6 ms·

21% of Android devices are now running ICS

41 points by esolyt 14y ago

27182818284 14y ago
I'm an Android advocate, but I'm also a glass-half-empty-you're-going-to-die-of-thirst kinda guy at times. For example at times like this, when I read that 21% have ICS, I want to shit all over Google's Android team for not having the sense to know this was going to be a problem. I mean ICS is still a release behind state of the art. I know Google has business PhDs, can't they lend them to the Android team for a bit. "Root and load your own rom" is not an acceptable answer for the user who has to be explained both what a rom is and what rooting is.
- mdwrigh2 14y ago
  What would you suggest as a solution? This isn't to suggest it isn't a problem, just that not all problems have viable solutions.
  - jsz0 14y ago
    The solution is to take some control back from the carriers and OEMs but Google won't do that because it's Android's main selling point to carriers and OEMs.
  - 27182818284 14y ago
    I don't think Google has used their might as a company well enough to convince the carriers it is their best interests to be more current with their phones' software or in general to do what is best for the customer in order to ensure they keep coming back. Or for example, does Google know that the Verizon store employees in the midwest will try to sell you an iPhone even when you explicitly walk in and say you want the Galaxy Nexus? To use a cliche, that's the situation on the ground.
  - nodata 14y ago
    Google is waiting for consumer outrage before twisting the carriers' arms.
  - taligent 14y ago
    Simple. Look at Linux. Look at Windows. You centralize updates of the core OS and build ABIs/APIs for all of the parts of the system that are needed to be extensible e.g. drivers, libraries, shells etc. This model is proven to work and work well. It just needs Google to show some leadership.
    - fpgeek 14y ago
      I'm sorry, but that's just bullshit. The Linux / Windows update situation that is most analogous to the carrier-gated smartphone updates is updating OSes inside large companies. It's the same update process - a third party has to certify your update and then the update is incrementally rolled out to a large number of computers. So how do corporations do with their Windows and Linux updates? Well, I'm using XP and RHEL 5 these days and I don't think my experience is at all atypical...
- notatoad 14y ago
  As pissed as I am about my phone not getting an ICS update, I can't really fault google too much for this. They made an open mobile OS, and released it to the world. What makes it attractive to the handset manufacturers and the carriers is that they don't have a software vendor trying to exert control over the product. You can make a direct comparison to windows phone: Microsoft has all kinds of restrictions for handset manufacturers and carriers about what they can do with it: device makers can't bundle shitty bloatware, tight hardware requirements, updates are controlled, etc. All things that produce a good experience for the end user. And look how the vendors reacted: the OEMs don't really want to build them, the carriers don't push them, the salespeople recommend android over it, and usage is minimal. Maybe if google took the same route and forced all the OEMs to upgrade to the latest firmware, those 21% of android phones that are on ICS would be android's total market share.
  - w1ntermute 14y ago
    > Maybe if google took the same route and forced all the OEMs to upgrade to the latest firmware, those 21% of android phones that are on ICS would be android's total market share. Judging from the Nexus phone sales, I'd say it'd be a lot lower than that.
  - taligent 14y ago
    Of course this is Google's fault. Do you really think they are the first company who has had to deal with building a core platform that third parties can add on top of (carriers, OEMs) ? This isn't a complex problem to solve.
- cageface 14y ago
  I think the market will shake this out in the long run. Vendors that kneecap themselves with overzealous mods and fall behind in updates are going to get a bad reputation eventually. This has already happened to Samsung who in many ways is the flagship vendor. Also, as enviable as Apple's uptake of OS updates is, I don't think it's essential for the viability of a mobile platform. If people upgrade their phones on two-year cycles you can just ride that wave instead of trying to get people to update their software. Since both iOS and Android are pretty mature at this point major updates are less critical.
  - jerlam 14y ago
    > Vendors that kneecap themselves with overzealous mods and fall behind in updates are going to get a bad reputation eventually. This has already happened to Samsung who in many ways is the flagship vendor. In what way exactly? Given that the Galaxy S3 is selling like hotcakes, it doesn't seem that having a bad reputation is bad for business.
    - fpgeek 14y ago
      Sadly, I don't see skinning hurting Samsung, especially since, judging by the volume of build leaks, the Galaxy S3 is very likely going to be both: 1. The first non-Nexus phone updated to Jelly Bean. 2. The first device using a non-Nexus chipset updated to Jelly Bean.
      - cageface 14y ago
        The thing is, Samsung is getting a lot of other things right, so even though a lot of people feel burned by their lack of updates it hasn't tipped the balance away from them yet. But I do read a lot of complaints from users claiming they plan to buy from somebody else the next time around. I think Samsung is really nailing distribution. Here in Vietnam I see their stuff in every single phone shop but have to look a lot harder to find HTC and I can't find the Asus tablets anywhere.
        fpgeek 14y ago
coopdog 14y ago
I'm only buying nexus devices from now on unless a manufacturer gives a guarantee on update delay and life of phone (or at least establishes a good track record) As much as I love my Samsung devices, really got burned by those updates
- ajross 14y ago
  Virtually all the Galaxy S/2/III phones are supported by cyanogenmod. Reflashing a phone is scary and weird when you do it the first time, but it's really not hard and the community support is quite good. If you're at the point, as a technical user, where OS flexibility is more important to you than the device choice, then it's probably worth your time to puzzle out the process.
  - vibrunazo 14y ago
    If he's getting a nexus only (like me) I suppose that means he always wants the latest version of the OS. Cyanogenmod doesn't solve the problem because they're always behind. By the time CM has stable builds for J, my phone will be on K. If you want a phone with the latest version of the OS, then CM is a bandage, not a solution. The only solution is buying only nexuses.
    - w1ntermute 14y ago
      > Cyanogenmod doesn't solve the problem because they're always behind. By the time CM has stable builds for J, my phone will be on K. That depends on how you look at it. It's only an issue for me if the phone is never updated. It's fine if I'm lagging behind by a version, as long as I receive an update before I end up 2 versions behind.
    - esolyt 14y ago
      I would still use Cyanogenmod with a Nexus. Besides, Cyanogenmod isn't lagging behind that much. It took a little too long from Gingerbread to ICS but we probably will have Stable Cyanogenmod 10 very soon.
    - modernshoggoth 14y ago
BrainScraps 14y ago
I'm also an Android-lover, but this sample is all kinds of skewed - "based on the number of Android devices that have accessed Google Play within a 14-day period ending on the data collection date " (September 4, 2012) 14-day period? That's a pretty decent way of making sure that the people who have had their phones for a long time (like this guy here with the Droid X) are underrepresented.
- vibrunazo 14y ago
  Why exactly? Maybe you misread it? It's data from people who accessed the store in 14 days, not people who have bought devices in 14 days. If you have an old device but is actively updating apps, then you'll be represented. They're getting data from devices which accessed the play store, because that's all the data that google has.
  - ben1040 14y ago
    And even then, I'm pretty sure it's accessing the store in the background without the user opening it up. Otherwise, how would it know to pop up a notification that app updates are available?
    - wiradikusuma 14y ago
      then it's still skewed. i have froyo and turn off background stuff to conserve battery. i'm pretty sure many people do this for the same reason.
      - mdwrigh2 14y ago
        Do you update your apps once a month? Once every few months? This statistic is published for developers to get an idea of which OS versions they should be supporting based off market share. If you aren't opening the play store to buy apps in the 14-day period, then these developers probably aren't looking to sell to you. Besides, I doubt most people know how to turn off background activities.
  - 14y ago
npguy 14y ago
You can read this stat in two ways: 1. wow how tech savvy android users are OR 2. totally skewed stat, user never upgraded, they maynot even know.
- fpgeek 14y ago
  Given that yesterday Google said Android had reached 480 million devices, we have the following (overestimates because some devices are no longer in service, but still): Cupcake: ~ 1 million Donut: ~ 2 million Eclair: ~ 18 million Froyo: ~ 67 million Gingerbread: ~ 276 million Honeycomb: ~ 10 million Ice Cream Sandwich: ~ 100 million Jelly Bean: ~ 6 million
  - esolyt 14y ago
    So we have 100 million ICS devices out there? Suddenly, it doesn't sound so bad.
    - fpgeek 14y ago
      Yeah. AFAIK, ICS + Jelly Bean by themselves are bigger than every mobile platform out there except for: - Symbian - Gingerbread by itself - iOS as a whole - Android as a whole
  - slaven 14y ago
    That is probably not accurate, as someone else mentioned the data represents only a 14-day slice of devices that accessed the app store. Newer devices will be over represented in this sample, when compared to all devices out there (some used as feature phones)
esusatyo 14y ago
I'm actually quite amazed by the adoption rate of iOS. Before iOS 5.0, it was very very hard for users to upgrade their OS. Android on the other hand is supposed to be easier to upgrade. There was some statistics last year that shows only 50% of iOS users sync their iOS devices regularly, which means those people went out of their way to go and get the OS update. I still can't believe this fact. Now that iOS does update over the air, of course more iOS users will update quicker. Especially when the update comes straight from Apple, but the fact that iOS users upgrade their OS very quickly before 5.0 still impressed me.
- MaxGabriel 14y ago
  For reference, iOS 5 adoption was 80% at WWDC
  - ghshephard 14y ago
    What percentage was iOS6? Between iOS 5/iOS 6 I would hope that it would be north of 90% at WWDC.
    - esusatyo 14y ago
      iOS 6 is still in beta, it will probably be out to general public sometime this month.
      - ghshephard 14y ago
        Right - I recall reading an article/blog/comment/pundit (Gruber? Marco?) that suggested that their were was a greater percentage of people using IOS 6 than there were Jellybean in the general population, right around the time of WWDC. At WWDC proper - I would expect a sizable percentage of developers were running IOS 6 on their devices.
    - MaxGabriel 14y ago
      I'm sorry for poor phrasing, what I meant to say was that at the time of WWDC, iOS 5 adoption of the population at large was 80%.
noirman 14y ago
Some Android device owners simply have not choice. Their devices aren't support/capable of running ICS.
kbronson 14y ago
ICS is starting to be a really good system. You can confirm this because Apple is activating its troll-patent machine against devices running this.
Urgo 14y ago
I'm jealous of all the non-verizon Jelly Bean Galaxy Nexuses out there. I had the first official ICS phone in the USA but Verizon has really hindered its potential.
pilif 14y ago
So one year after ICS came out and about three months after ICS' successor came out, there's finally 21% of the devices running a now outdated version of Android? And we are celebrating that? Google really needs to find a solution to get these devices updated independently from the manufacturers which are only interested in selling new devices. It's very frustrating for developers to see more and more features being added to the platform that are out of reach for years or require a lot of work to implement in a backwards compatible way (which then also isn't worth the effort because nobody is running the newer versions)
- Steko 14y ago
  "Google really needs to find a solution to get these devices updated independently from the manufacturers which are only interested in selling new devices." Why? I mean I'm sure Google would love faster updates from their partners and I think going forward they've decided to share their roadmaps with more then the current nexus partner which should help but: (1) At the end of the day Android is doing gangbusters even with slow updates. (2) There's a distinct line of devices that should get fast updates if that's a killer feature for you. (3) The whole point of Android is they don't all have to do anything.
  - taligent 14y ago
    Why ? Because most Android users don't like the fact that their devices are basically abandoned the minute they are purchased. It is by far the number one problem with the platform at the moment. And frankly the idea that Google should do nothing about addressing Android's biggest flaw is pretty dumb.
    - Steko 14y ago
      "most Android users" I'm guessing most actually don't care. That's the point of Android -- if "most" really cared the market would respond in a bigger way to that. The Galaxy Nexus has done well in sales but ultimately it's losing head to head against ICS phones.

41 points by esolyt 14y ago

I'm an Android advocate, but I'm also a glass-half-empty-you're-going-to-die-of-thirst kinda guy at times. For example at times like this, when I read that 21% have ICS, I want to shit all over Google's Android team for not having the sense to know this was going to be a problem. I mean ICS is still a release behind state of the art. I know Google has business PhDs, can't they lend them to the Android team for a bit. "Root and load your own rom" is not an acceptable answer for the user who has to be explained both what a rom is and what rooting is.

mdwrigh2 14y ago
What would you suggest as a solution? This isn't to suggest it isn't a problem, just that not all problems have viable solutions.
- jsz0 14y ago
  The solution is to take some control back from the carriers and OEMs but Google won't do that because it's Android's main selling point to carriers and OEMs.
- 27182818284 14y ago
  I don't think Google has used their might as a company well enough to convince the carriers it is their best interests to be more current with their phones' software or in general to do what is best for the customer in order to ensure they keep coming back. Or for example, does Google know that the Verizon store employees in the midwest will try to sell you an iPhone even when you explicitly walk in and say you want the Galaxy Nexus? To use a cliche, that's the situation on the ground.
- nodata 14y ago
  Google is waiting for consumer outrage before twisting the carriers' arms.
- taligent 14y ago
  Simple. Look at Linux. Look at Windows. You centralize updates of the core OS and build ABIs/APIs for all of the parts of the system that are needed to be extensible e.g. drivers, libraries, shells etc. This model is proven to work and work well. It just needs Google to show some leadership.
  - fpgeek 14y ago
    I'm sorry, but that's just bullshit. The Linux / Windows update situation that is most analogous to the carrier-gated smartphone updates is updating OSes inside large companies. It's the same update process - a third party has to certify your update and then the update is incrementally rolled out to a large number of computers. So how do corporations do with their Windows and Linux updates? Well, I'm using XP and RHEL 5 these days and I don't think my experience is at all atypical...
notatoad 14y ago
As pissed as I am about my phone not getting an ICS update, I can't really fault google too much for this. They made an open mobile OS, and released it to the world. What makes it attractive to the handset manufacturers and the carriers is that they don't have a software vendor trying to exert control over the product. You can make a direct comparison to windows phone: Microsoft has all kinds of restrictions for handset manufacturers and carriers about what they can do with it: device makers can't bundle shitty bloatware, tight hardware requirements, updates are controlled, etc. All things that produce a good experience for the end user. And look how the vendors reacted: the OEMs don't really want to build them, the carriers don't push them, the salespeople recommend android over it, and usage is minimal. Maybe if google took the same route and forced all the OEMs to upgrade to the latest firmware, those 21% of android phones that are on ICS would be android's total market share.
- w1ntermute 14y ago
  > Maybe if google took the same route and forced all the OEMs to upgrade to the latest firmware, those 21% of android phones that are on ICS would be android's total market share. Judging from the Nexus phone sales, I'd say it'd be a lot lower than that.
- taligent 14y ago
  Of course this is Google's fault. Do you really think they are the first company who has had to deal with building a core platform that third parties can add on top of (carriers, OEMs) ? This isn't a complex problem to solve.
cageface 14y ago
I think the market will shake this out in the long run. Vendors that kneecap themselves with overzealous mods and fall behind in updates are going to get a bad reputation eventually. This has already happened to Samsung who in many ways is the flagship vendor. Also, as enviable as Apple's uptake of OS updates is, I don't think it's essential for the viability of a mobile platform. If people upgrade their phones on two-year cycles you can just ride that wave instead of trying to get people to update their software. Since both iOS and Android are pretty mature at this point major updates are less critical.
- jerlam 14y ago
  > Vendors that kneecap themselves with overzealous mods and fall behind in updates are going to get a bad reputation eventually. This has already happened to Samsung who in many ways is the flagship vendor. In what way exactly? Given that the Galaxy S3 is selling like hotcakes, it doesn't seem that having a bad reputation is bad for business.
  - fpgeek 14y ago
    Sadly, I don't see skinning hurting Samsung, especially since, judging by the volume of build leaks, the Galaxy S3 is very likely going to be both: 1. The first non-Nexus phone updated to Jelly Bean. 2. The first device using a non-Nexus chipset updated to Jelly Bean.
    - cageface 14y ago
      The thing is, Samsung is getting a lot of other things right, so even though a lot of people feel burned by their lack of updates it hasn't tipped the balance away from them yet. But I do read a lot of complaints from users claiming they plan to buy from somebody else the next time around. I think Samsung is really nailing distribution. Here in Vietnam I see their stuff in every single phone shop but have to look a lot harder to find HTC and I can't find the Asus tablets anywhere.
      - fpgeek 14y ago

coopdog 14y ago

I'm only buying nexus devices from now on unless a manufacturer gives a guarantee on update delay and life of phone (or at least establishes a good track record) As much as I love my Samsung devices, really got burned by those updates

ajross 14y ago
Virtually all the Galaxy S/2/III phones are supported by cyanogenmod. Reflashing a phone is scary and weird when you do it the first time, but it's really not hard and the community support is quite good. If you're at the point, as a technical user, where OS flexibility is more important to you than the device choice, then it's probably worth your time to puzzle out the process.
- vibrunazo 14y ago
  If he's getting a nexus only (like me) I suppose that means he always wants the latest version of the OS. Cyanogenmod doesn't solve the problem because they're always behind. By the time CM has stable builds for J, my phone will be on K. If you want a phone with the latest version of the OS, then CM is a bandage, not a solution. The only solution is buying only nexuses.
  - w1ntermute 14y ago
    > Cyanogenmod doesn't solve the problem because they're always behind. By the time CM has stable builds for J, my phone will be on K. That depends on how you look at it. It's only an issue for me if the phone is never updated. It's fine if I'm lagging behind by a version, as long as I receive an update before I end up 2 versions behind.
  - esolyt 14y ago
    I would still use Cyanogenmod with a Nexus. Besides, Cyanogenmod isn't lagging behind that much. It took a little too long from Gingerbread to ICS but we probably will have Stable Cyanogenmod 10 very soon.
  - modernshoggoth 14y ago

BrainScraps 14y ago

I'm also an Android-lover, but this sample is all kinds of skewed - "based on the number of Android devices that have accessed Google Play within a 14-day period ending on the data collection date " (September 4, 2012) 14-day period? That's a pretty decent way of making sure that the people who have had their phones for a long time (like this guy here with the Droid X) are underrepresented.

vibrunazo 14y ago
Why exactly? Maybe you misread it? It's data from people who accessed the store in 14 days, not people who have bought devices in 14 days. If you have an old device but is actively updating apps, then you'll be represented. They're getting data from devices which accessed the play store, because that's all the data that google has.
- ben1040 14y ago
  And even then, I'm pretty sure it's accessing the store in the background without the user opening it up. Otherwise, how would it know to pop up a notification that app updates are available?
  - wiradikusuma 14y ago
    then it's still skewed. i have froyo and turn off background stuff to conserve battery. i'm pretty sure many people do this for the same reason.
    - mdwrigh2 14y ago
      Do you update your apps once a month? Once every few months? This statistic is published for developers to get an idea of which OS versions they should be supporting based off market share. If you aren't opening the play store to buy apps in the 14-day period, then these developers probably aren't looking to sell to you. Besides, I doubt most people know how to turn off background activities.
- 14y ago

npguy 14y ago

You can read this stat in two ways: 1. wow how tech savvy android users are OR 2. totally skewed stat, user never upgraded, they maynot even know.

fpgeek 14y ago
Given that yesterday Google said Android had reached 480 million devices, we have the following (overestimates because some devices are no longer in service, but still): Cupcake: ~ 1 million Donut: ~ 2 million Eclair: ~ 18 million Froyo: ~ 67 million Gingerbread: ~ 276 million Honeycomb: ~ 10 million Ice Cream Sandwich: ~ 100 million Jelly Bean: ~ 6 million
- esolyt 14y ago
  So we have 100 million ICS devices out there? Suddenly, it doesn't sound so bad.
  - fpgeek 14y ago
    Yeah. AFAIK, ICS + Jelly Bean by themselves are bigger than every mobile platform out there except for: - Symbian - Gingerbread by itself - iOS as a whole - Android as a whole
- slaven 14y ago
  That is probably not accurate, as someone else mentioned the data represents only a 14-day slice of devices that accessed the app store. Newer devices will be over represented in this sample, when compared to all devices out there (some used as feature phones)

esusatyo 14y ago

I'm actually quite amazed by the adoption rate of iOS. Before iOS 5.0, it was very very hard for users to upgrade their OS. Android on the other hand is supposed to be easier to upgrade. There was some statistics last year that shows only 50% of iOS users sync their iOS devices regularly, which means those people went out of their way to go and get the OS update. I still can't believe this fact. Now that iOS does update over the air, of course more iOS users will update quicker. Especially when the update comes straight from Apple, but the fact that iOS users upgrade their OS very quickly before 5.0 still impressed me.

MaxGabriel 14y ago
For reference, iOS 5 adoption was 80% at WWDC
- ghshephard 14y ago
  What percentage was iOS6? Between iOS 5/iOS 6 I would hope that it would be north of 90% at WWDC.
  - esusatyo 14y ago
    iOS 6 is still in beta, it will probably be out to general public sometime this month.
    - ghshephard 14y ago
      Right - I recall reading an article/blog/comment/pundit (Gruber? Marco?) that suggested that their were was a greater percentage of people using IOS 6 than there were Jellybean in the general population, right around the time of WWDC. At WWDC proper - I would expect a sizable percentage of developers were running IOS 6 on their devices.
  - MaxGabriel 14y ago
    I'm sorry for poor phrasing, what I meant to say was that at the time of WWDC, iOS 5 adoption of the population at large was 80%.

noirman 14y ago

Some Android device owners simply have not choice. Their devices aren't support/capable of running ICS.

kbronson 14y ago

ICS is starting to be a really good system. You can confirm this because Apple is activating its troll-patent machine against devices running this.

Urgo 14y ago

I'm jealous of all the non-verizon Jelly Bean Galaxy Nexuses out there. I had the first official ICS phone in the USA but Verizon has really hindered its potential.

pilif 14y ago

So one year after ICS came out and about three months after ICS' successor came out, there's finally 21% of the devices running a now outdated version of Android? And we are celebrating that? Google really needs to find a solution to get these devices updated independently from the manufacturers which are only interested in selling new devices. It's very frustrating for developers to see more and more features being added to the platform that are out of reach for years or require a lot of work to implement in a backwards compatible way (which then also isn't worth the effort because nobody is running the newer versions)

Steko 14y ago
"Google really needs to find a solution to get these devices updated independently from the manufacturers which are only interested in selling new devices." Why? I mean I'm sure Google would love faster updates from their partners and I think going forward they've decided to share their roadmaps with more then the current nexus partner which should help but: (1) At the end of the day Android is doing gangbusters even with slow updates. (2) There's a distinct line of devices that should get fast updates if that's a killer feature for you. (3) The whole point of Android is they don't all have to do anything.
- taligent 14y ago
  Why ? Because most Android users don't like the fact that their devices are basically abandoned the minute they are purchased. It is by far the number one problem with the platform at the moment. And frankly the idea that Google should do nothing about addressing Android's biggest flaw is pretty dumb.
  - Steko 14y ago
    "most Android users" I'm guessing most actually don't care. That's the point of Android -- if "most" really cared the market would respond in a bigger way to that. The Galaxy Nexus has done well in sales but ultimately it's losing head to head against ICS phones.