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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

#81

Post by joelhaasnoot »

degusta wrote: post #50
joelhaasnoot wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

That's every Samsung phone released in the US through mid-2010. I do intend to keep at it and add more. (& yes, Motorola does appear to be particularly bad)

Yeah, the European marketshare is a little different: Motorola releases few of their devices in The Netherlands (more in Germany & UK), but Samsung has a very high market share here.

Re: Android Orphans: Visualizing a Sad History of Support

#83

Post by SandB0x »

There's a major point that can be added to the Why Don’t Android Phones Get Updated? section: Third party skins and interfaces.

HTC's Sense, Motorola's Motoblur and co can only introduce an engineering overhead and delays in upgrading. I would much rather they concentrated on making awsome hardware and leaving the UI to Google, rather than attempting to differentiate themselves in this way.

Re: Android Orphans: Visualizing a Sad History of Support

#84

Post by vidarh »

maukdaddy wrote: post #62
bpolania wrote: post #51

It's an important omission not to mention that Android-based phones prices are declining at a much faster pace than iOS based phones. This is important because in many cases updating from one android to the next version (and sometimes to the next next version) is less expensive than buying a simple iPhone, rendering the need for further support unnecessary.

But people are limited by a 2 year contract for the "cheap" phones. They can't upgrade until that two year period is over. Suggesting that people upgrade to a new phone vs. upgrading software is terrible business and environmental practice!

You can't pay to upgrade?

I'm in the UK, and here you can upgrade at any time - you'll just pay more for the phone if you upgrade within your current contract period.

As for environmental practice, there's a number of companies that'll refurbish used phones and sell them on, and they'll even give you a bit of cash for it if it's a reasonably recent phone. Here in the UK most of them will send you a prepaid envelope you can just drop your old phone in, and mail you a check when they receive it.

Re: Android Orphans: Visualizing a Sad History of Support

#85

Post by methodin »

nasmorn wrote: post #47
gbog wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It took me 10 mn, excluding download time, to root a Nexus S and install the of my choice on it...

But would you also like to do it for your mom and dad and wife and aunt and neighbor? If Android requires free geek labor to live up to its potential I sure am against it, because it would be my free labor that Google plans with here.

Your mom, dad, wife aunt and neighbor wouldn't even know what the hell you are talking about so being on version X has no particular significance to anyone outside of the tech community.

Re: Android Orphans: Visualizing a Sad History of Support

#86

Post by vidarh »

iaskwhy wrote: 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)?

The in-device market app won't see unsupported apps. If you go to market.android.com you can see it, but you will see a note telling you if some, all or none of your registered devices supports it, and an option to install it on one or more of them, so when you do upgrade or get a new device you can push any apps you've bought or installed previously to it.

Re: Android Orphans: Visualizing a Sad History of Support

#87

Post by billjings »

SandB0x wrote: post #83

There's a major point that can be added to the Why Don’t Android Phones Get Updated? section: Third party skins and interfaces. HTC's Sense, Motorola's Motoblur and co can only introduce an engineering overhead and delays in upgrading. I would much rather they concentrated on making awsome hardware and leaving the UI to Google, rather than attempting to differentiate themselves in this way.

If I were Motorola or Samsung, though, there's no way I'd do that. Without differentiation, you're selling a commodity product. If you're selling a commodity, there are no margins.

I agree with you that it would be better for the Android ecosystem if they would, though.

Re: Android Orphans: Visualizing a Sad History of Support

#89

Post by loire280 »

bad_user wrote: post #43
ricw wrote: post #33

It's funny that these kind of long-term "features" don't get taken into consideration for any of the phone reviews. Its probably one of the most important features of a phone. I'm currently torn apart between buying an iPhone 4s and the galaxy nexus, but given that I can expect the iphone to be supported and updated instantly and regulary for a long time, and not with any of the android phones (less than 2 years for…

There's a flaw with that list ... it makes it seem like iOS 5 is supported on iPhone 1 and iPhone 3G. It isn't and there's nothing you can do about it. It is deceptive, and for HTC G1, the first Android device, official support may not be good, but you can painlessly install Froyo on it, because it isn't locked and Froyo works well on it. You can also install Gingerbread for that matter, but CyanogenMod dropped the s…

The chart cuts off after 3 years - the point is that the original iPhone was supported with the current version of iOS for 2 years after the last one was sold (minus two days - iOS 4, the first version to drop support, came out June 21, 2010).

On AT&T, at least, most iPhone customers are eligible for an upgrade after 18 months because of the cost of their plan, so everyone was eligible, by a significant margin, for an upgrade before their phone was droppped.

Re: Android Orphans: Visualizing a Sad History of Support

#90

Post by spiralpolitik »

degusta wrote: post #9
JoachimSchipper wrote: post #3

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…

You can find the breakdown here.

http://developer.android.com/resources/dashboard/platform-ve...

Currently 45% are on 2.2 with 2.3 approaching around 39%.

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