4 ms·

I think that the fact that the chart stopped at June 2010 makes it looks much worse than it is now. Android is newer than iOS and works on a very different envi

I think that the fact that the chart stopped at June 2010 makes it looks much worse than it is now. Android is newer than iOS and works on a very different environment. Support 4 devices is much easier than 4 thousand. If you extend this chart to 2011 you will notice that the platform is more mature and most of the phones will receive ICS (my wife Galaxy S is a relatively old device and will get it).

deleted 15y ago
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degusta 15y ago
You might be right re it gets better - though not as sure about the ICS bit. It is my intention to keep at it & add (ideally) every phone.
- fluidcruft 15y ago
  Here, I'll fill in a data point you missed: Motorola Milestone XT720 released June 2011 (USA: August) Runs 2.1 No bugfixes No updates No upgrades Buggy as hell. 2.2 upgrades and flash support pledged by Motorola sales/support at the time of release in the US -- later clarified that those employees had been "confused" when the mothballing was made official in late November. Those Apple green bars look quite nice, but I'm not a fan. Maybe add some Windows phone. The problem as I see it is that since Android is Open Source, the manufacturers don't abstract their innovations into a HAL. For example, Motorola's FM radio and HDMI support is peppered all over inside the core eclair framework. So, someone has to mix it all together again with each new release. Usually in the FOSS space, we like to believe that the effort of maintaining private forks encourages companies to contribute their efforts back to the open source project. That doesn't work here, because manufacturers like Motorola also have the viable option to simply abandon their forks. Which is even less effort. Apple has a huge economy of scale--only four or five devices (most very similar) with relatively humongous market share per device. The personnel/device ratio obviously supports a much better customer experience than any Android device can offer (with the exception of perhaps the Android developer phones). I can only assume Microsoft knows what they are doing and enforces abstractions and barriers that limit the scope of manufacture monkeying.
  - andrewpi 15y ago
    This phone was released in 2010, not 2011, right?
    - fluidcruft 15y ago
      Yup, sorry, don't know why I typed that.
oflannabhra 15y ago
Here's the thing: Device manufacturers / carriers can say "this device will get this upgrade", and then fail to deliver on that upgrade. I wouldn't rely on what they've promised. One of the biggest points that the chart brings out is that by the time most Android phones DO get an upgrade, that upgrade is no longer current. So, while ICS might come to a lot of phones, I sincerely doubt it will happen in a timely manner. One of the biggest flaws in the Android ecosystem is the ridiculous software update cycles. Entire communities have been created to try to fill that gap (rooting & ROMs), but it's something Google needs to address directly. Note: I have a Samsung Epic (Sprint's Galaxy S), and I've been waiting months for a promised Gingerbread update.
jsz0 15y ago
If the N1 won't be getting ICS it's highly likely none of the phones with a similar class of hardware will either. That's gotta be at least 50% of all Android devices. Most carriers are still selling phones today that are guaranteed to never be updated again.

deleted 15y ago

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degusta 15y ago

You might be right re it gets better - though not as sure about the ICS bit. It is my intention to keep at it & add (ideally) every phone.

fluidcruft 15y ago
Here, I'll fill in a data point you missed: Motorola Milestone XT720 released June 2011 (USA: August) Runs 2.1 No bugfixes No updates No upgrades Buggy as hell. 2.2 upgrades and flash support pledged by Motorola sales/support at the time of release in the US -- later clarified that those employees had been "confused" when the mothballing was made official in late November. Those Apple green bars look quite nice, but I'm not a fan. Maybe add some Windows phone. The problem as I see it is that since Android is Open Source, the manufacturers don't abstract their innovations into a HAL. For example, Motorola's FM radio and HDMI support is peppered all over inside the core eclair framework. So, someone has to mix it all together again with each new release. Usually in the FOSS space, we like to believe that the effort of maintaining private forks encourages companies to contribute their efforts back to the open source project. That doesn't work here, because manufacturers like Motorola also have the viable option to simply abandon their forks. Which is even less effort. Apple has a huge economy of scale--only four or five devices (most very similar) with relatively humongous market share per device. The personnel/device ratio obviously supports a much better customer experience than any Android device can offer (with the exception of perhaps the Android developer phones). I can only assume Microsoft knows what they are doing and enforces abstractions and barriers that limit the scope of manufacture monkeying.
- andrewpi 15y ago
  This phone was released in 2010, not 2011, right?
  - fluidcruft 15y ago
    Yup, sorry, don't know why I typed that.

oflannabhra 15y ago

Here's the thing: Device manufacturers / carriers can say "this device will get this upgrade", and then fail to deliver on that upgrade. I wouldn't rely on what they've promised. One of the biggest points that the chart brings out is that by the time most Android phones DO get an upgrade, that upgrade is no longer current. So, while ICS might come to a lot of phones, I sincerely doubt it will happen in a timely manner. One of the biggest flaws in the Android ecosystem is the ridiculous software update cycles. Entire communities have been created to try to fill that gap (rooting & ROMs), but it's something Google needs to address directly. Note: I have a Samsung Epic (Sprint's Galaxy S), and I've been waiting months for a promised Gingerbread update.

jsz0 15y ago

If the N1 won't be getting ICS it's highly likely none of the phones with a similar class of hardware will either. That's gotta be at least 50% of all Android devices. Most carriers are still selling phones today that are guaranteed to never be updated again.