I wrote the piece / did the research. Happy to answer any questions or comments people might have.
Add the Sony Xperia to the mix. It was released and sold with Android 1.6(!!!!) and the updates were really slow in coming.
Android Orphans: Visualizing a Sad History of Support
101–110 of 235 posts
Re: Android Orphans: Visualizing a Sad History of Support
#102Earlier quoted context omitted.
You should include iPod Touch and how apple forces a charge for updates on that device. This chart is also skewed a bit and should be based on intervals of releases rather than "years since". I don't recall seeing any iOS5 backports to iPhone 2G or 3G.
No, the original iPhone & 3G don't support iOS 5. But they did support the current version of iOS for 3 years after they were released - far more than any Android phones of the period. (And, no, they don't charge for iPod Touch updates any more - that was technically an accounting regulation issue that the government changed.)
Though to be honest, for the iPhone 3G, the longer green bar is easily misinterpreted as a positive thing, when for the most part, iOS4 rendered the phone very painful to use. 15-30s wait times for camera shutter, frequent hangs, constant crashes in Maps, being the main pain points with the two that my wife and I owned. If they'd have continued security and minor app updates for iOS3 on the 3G, I'd have been much happier.
Re: Android Orphans: Visualizing a Sad History of Support
#103Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 wi…
> 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. I think ajanuary is talking about the fact that the 3G was still for sale until right before the iPhone 4 was released (see black rectangle). So people who bought a 3G right before the 4 was released (not necessarily a smart move) got about 10 months of support (support essentially end…
I speak from experience when I say, putting iOS 4 on the 3G was just a terrible idea.
The 3G should have stayed with the 2G in being restricted to iOS 3.1.3, which whilst no speed demon, at least runs reasonably well, even now.
The 3GS is the lowest hardware that should have been given iOS 4.
Re: Android Orphans: Visualizing a Sad History of Support
#104Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 wi…
> 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. I think ajanuary is talking about the fact that the 3G was still for sale until right before the iPhone 4 was released (see black rectangle). So people who bought a 3G right before the 4 was released (not necessarily a smart move) got about 10 months of support (support essentially end…
If you bought an iPhone 3G any time before June 2009 you were buying the latest phone. On a 12 month contract that leaves you with 3 months unsupported, and on an 18 month contract 9 months.
Re: Android Orphans: Visualizing a Sad History of Support
#105The current situation is somewhat unfair to the indiscrete / non-tech-savvy consumer since they might buy an Android phone without understanding the differences from the iOS ecosystem. At least several of my friends did. "They're about the same right? And this one was $30 cheaper!" And I genuinely feel bad every time this happens. Note that I of course have no gripes with Android OS/concept itself -- it's a good cont…
Are OS updates really that important for most consumers? I have a Desire running Froyo. I don't think I've really missed out on a huge amount by not getting Gingerbread.
You've missed out on better battery life, definitely. I have a Desire running 7.1 Cyanogenmod, which is 2.3 and it has massively improved it.
Re: Android Orphans: Visualizing a Sad History of Support
#106There'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.
They can make themselves different in other ways:
1. Hardware design. Even cosmetic stuff.
2. Good support. You know, being able to call a human being on the phone.
3. Easy OTA updater (No more Kies and god know what else)
4. Write an itunes clone for syncing that isn't terrible. Or license double-twist.
5. Useful crapware apps. Apple differentiates itself with stuff like Siri. Why is Anrdroid crapware like "Buy this 4.99 caller ID service?"
There's so much room for improvement here. Considering ICS has all the eyecandy we need, its time to get out of the whole "Lets build a skin and add lots of crapware" that is turning Android into the smartphone ghetto.
FWIW, its not just Android. I know a lot of iPhone users who have never upgraded the OS and never will. They don't understand the utility of doing so. I'm afraid a lot of this conversation depends on how geeks use their equipment, which is fine, but the hoi polloi isn't clamoring for updates like they should be.
Re: Android Orphans: Visualizing a Sad History of Support
#107Earlier quoted context omitted.
Don't buy a galaxy nexus. I was an Android fan boy and bought the Nexus One. "It's a Google phone!" I thought. I figured it would get timely updates and be a stable phone. It's far from stable. I think a good anecdote for my frustrations is navigation. When I first bought the phone, I wasn't able to turn the screen off during navigation. I would turn it off, and it would turn itself back on draining my battery. An up…
Sad but true. Keyboard or Market or Launcher or something crashes every day on my N1. These are core OS components on the reference device sold by the platform owner. The ridiculous thing is that these apps relaunch and work fine on the 2nd or 3rd try, so why does Google give me an annoying crash popup instead of relaunching (like Browser is sometimes clever enough to do)
Adding to this story: Nexus One denied Ice Cream Sandwich, becomes official relic of Android's yesteryears
http://www.engadget.com/2011/10/26/nexus-one-denied-ice-crea...
Re: Android Orphans: Visualizing a Sad History of Support
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 a…
Not true if you got a 2nd generation iPhone. You could have gotten a 3G as the latest phone and been unsupported for 9 months on an 18 month contract.
Re: Android Orphans: Visualizing a Sad History of Support
#109Earlier quoted context omitted.
Android has all the drivers it needs. The real difference is that Android systems are locked down in ways more annoying to circumvent than your average Windows OEM junkware install. It is easy to uninstall junkware on Windows, and to pop in a CD to upgrade or crossgrade the OS.
> It is easy to uninstall junkware on Windows, and to pop in a CD to upgrade or crossgrade the OS. Can you enlighten me as to what it means to "crossgrade the OS". Native english speaker and I've never heard the term :)
I'm guessing it's the sideways version of upgrade or downgrade: the new OS isn't better or worse, just different.
Re: Android Orphans: Visualizing a Sad History of Support
#110Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Developers care. What use are the new shiny features in Ice Cream Sandwich when I need to make my app compatible with phones on Eclair or Froyo to access a sufficiently broad portion of the Android install base? If developers are wary of developing for Android - especially the latest-and-greatest - that will affect the satisfaction of regular users.
We are turning in circles here.
1. ricw: I'll buy iPhone because Android has no OS upgrade
2. gbog (me): You can root
3. nasmorn: Mom, dad need you to root, annoying
4. methodin: Mom, dad don't care to upgrade OS
5. loire280: But we care.
It reminds me when a bunch of old trolls tried to play with me on usenet decades ago. No thanks.