Google says Nexus One too old for Android 4.0 • Hacker News Board

Re: Google says Nexus One too old for Android 4.0

#101

Post by untog » Wed, Oct 26, 2011, 9:57 PM UTC

lurker17 wrote: post #98

untog wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That kind of market calculus made sense before the recession. Now the value proposition has changed, and while people may still buy newer hardware (such as tablets) they expect better value from their tech purchasing because increasing wealth is no longer a given. I'm not so sure about that. You can (probably- I'll be honest, I haven't checked for sure) get a more powerful Android handset than a Nexus One for free if…

A 2-year contract costs $20/month more than a comparable month-to-month plan. (T-mobile's Even More /Plus plans make this explicit.) That's where the phone subsidy comes from.

That may be the case for T-Mobile but it certainly is not universal. AT&T offers nothing like that, AFAIK.

Re: Google says Nexus One too old for Android 4.0

#102

Post by tomkarlo » Wed, Oct 26, 2011, 10:02 PM UTC

anigbrowl wrote: post #91

untog wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That kind of market calculus made sense before the recession. Now the value proposition has changed, and while people may still buy newer hardware (such as tablets) they expect better value from their tech purchasing because increasing wealth is no longer a given. I'm not so sure about that. You can (probably- I'll be honest, I haven't checked for sure) get a more powerful Android handset than a Nexus One for free if…

There's very little to lose there- except having to take on a two year plan. Creditworthiness is a major barrier for many people. Many more resent being tied to a single vendor. Hence the increasing market share of non-contract vendors, although they've been taking a beating too because cell service demand at the bottom end is highly elastic compared to food and housing.

If you're an existing customer of a cell phone provider without a contract, I kind of doubt they'll refuse to sign you up to a new two-year contract because of credit quality, as long as you've been paying your bils. It doesn't make sense to drive you to jump to another carrier.

Re: Google says Nexus One too old for Android 4.0

#103

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Oct 26, 2011, 10:07 PM UTC

dextorious wrote: post #97

Tichy wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well Apple, who as we know do everything right, also made several hardware updates that left older Macs behind. So who is right?

> Well Apple, who as we know do everything right Really? Says who? The imaginary Apple-fanboy strawman? > also made several hardware updates that left older Macs behind. So who is right? What's "right" in this context? It's an engineering tradeoff. Considerations: 1) the cost of adding support for newer features for soon to be obsolete hardware 2) the benefits of using the added capabilities of newer hardware with no…

[deleted]

Re: Google says Nexus One too old for Android 4.0

#104

Post by patrickod » Wed, Oct 26, 2011, 10:09 PM UTC

chugger wrote: post #33

patrickod wrote: post #29

Why are people complaining about the Nexus One not being as great as the iPhone 4. Look at the release dates and you'll see that the Nexus One has 6 months on the iPhone 4. If anything compare it to the 3GS and you'll see that it is in fact a much better phone. Google are pushing forward with Android and the Nexus One is unfortunately being left behind. It remains the best phone I've ever owned and I'll definitely be…

the iPhone 3GS is better than Nexus one because it (can) runs iOS 5. your Nexus One is stuck running an old OS.

Please take your trolling elsewhere. Last I checked HN was a place where intellectual discussion takes place. Act accordingly.

Re: Google says Nexus One too old for Android 4.0

#105

Post by Caballera » Wed, Oct 26, 2011, 10:17 PM UTC

anigbrowl wrote: post #56

untog wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

taking the time to run great on hardware of that capability pays huge dividends in the phone world. It really won't though, that's the problem. The Nexus One is nearly two years old. It's somewhat of an anomaly because it'll have a higher than average number of off-contract purchases, but in general once a person's contact has run for two years they get a new phone. Two year old phones just aren't that important. Spe…

in general once a person's contact has run for two years they get a new phone That kind of market calculus made sense before the recession. Now the value proposition has changed, and while people may still buy newer hardware (such as tablets) they expect better value from their tech purchasing because increasing wealth is no longer a given. Also, people are more suspicious of corporations in general, especially ones…

In Canada, phone contracts are 3 year.

Re: Google says Nexus One too old for Android 4.0

#106

Post by phuff » Wed, Oct 26, 2011, 10:26 PM UTC

masklinn wrote: post #46

phuff wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I started with an N1 and later got an iPad 2. I found I had to turn off all push notifications and was surprised that apple would put out something that had such inferior usability when the notification dropdown thing that Android has is so clearly better. Maybe they didn't want to copy the people they despised? Or maybe they just couldn't find the engineering time until 5.0? I dunno. It was unbearable. I had to turn…

> I found I had to turn off all push notifications and was surprised that apple would put out something that had such inferior usability when the notification dropdown thing that Android has is so clearly better. You may want to note that iOS was released more than a year before Android. The notifications have been essentially untouched between iPhoneOS 1 and iOS 5. > The other thing that really stinks on the iPad co…

The iPad had whatever came with the iPad2 by default, which I assumed was the latest, maybe it wasn't. Anyway, I haven't upgraded to 5 yet since it has seemed wrinkly for a lot of people.

Wrt notifications... I just don't understand _why_ they didn't touch it between iOS1 and iOS5. It was so bad :) I'm sure it's much better now.

Re: Google says Nexus One too old for Android 4.0

#107

Post by rryan » Wed, Oct 26, 2011, 10:34 PM UTC

sliverstorm wrote: post #96

bonzoesc wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This isn't a hardware capacity issue. The Nexus One has 512MB of internal storage. The Nexus Galaxy has 32GB of internal storage. If ICS weighs in at much more than 400MB and has the stellar (read as: "perfunctory") MicroSD support we've come to expect from Android, it'd be about as enjoyable as a fart in a spacesuit on a Nexus One.

I don't know about you guys, but I'm a little blown away that ICS could come in close to 512MB. That sounds like bloat to me.

Are new features bloat? Code doesn't take up zero space, you know.

Re: Google says Nexus One too old for Android 4.0

#108

Post by lurker17 » Wed, Oct 26, 2011, 10:50 PM UTC

37prime wrote: post #89

Nexus One was released in January 2010. Too soon to be "retired" after only 2 years. Nexus One was seriously "flawed" for having only 512MB of internal storage. I had to uninstall tons of applications just to update the built in ones.

This is the killer. Google keeps piling more junkware apps onto internal storage, and not enabling the SD bit for their apps.

I am constantly making calls of which 1MB non-SD app to evict, while Browser and Maps and friends pile on 5-10MB each. And there isn't even any piracy(?)-related reason to make these apps internal-only, like there is for paid apps.

My N1 is a constant state of "Browser storage full" since the latest round of app updates.

Re: Google says Nexus One too old for Android 4.0

#109

Post by lurker17 » Wed, Oct 26, 2011, 10:51 PM UTC

brudgers wrote: post #63

lreeves wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then what's the incentive for Apple to do just that? IOS5 runs on the iPhone 3GS, which is older than the Nexus One.

People who purchase iOS devices are Apple's customers. People who purchase Android devices are not Google' s customers

Google sold thousands (millions?) of N1 phones at a significant price. Those buyers certainly are Google's customers. Well, they were, until Google blew them off 5 minutes after purchase.

Re: Google says Nexus One too old for Android 4.0

#110

Post by nextparadigms » Wed, Oct 26, 2011, 10:58 PM UTC

ChuckMcM wrote: post #11

I've always wondered about this, especially in embedded devices. Amongst the many mistakes Microsoft made with Vista, first and foremost was allowing the bloat to get so bad that it wouldn't run at all on machines that ran XP quite happily. Later Windows 7 could actually run on those old XP machines with many, if not most, of the features that Vista bragged about. So here we have Google, arguably a company which can…

This shouldn't be a performance issue. It's a storage issue. The phones from early 2010 made by HTC had very low storage, like 512 MB, where 300-350 was occupied by the OS itself, and the rest was free for the user.

HTC Desire which basically is a Nexus One clone, couldn't even upgrade to Gingerbread+Sense, because there wouldn't be enough free storage left, so they had the choice of either using only stock Gingerbread to upgrade it, or leave it to Froyo+Sense.

Now I assume ICS is even bigger than Gingerbread, so I'm pretty sure it wouldn't fit in there. Now, will we see CM9 with ICS on Nexus One? It's possible, but maybe the CM team will be able to cut what the Android team can't cut from it, and offer a more stripped down version of it.