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Android Orphans: Visualizing a Sad History of Support

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Re: Android Orphans: Visualizing a Sad History of Support

#21
post #14
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you considered extending the chart? Right now it seems very iOS versus Android, and is only useful for people in the United States.

Why is iOS vs. Android only useful for people in the US?

It isn't. I was referring to the fact that the chart:

- only compares iOS and Android phones, and

- only compares updates from American carriers.

Re: Android Orphans: Visualizing a Sad History of Support

#22
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just an observation: I believe I would strongly prefer a timeline, like iPhone 3 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| iPhone 4 ||||||||||||||||||||||||| Nexus one ||||||||||----||||------- Other ph. ||||||||||||-------- This would make several things much clearer (e.g. what's the uptake of 2.3? Have Android manufacturers gotten better or worse?) Still, interesting. EDIT: Just FYI, at 47 minutes this has 9 points.

I actually originally started doing it that way, but thought it was more relevant vis a vis release date than calendar date. I do intend to include that when I finish doing all of the phones. (Yes, I'm a bit OCD :) ). Google apparently says less than 50% are on Gingerbread, despite way more than 50% of Android phones having been sold since 2.3 shipped. I do think manufacturers might have gotten a bit better, but I gu…

Motorola is notoriously bad it looks like. It's a pitty you don't list many Samsung phones. They churn out devices, but don't do a lot of updates.

Re: Android Orphans: Visualizing a Sad History of Support

#23

Am I misunderstanding this: "7 of the 18 Android phones never ran a current version of the OS." "12 of 18 only ran a current version of the OS for a matter of weeks or less." That makes 19 out of 18 phones. That looks like an error. I wonder what other errors there are here?

Yes, it's 7 that were "never" and 5 more that were "weeks", so 12 total that were "weeks or less". I struggled with that phrasing a bit - either way seemed wrong.

Re: Android Orphans: Visualizing a Sad History of Support

#24
How do buying apps works on Android and all its versions? I remember buying apps on my first generation iPhone that then wouldn't support iOS 3.x but the Store still let me buy it. Is it the same on Android (but worse since there are so many different versions around)?

Re: Android Orphans: Visualizing a Sad History of Support

#25
post #14
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you considered extending the chart? Right now it seems very iOS versus Android, and is only useful for people in the United States.

Why is iOS vs. Android only useful for people in the US?

Most of the devices listed are US-centric or US-only. Anything 4G isn't available in Europe under the same name.

Re: Android Orphans: Visualizing a Sad History of Support

#26
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>And don't forget the mandatory "crapware" that carriers pre-install. ICS supposedly solves this problem but one has to wonder how many low-end Android phones will be sold in the next year (or even two?) that won't support ICS since the N1 won't be getting it.

I'd say Gingerbread will still be the most pre-installed Android version during all 2012.

Unfortunately I suspect you're right.

Re: Android Orphans: Visualizing a Sad History of Support

#27
post #2

I wrote the piece / did the research. Happy to answer any questions or comments people might have.

It might be interesting to include whether a given phone is running stock Android or OEM skins like Sense. General consensus is that stock phones tend to be upgraded more often and faster, but it'd be nice to have some data to back that up.

Re: Android Orphans: Visualizing a Sad History of Support

#28

Limiting it to 3 years masks the fact that lots of people still had iPhone 3G phones on 2 year contracts when Apple stopped offering updates for it. That said, the fact even that's off the scale is worrying for Android.

You're right, but as a current iPhone 3G owner not getting updates, I can say that I had a great life for this phone (3.5 years and counting) and that I'm not mad Apple decided to stop supporting it. It's a very old device with very little memory - very difficult to support I imagine.

And I'm okay with it because I know Apple has conservative product life cycles and will stick to it. And I know the next iPhone get will be supported for 2-3 years at least, as well.

Re: Android Orphans: Visualizing a Sad History of Support

#29
post #2

I wrote the piece / did the research. Happy to answer any questions or comments people might have.

It might be interesting to include whether a given phone is running stock Android or OEM skins like Sense. General consensus is that stock phones tend to be upgraded more often and faster, but it'd be nice to have some data to back that up.

Concur. Similarly, general consensus seems to be that the skins actively hold things up because manufacturers have to port them to each new OS on each device.

It'll be interesting to see how much life the skins have left in them in the post-ICS era.

Re: Android Orphans: Visualizing a Sad History of Support

#30
post #24

How do buying apps works on Android and all its versions? I remember buying apps on my first generation iPhone that then wouldn't support iOS 3.x but the Store still let me buy it. Is it the same on Android (but worse since there are so many different versions around)?

If your OS version isn't supported, you can't see it in the market or download it.
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