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