3 ms·

I doubt anyone at Google was thrilled about dropping support but I suspect this was an unavoidable conclusion they came to based on the loss of support from the

I doubt anyone at Google was thrilled about dropping support but I suspect this was an unavoidable conclusion they came to based on the loss of support from the supplier of the CPU for the Galaxy Nexus. The Galaxy Nexus uses a TI OMAP CPU and last September(2012) TI announced it was stopping development of OMAP solutions and shifting it's focus to embedded processors. In November it then laid off 1700 people in the OMAP division and moved everyone remaining into their embedded division. This was around the time Jelly Bean was released and probably before development on KitKat started. Considering how tumultuous layoffs and reorganizations are, it wouldn't surprise me if any engineering support Google needed from TI fell on deaf ears. This leaves Google in a very awkward position.

josteink 13y ago
Considering how tumultuous layoffs and reorganizations are, it wouldn't surprise me if any engineering support Google needed from TI fell on deaf ears. This leaves Google in a very awkward position. Sure that's a reason, but it's not an excuse. Had something like this happened to for instance Microsoft or Apple, they would have footed the bill, engineered a solution, and lived up to what they promised their customers in the first place. That's why you have a profit-margin after all: To foot the bill when (and not if) something unexpected happens and doesn't go according to plan. Here Google is just cascading their own problems with their own sub-contractors directly on to their customers and saying, "Hey! Sorry. You're screwed. And btw we'll keep the money you paid us". That's totally unprofessional and completely uncool.
- cptskippy 13y ago
  I was simply providing you with a technical reason for why support for newer operating systems might have been dropped. I think you're being complete unrealistic with your expectations or that your understanding of what being a Nexus device means. Google has not announced that it is discontinuing support for the Galaxy Nexus, just that it won't receive the latest and greatest OS. Had something like this happened to for instance Microsoft or Apple, they would have footed the bill, engineered a solution, and lived up to what they promised their customers in the first place. Are you really citing Apple as a credible reference for an upstanding company? I'm going to cite 1st Generation iPad which was released in 2010, discontinued in 2011 and received one iOS upgrade as proof you're full of it. On top of, that numerous Apple devices have only had 2 years of software updates (e.g. iPod Touch 4th Gen) before being discontinued. Furthermore Apple has settle numerous lawsuits and class action suits filed against it for failure to repair devices under warranty, claiming such bizarre things as being a smoker creates a hazardous operating environment in violation of the warranty. They've had numerous lawsuits against them for manufacturing defects on devices that resulted in high numbers of failures outside of warranty periods (e.g. iBook power-on issue). Microsoft ships a baseline package of drivers but it's up to vendors and device manufacturers to maintain driver support for Microsoft's Operating Systems so that's not even a valid comparison. That's why you have a profit-margin after all No, that's not why you have profit-margins. But even if it were, Google is selling the devices at or near cost so there isn't much margin to work with. So using your own logic against you, getting an OS update this summer on a device that's 2 years old that never made a profit is pretty crazy. That's totally unprofessional and completely uncool. You're completely unreasonable.
lhl 13y ago
While TI did restructure on the OMAP side, the parts are still active, not EOL'd: http://www.ti.com/lsds/ti/omap-applications-processors/omap-4-processors-products.page http://www.ti.com/lsds/ti/omap-applications-processors/omap-... The OMAP dev kernel is also quite active: http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/tmlind/linux-omap.git http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/tmlind/linux-oma... Look at the checkins in just the past few days. Here's what it looks like on the Google side as a contrast: https://android.googlesource.com/kernel/omap https://android.googlesource.com/kernel/omap While TI announced they wouldn't be pursuing new smartphone/tablet clients, they also announced they'd continue supporting existing customers. It's worth noting that Google is an active client - the Google Glasses they released this year are running w/ OMAP 4430s (and you can see the glass kernel branches are active on the Android side). Not to put too fine a point on it, but your post is completely unsupported by the (easily discoverable - it only took like 2min of searching to dig the above up) facts. I doubt that anyone from Google is going to step forward with their reasoning (although, in the spirit of things, I'd be happy to be proven wrong), but I'd assume it was a pretty straight forward cost/benefit analysis. There aren't going to be new OMAP-based phones/tablets, and the number of active GNex's running stock is probably miniscule (tens of thousands?), so it just wasn't worth doing.

josteink 13y ago

Considering how tumultuous layoffs and reorganizations are, it wouldn't surprise me if any engineering support Google needed from TI fell on deaf ears. This leaves Google in a very awkward position. Sure that's a reason, but it's not an excuse. Had something like this happened to for instance Microsoft or Apple, they would have footed the bill, engineered a solution, and lived up to what they promised their customers in the first place. That's why you have a profit-margin after all: To foot the bill when (and not if) something unexpected happens and doesn't go according to plan. Here Google is just cascading their own problems with their own sub-contractors directly on to their customers and saying, "Hey! Sorry. You're screwed. And btw we'll keep the money you paid us". That's totally unprofessional and completely uncool.

cptskippy 13y ago
I was simply providing you with a technical reason for why support for newer operating systems might have been dropped. I think you're being complete unrealistic with your expectations or that your understanding of what being a Nexus device means. Google has not announced that it is discontinuing support for the Galaxy Nexus, just that it won't receive the latest and greatest OS. Had something like this happened to for instance Microsoft or Apple, they would have footed the bill, engineered a solution, and lived up to what they promised their customers in the first place. Are you really citing Apple as a credible reference for an upstanding company? I'm going to cite 1st Generation iPad which was released in 2010, discontinued in 2011 and received one iOS upgrade as proof you're full of it. On top of, that numerous Apple devices have only had 2 years of software updates (e.g. iPod Touch 4th Gen) before being discontinued. Furthermore Apple has settle numerous lawsuits and class action suits filed against it for failure to repair devices under warranty, claiming such bizarre things as being a smoker creates a hazardous operating environment in violation of the warranty. They've had numerous lawsuits against them for manufacturing defects on devices that resulted in high numbers of failures outside of warranty periods (e.g. iBook power-on issue). Microsoft ships a baseline package of drivers but it's up to vendors and device manufacturers to maintain driver support for Microsoft's Operating Systems so that's not even a valid comparison. That's why you have a profit-margin after all No, that's not why you have profit-margins. But even if it were, Google is selling the devices at or near cost so there isn't much margin to work with. So using your own logic against you, getting an OS update this summer on a device that's 2 years old that never made a profit is pretty crazy. That's totally unprofessional and completely uncool. You're completely unreasonable.

lhl 13y ago

While TI did restructure on the OMAP side, the parts are still active, not EOL'd: http://www.ti.com/lsds/ti/omap-applications-processors/omap-4-processors-products.page http://www.ti.com/lsds/ti/omap-applications-processors/omap-... The OMAP dev kernel is also quite active: http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/tmlind/linux-omap.git http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/tmlind/linux-oma... Look at the checkins in just the past few days. Here's what it looks like on the Google side as a contrast: https://android.googlesource.com/kernel/omap https://android.googlesource.com/kernel/omap While TI announced they wouldn't be pursuing new smartphone/tablet clients, they also announced they'd continue supporting existing customers. It's worth noting that Google is an active client - the Google Glasses they released this year are running w/ OMAP 4430s (and you can see the glass kernel branches are active on the Android side). Not to put too fine a point on it, but your post is completely unsupported by the (easily discoverable - it only took like 2min of searching to dig the above up) facts. I doubt that anyone from Google is going to step forward with their reasoning (although, in the spirit of things, I'd be happy to be proven wrong), but I'd assume it was a pretty straight forward cost/benefit analysis. There aren't going to be new OMAP-based phones/tablets, and the number of active GNex's running stock is probably miniscule (tens of thousands?), so it just wasn't worth doing.