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To me the key point of this post was:"And in the long term, as the mobile industry gets more accustomed to the idea of upgradeable phone software, more and more

by lenni 16y ago

To me the key point of this post was:"And in the long term, as the mobile industry gets more accustomed to the idea of upgradeable phone software, more and more devices will be be upgraded." Google is doing a fantastic job with Android, it's just that the carriers and OEMs are dragging their feet at properly supplying their handsets with updates. To make matters worse they continue to fiddle with the Android system (see HTC's Sense UI) for no apparent benefit to the consumer other than to make their phone 'stand out'. I'm currently very angry with HTC and T-Mobile for their last century attitude to mobile devices. It's ridiculous that they have promised to upgrade my Hero to 2.1 since March and still nothing - also the last firmware update also conveniently disabled all possibility to root the phone. Say what you want about the iPhone, it is at least supplied with updates for a reasonable amount of time (~3 years?) and older models don't get their update months late.

enjo 16y ago
Why? Sense seems to work just fine for me. Every app I've downloaded (I've tried ~100 or so) works great. Sense integrates well, and seems to work perfectly with any integration points it has with 3rd party apps. It really seems to be a thin layer that really dresses up (in my opinion) the overall experience.
- biafra 16y ago
  I think the problem with sense ui is not so much the apps but the time HTC needs to upgrade to the latest Android release on their phones.
- sharksandwich 16y ago
  It's great Sense works for you, but I hate that it's not optional. I shouldn't have to root my phone to run vanilla Android
NateLawson 16y ago
I agree that's the key part. However, perhaps the reason upgrades are so slow is that Google is moving too fast for OEMs. Their profit margin on these Android phones is lower because they're more powerful and costly than the typical Symbian phone. No other phones (Blackberry, Sidekick) require them to be as involved in updating software. Apple ships iPhone OS updates via iTunes, not AT&T or Samsung. I think we'll see a fundamental testing of the limits of Android fragmentation this year as OEMs have to support so many different phones, starting from various points on 2.x. At what point will they cut off a phone as too old for updates? Will it be similar to Windows where you have an extended support period with only security fixes? Who patches security flaws in your browser on a G1 running 1.6 in 2011? HTC?
rodh257 16y ago
thats the problem though, traditionally most of the time phones don't get major upgrades in their software. A few firmware fixes here and there maybe, but rarely do they get major updates like android. What benefit do HTC stand to gain in upgrading your old device to new versions of Android? It may be a symptom of Googles quick development cycles, but its still a problem. It may be one Google cannot solve but this blog post to me didnt address that issue, rather it said this is what we think fragmentation is, look at all the things we do to fix it. But in reality, for me, the fragmentation is mostly about the varying versions of android around. Perhaps if HTC were to charge you for the upgrade, in order for them to prioritize the development of it? Would you pay $50 for the upgrade if it meant it would happen in the next month as opposed to ages down the track?

by lenni 16y ago

enjo 16y ago

Why? Sense seems to work just fine for me. Every app I've downloaded (I've tried ~100 or so) works great. Sense integrates well, and seems to work perfectly with any integration points it has with 3rd party apps. It really seems to be a thin layer that really dresses up (in my opinion) the overall experience.

biafra 16y ago
I think the problem with sense ui is not so much the apps but the time HTC needs to upgrade to the latest Android release on their phones.
sharksandwich 16y ago
It's great Sense works for you, but I hate that it's not optional. I shouldn't have to root my phone to run vanilla Android

NateLawson 16y ago

I agree that's the key part. However, perhaps the reason upgrades are so slow is that Google is moving too fast for OEMs. Their profit margin on these Android phones is lower because they're more powerful and costly than the typical Symbian phone. No other phones (Blackberry, Sidekick) require them to be as involved in updating software. Apple ships iPhone OS updates via iTunes, not AT&T or Samsung. I think we'll see a fundamental testing of the limits of Android fragmentation this year as OEMs have to support so many different phones, starting from various points on 2.x. At what point will they cut off a phone as too old for updates? Will it be similar to Windows where you have an extended support period with only security fixes? Who patches security flaws in your browser on a G1 running 1.6 in 2011? HTC?

rodh257 16y ago

thats the problem though, traditionally most of the time phones don't get major upgrades in their software. A few firmware fixes here and there maybe, but rarely do they get major updates like android. What benefit do HTC stand to gain in upgrading your old device to new versions of Android? It may be a symptom of Googles quick development cycles, but its still a problem. It may be one Google cannot solve but this blog post to me didnt address that issue, rather it said this is what we think fragmentation is, look at all the things we do to fix it. But in reality, for me, the fragmentation is mostly about the varying versions of android around. Perhaps if HTC were to charge you for the upgrade, in order for them to prioritize the development of it? Would you pay $50 for the upgrade if it meant it would happen in the next month as opposed to ages down the track?