, Android versions that have less than 0.1 percent adoption, such as Android 3.0 Honeycomb and Android 2.2 Froyo, are not listed. The two next-oldest Android versions are thus set to drop off the list sometime this year. The Android adoption order now stands as follows: Nougat in first place, Marshmallow in second place, Lollipop in third, KitKat in fourth, Jelly Bean in fifth, Oreo in sixth, ICS in seventh, and Gingerbread in last. All eyes are now on Oreo to see how slowly it can climb the ranks.

98 comments

  1. Almost half a year .... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ... and it just reached 1% of the users?

    Google's software distribution process is ridiculous and totally pathetic.

    1. Re:Almost half a year .... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ... and it just reached 1% of the users?

      Google's software distribution process is ridiculous and totally pathetic.

      Google's distribution works reasonably well (I have Oreo on all my devices supported by Google). Other manufacturers are holding up upgrades for their products for various reasons.

    2. Re:Almost half a year .... by idontusenumbers · · Score: 3, Interesting

      There's some evidence to suggest the issue still lies with google:

      https://twitter.com/essential/...

    3. Re:Almost half a year .... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I'm sure Apple will joke about it during their next phone related event, again. Microsoft would joke about it also if they would have ever had an offering in the mobile space.

    4. Re:Almost half a year .... by Fly+Swatter · · Score: 2, Insightful

      That is because every major update of android pretty much requires new hardware. Either because they are lazy to support old hardware, don't bother trying to allow major software updates, or just rely on the manufacturer (which is obviously lame).

      Regardless you are pretty much stuck with whatever major revision came with your end product because only new hardware sales drive adoption of these major releases. Android is a make-it-and-forget-it product, it is the epitome of built-in obsolescence.

    5. Re:Almost half a year .... by Chris+Mattern · · Score: 1

      Not Google's fault. Upgrade distribution is controlled by the cellular phone company that sold you the phone--and they mostly refuse to push the upgrades, because their slipshod "customization" makes it difficult, and because they want you to upgrade by buying a new phone.

    6. Re:Almost half a year .... by Zaelath · · Score: 1

      Yet my Nokia 8 has had 8.0 since December, 8.1 late January; HMD > Essential?

    7. Re:Almost half a year .... by blackpaw · · Score: 2, Insightful

      My Lumia 640 packed it in recently so I tried Android (ZTE 7 Plus, Marshmallow). Dear dog, I hated it so much - didn't give a shit about the apps, and the UI experience was so bad. Found a 950 XL in excellent shape on Gumtree, awesome phone and a pleasure to use. Calls, texts, messaging, email, browsing all work perfectly.

      And *still* getting regular updates from MS.

    8. Re:Almost half a year .... by Zaelath · · Score: 5, Insightful

      That's an entertaining story, but they're still producing updates for the 4 year old Nexus 5, if you can find one that doesn't boot loop.

      There's a string of manufacturers that abandon their products, looking at you Samsung, but that's not Google's problem.

      Just as soon as you find an off-brand Apple phone, we can make some kind of "support life-cycle" comparison.

    9. Re:Almost half a year .... by alvinrod · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I think the issue lies with Android not really having any one entity fully in charge or at least with enough power to dictate terms. Device manufacturers certainly don't mind killing updates, especially since it helps them sell new devices. The carriers also want you to buy a new device so that they can lock you into monthly contract for another two years. Google certainly would prefer that whatever phone you're using has an updated version of Android, but they're not going to make more money as a result as their profitability doesn't depend on selling devices so there's not enough financial motive for Google to really press the issue. They probably care even less because if none of the other manufacturers are selling devices that have upgrades readily available, it makes it possible for Google to carve out a tiny bit of extra business for themselves by being the ones to sell the devices that do get those speedy updates. Only a tiny percentage of Android customers really care about stuff like that, so the other manufacturers aren't going to get angry at Google or feel threatened by them selling those devices.

    10. Re: Almost half a year .... by julian67 · · Score: 4, Informative

      My 2012 Samsung Galaxy Note II, a flagship model in its time, hasn't received a version update since 2014 (it runs KitKat). However it still got a security/stability firmware upgrade in 2017, and does get "Security Policy" updates (guessing these are SELinux changes). This isn't ideal for anyone who wants new features, but 5 years of security and stability patches is not so bad.

    11. Re:Almost half a year .... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It is really painful to adapt to Android "support" and the UI after using Lumia. Now, lets hope those pure Android phones such as those from Motorola and Nokia will get the promised updates, so that there will be at least few things to trust in the ecosystem.

    12. Re:Almost half a year .... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Yep. That's because it's a Google phone. Easy to make updates when you own the OS. The vast majority of Android phones aren't Nexus phones. It's kind of like suggesting all vehicles get 40 mpg because your 10 year old Honda Civic gets 40 mpg.

    13. Re:Almost half a year .... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's an entertaining story, but they're still producing updates for the 4 year old Nexus 5, if you can find one that doesn't boot loop.

      Also entertaining. By the by, what percentage of 4 year old Android handset does this apply to?

    14. Re:Almost half a year .... by beckett · · Score: 1

      make a direct comparison now: iphone 5s was released on Sept. 10, 2013 and is currently supported by ios11 releases. iPhone 5 was released Sept. 13, 2012 and support ends at the end of February when 32 bit processors are deprecated by Apple.

    15. Re: Almost half a year .... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I have Oreo on all my devices supported by Google).

      So... None of them then.

      When ben MS releases a service pack, I don't have to wait for Asus or whoever to "approve" it and rewrite it to get it on their devices.

      MS isn't perfect, but if your support is worse than theirs, you've got a problem.

    16. Re: Almost half a year .... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Get yourself a USB C hub or dock and plug in a mouse and keyboard and monitor. F-ing awesome. No need to bring a laptop most of the time if there is a spare set of peripherals at your destination.

    17. Re:Almost half a year .... by Zaelath · · Score: 1

      Yep. That's because it's a Google phone. Easy to make updates when you own the OS. The vast majority of Android phones aren't Nexus phones. It's kind of like suggesting all vehicles get 40 mpg because your 10 year old Honda Civic gets 40 mpg.

      And Apple phones aren't a closed ecosystem where they control the OS and the hardware? What's your point?

    18. Re:Almost half a year .... by Zaelath · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Why would I care? If you buy a Apple phone you get updates, if you buy a Google phone you get updates, otherwise you need to be talking to whoever makes your phone. If your smart TV running embedded Linux doesn't get updates, are you moaning at Linus?

    19. Re:Almost half a year .... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That is just the cheap excuse the moronically fanatic dumbdroids make every time the irresponsibility of Google is presented.

      Funny how everybody else manages to provide updates but Google's Android. Even Linux distros with 100% volunteer workers get updates regardless of the hardware they run in.

    20. Re:Almost half a year .... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      they're still producing updates for the 4 year old Nexus 5

      Google hasn't released an update for the Nexus 5 since Dec 2016. https://developers.google.com/android/ota#hammerhead

    21. Re:Almost half a year .... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's why people say Android is a fragmented mess, because you never really buy an Android phone unless you consider Google's devices to be Android phones (but even then the release of new Android versions to Google's own devices is inconsistent). Instead you buy a phone with a version of Android not only specific to that manufacturer but to that phone from that vendor and very often for that phone from that vendor for that specific carrier. What version of Android are you on? Oh it's Samsung Android 6.0 Galaxy S7 Verizon.

    22. Re:Almost half a year .... by exomondo · · Score: 1

      So how is it Apple (and even Microsoft back with Windows Phone) manages to get updates out to all their handsets on all the carriers at once?

    23. Re:Almost half a year .... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Google produces updates, Samsung won't push them out.

      Who is at fault, numbnuts?

    24. Re: Almost half a year .... by cyber-vandal · · Score: 1

      Both. It's also Google's fault for allowing the ecosystem to get into this terrible state leaving who knows how many people vulnerable to malware. I don't have to wait for the retailer to push out Dell's version of Windows to my laptop, I get it from Microsoft.

    25. Re:Almost half a year .... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nokia 5 and 6 (1st gen) already have 8.0

    26. Re: Almost half a year .... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sony doesn't...

    27. Re: Almost half a year .... by Chris+Mattern · · Score: 1

      That's true. As other responders have pointed out, Apple maintains such strict control over their ecosystem that they don't have this problem, Of course, they're able to do this because they leverage the Apple fanbase.

    28. Re: Almost half a year .... by cyber-vandal · · Score: 1

      Both platforms are crap for different reasons. I use an Apple phone because I want regular updates and a phone under 5" but sometimes I miss the flexibility of Android. I'm not a fanboi of either.

    29. Re: Almost half a year .... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Bollocks.

      My Samsung Galaxy S was officially no longer supported at gingerbread -- but CyanogenMod continued to support it well past ice cream sandwich before I moved onto my next phone, a galaxy s3 which also remained supported for long after Samsung gave up on it thanks to CyanogenMod.

      These days, the phone is an appliance I don't really need the latest and greatest for. However, to claim each version requires new hardware is absurd.

    30. Re:Almost half a year .... by Aereus · · Score: 1

      I actually like the fact they don't keep pushing new updates which will only inevitably slow down the performance of the phone. My Xperia Z3 came with 5.0 and was updated to 5.1.1 around a year later. Now 3 years on, its still performing decently for me, albeit needing a battery replacement in the next year if I want it to be able to continue lasting an entire day without recharge. Meanwhile my Droid Bionic before that started with 2.3 and was eventually updated to 4.0 and 4.1 ... by which time it was essentially unusable: Even with restricting the system to less background processes, it would still often lock up for a minute at a time even when running only one browser tab.

    31. Re:Almost half a year .... by Curupira · · Score: 1

      I think the issue lies with Android not really having any one entity fully in charge or at least with enough power to dictate terms. Device manufacturers certainly don't mind killing updates, especially since it helps them sell new devices. The carriers also want you to buy a new device so that they can lock you into monthly contract for another two years.

      And this, my friends, is the reason why Android tablets flopped and Google is now putting all bets on Chrome OS for their netbooks (Chromebooks) and new tablets. I mean, technically porting a regular Chrome browser to Android (for tablets/netbooks) would probably be easier than implementing an Android VM on Chrome OS to run Android apps on those things, but at least Google can now deliver timely updates.

    32. Re:Almost half a year .... by TheRaven64 · · Score: 1

      Really? My phone is a first-gen Moto G. It was a budget phone at release and I got it because I expected to get updates for a long time from a Google-owned manufacturer. Google sold Motorola a few months later, so that didn't work out - I got updates for about a year and the occasional security fix for another year or two (it took six months for them to push out an update for Stagefright, for example).

      The phone is now running LineageOS, and is quite happy with an Android install based on 7.1.2. Improvements to the ART compiler infrastructure mean that a number of the apps that I run are noticeable faster than they were on the older version (not an amazing achievement - they started with a pretty crappy compiler). I expect it to get an update to 8.x as soon as a volunteer-run project gets around to it (a few people have managed to boot it, but not everything works yet).

      Are you saying that a handful of volunteers are able to do something that a large company isn't, or is it more accurate to say that companies that sell handsets have no incentive to make your existing handset last longer?

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
    33. Re: Almost half a year .... by jareth-0205 · · Score: 1

      My 2012 Samsung Galaxy Note II, a flagship model in its time, hasn't received a version update since 2014 (it runs KitKat). However it still got a security/stability firmware upgrade in 2017, and does get "Security Policy" updates (guessing these are SELinux changes). This isn't ideal for anyone who wants new features, but 5 years of security and stability patches is not so bad.

      This is really what we should be expecting - we buy a device with a particular featureset, and to get more is a bonus, but assuming and expecting is unreasonable. What we should get is regular security fixes for the reasonable lifetime of the device.

      Many times, major software updates on anaemic hardware is a bad thing for the usability of the device (looking hard at Apple...)

    34. Re: Almost half a year .... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Google's service pack is the (weekly?) updates to play services and the play suite of applications. Google is not a systems company - thatâ(TM)s why they stuck Linux in there and called it a day. They rearchitected Android back in the day so all of their services could run on older versions of android by pulling everything out into user space. As far as they are concerned, the problem is solved.

    35. Re:Almost half a year .... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If your smart TV running embedded Linux doesn't get updates, are you moaning at Linus?

      Why would I? It's Lennart Poettering's fault.

    36. Re:Almost half a year .... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I love how this gets modded Troll just for expressing an unpopular opinion.

      And yet, as the owner of a 950XL that replaced a Galaxy S3, I can tell you that everything he says is true. Android is an unholy mess. Windows 10 Mobile is not, and is actually the most usable of any mobile OS. (Better than iOS by far, and Android isn't even in the same league.)

      I'll be guarding my 950XL for a while. Hopefully Microsoft gets back to the "we want to do mobile" part of their business cycle again soon.

    37. Re: Almost half a year .... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So how is it Apple (and even Microsoft back with Windows Phone) manages to get updates out to all their handsets on all the carriers at once?

      The same way Google gets updates out to all their handsets?

    38. Re:Almost half a year .... by AuMatar · · Score: 1

      Tablets in general have flopped- sales are tanking (more than 20M fewer sold in 2017 vs 2016). This is the 3rd straight year of declining sales. Android tablets aren't doing any worse than the rest of the market. Tablets are rarely updated, and never really interested the majority of the market.

      --
      I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
    39. Re: Almost half a year .... by exomondo · · Score: 1

      So how is it Apple (and even Microsoft back with Windows Phone) manages to get updates out to all their handsets on all the carriers at once?

      The same way Google gets updates out to all their handsets?

      No, they don't. Despite a variety of models across an array of carriers globally Apple manages to get their updates out to everybody at the same time, Google's updates even to the phones they themselves market as Google phones are staggered depending on what phone, what region and what carrier you are on.

    40. Re:Almost half a year .... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Both Samsung and Google, Google supports Samsung with Android, branding, marketing and all the associated Android/Google applications and services. When Google does nothing about Samsung's behaviour screwing over their customers then Google absolutely is to blame along with Samsung.

    41. Re:Almost half a year .... by Zaelath · · Score: 1

      You are correct, they only guarantee 3 years, I'd confused it w/ the 5X on the updates page.

      TBH I've never had a Google phone last longer than their patch cycle, but I guess that's just the price of (relatively) cheap phones. I've spent the equivalent of 1 iPhone for my last 4 android phones which lasted me a lot longer than 1 iPhone would, particularly since 2 of the androids died due to dropping...

    42. Re:Almost half a year .... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What makes you think Microsoft gets updates to their windows phones? Do you really think Microsoft updated all of their Windows phones? Because that would be BS considering all of the phones they osbourned or were on carriers that didn't push any updates. Secondly, MS cannot push firmware updates as those can only be pushed by the OEM because it's their specific hardware. How many Windows Phone OEM's do you actually think pushed those firmware updates? Not many.

    43. Re:Almost half a year .... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Windows phone failed primarily because of the shitty UI experience. They took one look at the POS and said no thanks. Just like they rejected that POS Windows 8 UI. As for the apps, well, Windows phone was a shitty phone to develop for. Developers never knew what to learn because MS was changing it every year.

    44. Re:Almost half a year .... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It was probably modded Troll because it was posted by one. You see, Windows phone fans suffer from battered wives syndrome. No matter how much of a beating they take they always come running back to Microsoft and ask for more beatings. Windows phone was a pathetic PO/S that was osbourned repeatedly because of how deficient it was. As the owner of 2 windows phones it always reminded me of a dumb phone OS with the exception that my dump phone had more apps. And let's not get into the development nightmare this shitty platform inflicted upon the developers it churned through. How many different development environments did this platform go through before the majority of developers just gave up and moved on. And then there's that polarizing POS UI with flipping tiles all over the place. People didn't like it on Windows 8, so MS doubles down and persists with it on their phones. MS doesn't belong in the consumer space. And now that windows phone is dead, the xbox is next on the list. Once that's gone, it's all enterprise baby.

    45. Re:Almost half a year .... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Android is open source, Google can't force updates downstream. They aren't MS or Apple.

      numbnuts.

    46. Re:Almost half a year .... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Also having a 20% faster CPU that uses 20% less power is a big deal on phone (or was, when that mattered). On a tablet, who cares?

  2. Finally! by dstyle5 · · Score: 4, Funny

    I'm one of the one percent! Kneel before me Nougat deplorables!

    1. Re: Finally! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Shit I'm a deplorable again..

    2. Re:Finally! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Gingerbread is the 0.3%. Kneel before the tiny minority who never updated their shit because apparently you think being part of a tiny group makes them better!

  3. Android 8 is having another typically slow rollout by guacamole · · Score: 1

    There is nothing new to see here folks.

  4. Venture beat link is wrong by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It points to the Apple/Telegram story.

  5. With Double Spyware Stuff! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    More Spyware!

    Strip-mining your privacy to get more $$$ into Sergey and Larry's bank accounts!

    Why stop at being merely evil?

  6. Is Android so fragmented by rsilvergun · · Score: 4, Interesting

    that passing 1% is a milestone?

    --
    Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
    1. Re:Is Android so fragmented by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's not news not milestone.
      Nobody fucking care, except that stupid pseudo journalist who couldn't find anything else to write about...

    2. Re:Is Android so fragmented by beckett · · Score: 1

      why doesnt google wither optimize their new os to improve backwards compatibility, or increase the hardware requirements to support at least 1 or 2 future major android versions? seems strange they’d go with a blank slate every new update they write, and we’re at their 8th major try alteady.

    3. Re:Is Android so fragmented by Shados · · Score: 1

      I found out a while ago that even on Nexus devices (which Google mostly controlled), if there was a change to certain drivers, whatever carrier your sim card was registered to could still block the update by not approving it.

      That's some next level bullshit there. If the phone wasn't that popular (eg: Nexus), then it could take forever to get an update. I love Android, and despise Apple, but they're such a joke in that regard.

    4. Re:Is Android so fragmented by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      that passing 1% is a milestone?

      No.

      Android "fragmentation" is a non-issue. Even if every Android phone was somehow running the exact same version of the OS, they would still vary greatly in terms of features and performance. Fingerprint sensor or not, SD card or not, phone or non-cellular tablet, quad core or octa core etc.

      By that metric, Apple phones are fragmented as well.

      In addition, older versions of Android DO get updates and security patches via the Play Store. Years ago Google started moving more and more functionality out into libraries that can be updated even if the manufacturer doesn't offer OS upgrades any more. This has proven to be effective.

      Manufacturers are a little slow to update to Oreo, but keep in mind that they usually offer their own additional features that Oreo either replicates or just doesn't have anyway. So for example Samsung ships a bunch of Samsung apps and features like their Bixby voice assistant, which gets updates and new features. So it's not like owners of those phones get nothing, they just chose the Samsung/HTC/OnePlus ecosystem and features over the Google Pixel raw Android experience.

      This variety and lack of a monoculture has spurred a lot of innovation as manufacturers try to differentiate their products. This is a good thing.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    5. Re:Is Android so fragmented by Solandri · · Score: 1

      The "release date" isn't really comparable to iOS release dates. Google releasing Oreo is just the starting point of the development cycle. The phone manufacturers then get it (in its final form) and adapt it to work with their hardware. Then the carriers get the phones and modify it again to their liking (they shouldn't be able to do this, but that's the way it currently works - Apple managed to negotiate contracts which prevents carriers from messing with the OS). The date when the carriers release the update to the phones on their network is the equivalent of the release date when Apple puts out an iOS release.

      Google got Oreo out on their Nexus and Pixel phones because they control both the software and hardware on those (like Apple does with the iPhones). That's the 1%. The phone manufacturers are mostly still working on adapting Oreo to their phones. If your phone is rooted, you'll be able to install the update then. If it's not rooted, you'll have to wait yet again for your carrier to mess around with it before it's finally released to your phone over their network. So technically, for the vast majority of Android users, Oreo still hasn't truly been released yet.

    6. Re: Is Android so fragmented by bn-7bc · · Score: 1

      You are technically correct, but Th bet result is that a lot of Android phones/tablets still are waiting for critical patches months after Google said, there is a patch out today, not so with Apple products unless they have been eoled, in which case the users have to decide for themselves, shall I run an unsupported is or get a new device

    7. Re:Is Android so fragmented by jareth-0205 · · Score: 1

      Also, apps do not immediately drop support for old Android versions like iOS developers do, so running an old version of Android isn't usually noticeable for the end user. They can still download and use the latest apps. Backwards compatibility support & libraries for app developers is generally good in Android, very little effort is needed.

    8. Re:Is Android so fragmented by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      Tell me why I should upgrade again? Android hasn't introduced a killer feature in many years. It's now just re-arranging the deck chairs.

    9. Re:Is Android so fragmented by AbRASiON · · Score: 1

      Yes, it's a joke. Seriously, I've been an Android guy since late version 2 (or was it early 4, I dunno) the progress in this OS has been atrociously bad.

      They need to find a way, to make the backend important stuff, roll out to more customers.
      There should be an option for ALL phones to use 'stock' Android, somehow (even though the UI is awful in stock)

      They NEED to stop adding features for a solid 18 months and fix performance, it's not good, at all, still.

  7. Apple vs Android by p51d007 · · Score: 1

    How many android devices are there, versus how many apple devices? Apple, is "one" phone per year or so released, yes they sell millions, but android is on 3,105,592 different phones every year. Granted, Google wanted adoption, made it open, so the manufacturers & carriers were responsible for the updates (if any) and in their business model, it's not worth the time since people just toss their phones away about every 12-24 months, and, other than security patches, for me, android has been pretty stable, nothing "really" Earth shattering new, since Jelly Bean. Perhaps going forward, past Oreo, if more manufacturers adopt the project Treble, which splits the core OS from the UI/bloat, Google can get the updates to the core of the system faster, through the play store, and let the manufacturers/carriers screw with the UI if they want. Also will make flashing to a non OEM rom easier...that is if you believe the press. I got Oreo on my Huawei USA Mate 9 in early November, and the latest patch/update last Monday.

    1. Re:Apple vs Android by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't see how Apple's constant updates are a good thing. I mean, just look at Throttlegate: Apple secretly updated their OS to slow down older phones. Apple's updates routinely break things and randomly change the UI, making it impossible to learn as everything just keeps moving. Since the security updates are rolled into OS updates, you basically have no choice but to follow them.

      Since Android keeps the security updates separate, you know that your phone isn't going to randomly change on you until you're reading to replace it. As long as it receives security updates, you're secure, and you don't have to learn an entirely new phone three months down the road because some pony-tailed hipster decided making UI elements legible is so passe.

      I don't understand the push to constantly upgrade. It's not a useful feature. I like my UI to be stable and not change with every new design fad.

    2. Re:Apple vs Android by arth1 · · Score: 1

      For corporate phones, it's sometimes a requirement that the users cannot upgrade, but that all upgrades be tested and approved before company wide roll-outs.
      Better the devil you know than the devil you don't know.

    3. Re:Apple vs Android by beckett · · Score: 1

      your comment makes android sound great for manufacturers and less than optimal for the end users, even if only taking platform fragmentation into account. its up to the end user to find their own updates in order to save a few bucks up front.

    4. Re:Apple vs Android by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The problem is, that when a new version update comes, security updates for the old version stop.

    5. Re:Apple vs Android by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      " Perhaps going forward, past Oreo, if more manufacturers adopt the project Treble, which splits the core OS from the UI/bloat, Google can get the updates to the core of the system faster, through the play store, and let the manufacturers/carriers screw with the UI if they want."

      Holy comma splicing!

  8. Android is the fucking worst... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's just bad and awful.

  9. What's with that link? by SeaFox · · Score: 1

    According to Google's Platform Versions page, Android 8.0 Oreo mobile operating system finally has 1.1 percent adoption. Like Android Nougat before it, Android Oreo took five months to pass the 1 percent adoption mark.

    Linked as it appears in TFS.

    1. Re:What's with that link? by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      According to Google's Platform Versions page, Android 8.0 Oreo mobile operating system finally has 1.1 percent adoption. Like Android Nougat before it, Android Oreo took five months to pass the 1 percent adoption mark.

      Linked as it appears in TFS.

      As opposed to iOS, where iOS 11 adoption is ALREADY at 65 percent:

      https://9to5mac.com/2018/01/19...

      And no, Apple does NOT FORCE UPGRADES. My iPhone 6 Plus is still running 10.3.3. Apple doesn't even nag me anymore about it.

    2. Re:What's with that link? by SeaFox · · Score: 1

      Dude, why are you replying to me to argue about iOS adoption? I'm pointing out the link in the summary is to the wrong story and has nothing to do with the topic.

      To use one man's words, regarding my post: You're reading it wrong.

    3. Re: What's with that link? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Who fucking cares about apple. Their stuff is shit.

  10. Still selling phones with Android 5 by dicobalt · · Score: 3, Funny

    With trillions of unpatched holes. Maybe one day they will invent Windows Update.

    1. Re:Still selling phones with Android 5 by vlueboy · · Score: 2

      With trillions of unpatched holes. Maybe one day they will invent Windows Update.

      I bought a gift a year ago and it was even worse with tablets on physical stores or Amazon. The asymptotic Android 4.4 version apparently just dropped off the map, but it dragged results down for years. Most worrysome is that its old Dalvik runtime is dog slow at best, and infuriating under load. 5 makes things better, but I wouldn't bet on finding it for cheap.

      A few hours ago tonight I coincidentally ran into https://www.cnet.com/topics/ta...
      where Samsung tablet's video says "best one it's ever made". It's a serious 500 bucks which I find offensive after having purchased other Samsungs for $200 before. That is the golden price point for Android in my eyes. Despite the 500 bucks, the OS is declared to be 7.

      The Google tablet isn't reported with a specific version, so a search led to finding 6.0 and 7 https://arstechnica.com/gadget... (we can assume auto-updates given that Google's name is involved but it's almost like 8.0 wasn't even a dream in the reviewer's mind.) More likely the builds just don't exist yet.

      The Huawei tablet is only on 6. These are reviews that will hang around for the whole year, so it is worrysome that they don't even mention 8.0 even though it's been available on Browserstack's test suite for several months.

      It's odd that the cheap $125 Chinese smartphone I bought around September, despite its serious storage planned obsolescence, came with 7.1 when so much premium stuff out there was still on 6 (and serious offerings already had version 8). It's a pain just number-wise, and features even within the same Android build are shamefully inconsistent across manufacturers... this causes many people to go see things as "iPhone versus non-iPhone" if they are ever disappointed.

    2. Re:Still selling phones with Android 5 by tlhIngan · · Score: 2

      The asymptotic Android 4.4 version apparently just dropped off the map, but it dragged results down for years.

      That's because Google has officially stopped supporting Android 4.4. The last monthly security update that supported Android 4.4 was September 2017.

      October 2017 deprecated Android 5.0 security updates. Android 5.1 remains supported for now.

      Android 4.4 and 5.0 security updates can be backported, but that's it. Google does not support those versions of Android anymore.

      So yes, those old Androids are slowly being deprecated.

    3. Re:Still selling phones with Android 5 by Curupira · · Score: 1

      They have (for tablets, at least). It's called ChromeOS and it does have timely updates.

      Unfortunatelly, ChromeOS would be awful on smartphones so all Google did is create a new partitioning scheme for Oreo devices that has a separated partition for hardware drivers (Project Treble), making Oreo+ updates easier on the manufacturers. Of course, they will probably still prefer selling new devices to updating existing ones, so I'm not really hopeful about that.

    4. Re:Still selling phones with Android 5 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Um, no. That partitioning is to allow Google devices to download OS updates in the background and recover if anything goes wrong. Project Treble is the implementation of HAL's to separate the kernel from userspace so that an OEM can update their device without touching the kernel or needing updated drivers from Qualcomm - which only likes to update their drivers for 2 years.

  11. Embarrassing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Pathetic effort from Google and their software developers. Stop pointing fingers at manufacturers, and solve the upgrade mess.

    1. Re:Embarrassing by pauljlucas · · Score: 1

      Stop pointing fingers at manufacturers, and solve the upgrade mess.

      How? With Android being open, both manufacturers and carriers are free to do as they please. Remember, Google is an advertising company. Unlike Apple, their goal with Android was mass adoption to get pervasive (inexpensive) smart phones in as many hands as possible to drive as many Google searches as possible to serve ads to as many eyeballs as possible . Through that lens, they've been very successful.

      Neither the fragmentation nor the slow update adoption apparently really affect their bottom line. So they have no financial reason to care enough to do anything serious about it.

      It's only the big manufacturers like Samsung that have a financial reason to care to drive brand loyalty. And it's only the big manufacturers who have enough clout to make the carriers bend a knee. The smaller manufacturers are at the mercy of the carriers to be carried at all.

      --
      If you reply, do so only to what I explicitly wrote. If I didn't write it, don't assume or infer it.
    2. Re:Embarrassing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      In a way, they already have with Project Treble. Thing is, both of those initiatives run counter to the desires of OEMs (hold back updates to force users to upgrade, baking their own crapware into the system image), so now loads of OEMs are purposely only selling devices with Nougat and an "upgrade" to Oreo specifically to avoid having to implement Treble.

    3. Re:Embarrassing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Let's examine a hypthetical.
      First we assume that Google finds some law to demand that carriers offering Android phones push updates as newer versions are built.

      So now carriers have responsibility with all the current smartphone models.
      Unlike iPhones, neither Android as an OS nor any specific Android phone manufacturer has a significant rabid fanbase demanding them. (This part will be a painful lesson for all the Slashdolt Linux Zealots who think that they are significant.)
      Carriers will begin development of their own smartphone OSes, probably striving to be 'iOS compatible' when it comes to installed programs, but also with a carrier-specific distribution program as well.
      Android phones will sit in the back with Firefox phones and Windows phones on the "Other" shelf that people have to ask for by name.

      And thus ends the 'Year of Linux in the Pocket.'

    4. Re:Embarrassing by BorgDrone · · Score: 1

      With Android being open, both manufacturers and carriers are free to do as they please.

      No they aren't, not in reality.

      Android phones without Play Services aren't very useful and to get Play Services you have to abide by Google's rules. They should have made regular updates (pushed directly by Google) a requirement to get Play Services on your phone.

      Also, don't Android apps run in a VM, and wasn't one of the biggest advantages of using a VM that apps can be OS and platform agnostic ? So why doesn't Google just update the VM/runtime to the latest API version regardless of the underlying OS version ? That would solve a majority of the fragmentation issues.

    5. Re:Embarrassing by pauljlucas · · Score: 1

      Android phones without Play Services aren't very useful and to get Play Services you have to abide by Google's rules.

      To nerds, stuff like that matters. Joe Sixpack likely has no idea what Play Services is or why he would want it. Joe just cares about calls, texting, maybe e-mail, web browsing, and streaming TV or sports. And the typical phone store drone just wants to make a sale. There are far more many eyeballs to serve ads to like those of Joe than there are of nerds who are savvy enough to install ad-blockers anyway.

      --
      If you reply, do so only to what I explicitly wrote. If I didn't write it, don't assume or infer it.
    6. Re:Embarrassing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're an idiot. As long as Google allows their OEM's to roll their own OS Google cannot do anything about how they update their OS.

    7. Re:Embarrassing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Let's examine another hypothetical. Carriers try to develop their own smartphone OS and they lose 60% of their customer base because they switched to the carriers selling Android phones with Google Play, Google Maps, Waze, Google Photos, etc. You see it's all about ecosystems and there's only 2 of them. If a carrier is trying to sell a phone that's not in one of those two ecosystems then it's gong to fail harder than Windows phone or Microsoft Kin.

  12. Android 5 was shark jump time by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I honestly didn't want to upgrade, between Android 5 and 7 it just goes downhill.

    In particular all the apps are immediately forced to unload and reload in Oreo. You switch away for a few seconds, and when you switch back, the app needs to reload and restore its place. It's awful. Oreo should have been called 'Android Alzheimer Edition'.

    They've also grouped the notification icons to show only 1 per app. In 5, services had to show a notification icon simply to stay running. So in Oreo, they *only* show that icon and you have no idea if they have notifications or not because they only show the one icon, they are required to show by v5.

    Material design sucks, if I tab to the next control, lots of the controls no longer show focus. You have no idea where focus is. It's now unuable with basic keyboard controls. Good grief can that idiot 'designer' make it less usable? I guess we'll see in version 8.

    But the biggest issue is the crashes, lots and lots and lots of crashes. Apps that worked solidly in 5 crash regularly in Oreo. Some of it is the additions of Android 7 multi-window force unexpected reloads of the apps which they don't expect and then crash. (But why is it reloading apps whenever you resize the pane FFS?). But some of it is deliberate tightening of limits on memory to make apps run on very low end devices. If they exceed the very low limit, then the OS crashes them on purpose.

    I fucking hate it.

    The ARM hardware has moved forward in leaps and bounds, its way way faster than it was. The Android software on the other hand is heading down hill fast. If you developed something big for Android, you're screwed because you have to upgrade, but you learn the lesson for next time.

  13. Smartphone life cycle by DrYak · · Score: 1

    so the manufacturers & carriers were responsible for
    the updates (if any) and in their business model, it's not worth the time since people
    just toss their phones away about every 12-24 months,

    It's more precisely the business model that they *wish* to have.

    Reality is a bit different. Some old phone remain for use much more longer, usually changing hand several time (second hand market) and eventually ending up in third-world countries.

    To everybody can actually afford to re-buy a brand new shining phone every other year. And not a lot of manufacturer can cater to poorer markets with modestly speced phone at bargain bin prices.

    But meanwhile, the money that the manufacturer could have made has already been made eons ago (at purchase time), and the manufacturer have no financial incentive to keep spending engineer's salaries to support extremely old phone that won't bring in any penny more.
    Better direct those engineer to making the next "shiny gadget phone stuff" that you can persuade people to fork money on because the previous one is "so outdated"
    (It's so last year! Buy the one! Now 0.1 mm even thiner ! you can finally cut cheese with it ! - DISCLAIMER: and break it when sitting with it in your pant's back pocket. )

    So planed obsolescence more or less invite itself on the scene due to how the market is organized.

    Hope fully some modularity will help against it :

    Perhaps going forward, past Oreo, if more manufacturers adopt the project Treble, which splits the core OS from the UI/bloat, Google can get the updates to the core of the system faster, through the play store

    (Cue in the "I have a 32GiB smartphone, but only 18GiB of actually free space, because a massive amount of space is lost to a gazillion of different partitions" typical android-phone complaint...)

    Yup, indeed, I hope that it help getting fixes easier in the future.

    (Google can easily update the core. And with their insisting on kernels to be at a minimum (LTS) version, there's a chance that the community might also be able to churn out update to the non-blob part - see partition above - of the Linux kernel)

    As a side note : That's also an advantage of some full blown GNU/Linux smartphone OS - like Sailfish OS.
    The "mer" core of the OS is shared among all phones. So whenever Sailfish OS gets an update (e.g.: Sailfish X recently made available for Sony Xperia X in partnet ship with Sony's Opendevice program), all the older devices all the way back to 2013's Jolla 1 smartphone can benefit from it, even if the kernel is stuck to some antique 3.2 version due to Qualcom not releasing any blob update.

    --
    "Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
  14. Apple and child pornography. by DrYak · · Score: 1

    Android Oreo took five months to pass the 1 percent adoption mark.

    Yup, indeed, wrong link (about Telegram being pulled out of the appstore due to Child pornography).

    Speaking of which :

      - How did Apple check the existence of Child pornography ? Wasn't Telegram supposed to be exclusively using end-to-end encryption ? Or did they ask investigating police officers to start chat with CP-distributors ?... (read the Wikipedia article...) Ah okay. end-to-end encryption isn't default and users need to initiate "secret chat" to enable it.

    - Telegram is only a communication service enabling end user to exchange message. It shouldn't be liable for what the end-users are exchanging. (Just as the ISP isn't responsible for the internet use of their client).

    - Also given that the suspected criminals are stupid enough to NOT use the end-to-end encryption and be easily checked by Apple, it should be easy to prosecute *them* directly.

    --
    "Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
  15. Re: Erin Burnett by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Screen caps please?

  16. Is OP a lawyer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The Android adoption order now stands as follows: Nougat in first place, Marshmallow in second place, Lollipop in third, KitKat in fourth, Jelly Bean in fifth, Oreo in sixth, ICS in seventh, and Gingerbread in last.

    OP has to be a lawyer. Who else would purposefully obfuscate like that. Why not just list the version numbers instead of the code names that most of the public doesn't know?

  17. This just in... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    People don't buy phones more than once a year.

    i'm shocked.

  18. charging issues by bobmajdakjr · · Score: 1

    nougat on my tablet can only charge once per boot. apparently when the mtp daemon crashes that stops charging and i have to reboot. every time i unplug it XD

  19. Wrong link by nachtelfjeiu · · Score: 1

    The âtook five months..." link actually links to https://venturebeat.com/2018/0...