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How exactly would one make money off abandoned android devices? This users would pay? They seemed to be considering partnering with advertisers to integrate a
by sliken 10y ago
How exactly would one make money off abandoned android devices? This users would pay?
They seemed to be considering partnering with advertisers to integrate ads into the base OS. Question is, who would voluntarily sign up for such a thing?
- stickfigure 10y agoThis users would pay? I would. I have a GalaxyTab 10 (the abandoned Google I/O edition) still running Honeycomb that I would happily pay $10 to easily update it to something vaguely more modern. It's been useless for years, not because the hardware is bad, but the software is useless. I still can't figure out how to get something more modern on it. It's been sitting in a drawer (plugged in, oddly) collecting dust forever.
- roel_v 10y agoWell that's the problem right there - you'd pay a whole 10$ and from the tone of your post, you consider that generous. The amount of people who even know or care about Android version on their devices, intersected with the amount of people who'd pay reasonable rates, is tiny.
- eloisant 10y agoEven worse, you need people who: * Care about the Android version on their devices * Would pay reasonable rates * Stick with an older phone / don't buy Nexuses
- ajsalminen 10y agoWhat's so special about Nexuses in this regard? I find the duration of support still pitifully short on them even if it's slightly better than what some other phones manage. Whether or not people care about their version, everyone should if only because of security.
- stickfigure 10y agoIt's not as bleak as that. There are a lot of people with manufacturer-abandoned phones that would probably be willing to shell out a modest sum to get less ancient firmware. As with everything, the economics are a question of quantity and effort. A billion Android devices enter the marketplace each year. I think the real problem is that it is just turning out to be difficult to make a silky smooth upgrade process, the kind that is consumer-friendly enough to create a mass market. It all fundamentally starts with "hack the device" and most people can't. Maybe it's just a really hard problem because it varies from device to device and base OS version to base OS version.
- inyorgroove 10y agoDon't have experience with that specific device, but it looks like an Android 6.0 build is available: http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-tab-10-1/development/rom-android-6-0-marshmallow-t3266663 http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-tab-10-1/development/...
- yason 10y agoWhy is Honeycomb useless? You might have specific usage patterns where shows but I would say that there's anything wrong with Honeycomb but, rather, that the major problem is that the hardware itself doesn't really stretch enough to run newer Androids or newer websites/applications. I'd just keep the less resource-hungry Honeycomb installed until the hardware can no longer do modern content.
- cocotino 10y agoA big chunk of apps require at least 4.0. Or maybe they don't but if you have an older version you will have to use an older version of the app with less features.
- dotch 10y agoYou can always find ways to monetise an operating system. Some possibilities include: * add products/referral links to os search results (like ubuntu lenses) * add ads to the base operating system (like kindle's sponsored homescreen) * sell spots for default search providers (like bing for siri) And you target old phones by providing them with an upgrade path to cyanogen mod based on a more modern android version. Many devices are technically fully capable of running modern android versions but have been abandoned by their manufacturers.
- rodgerd 10y ago> You can always find ways to monetise an operating system. That's news to pretty much every *ix vendor except Apple, Red Hat, and maybe Canonical.