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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

#131

Post by frou_dh »

cbracken wrote: post #102
degusta wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 hap…

I have my iPhone 3G running iOS 4.2.1 here. Home screen to camera shutter open takes 3 seconds. I don't use Maps, but nothing I do use crashes.

Re: Android Orphans: Visualizing a Sad History of Support

#132

Post by vetinari »

davidedicillo wrote: post #40
SamColes wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

While it may not be directly important to the final users (if you don't count security upgrades between versions), it definitely impact the ecosystem. If you need to pick a platform to develop for, you go for the more homogeneous one from a OS point of view. Also enterprises invest more in devices that have a longer support life. They want to buy something that even in 2-3 years is fully supported by the manufacture.

Enterprises don't care about device support life. They care, if the phone will survive for about two years. Then the employees will start bug you, that they want new gadget (I know, we have several hundred of them...).

Re: Android Orphans: Visualizing a Sad History of Support

#133

Post by ceejayoz »

airlineuser wrote: post #115
ceejayoz wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"I heard about this really cool new game, but it won't work on my three month old phone" really doesn't endear devices to the masses.

But that doesn't happen, because it's easy for game developers to support FroYo+ devices with the same APK. Example: The latest hot Android game is "Wind-up Knight". It supports Android 2.2 and up. https://market.android.com/details?id=com.robotinvader.knigh...

As long as you don't need new APIs or features in a particular version of Android, sure.

Re: Android Orphans: Visualizing a Sad History of Support

#134

Post by chollida1 »

raganwald wrote: post #93
chollida1 wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 :)

Linux :-)

Yes, I feel shame:) In hind site, that's obvious to me now.

Re: Android Orphans: Visualizing a Sad History of Support

#135

Post by falling »

vetinari wrote: post #125
recoiledsnake wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is that you're relying on a third party which does it in their free time. I am not sure they're up to the level of the Linux kernel or Firefox yet. And installing stuff on a PC is ingrained into people's psyche, if they can't do it themselves, they get some other folks to do it for them. Upgrading phones? Not so much. My friend never updated her iPhone 4 once. She once used iTunes to transfer songs to it…

That's why this entire topic is a tempest in the teapot. Only us geeks and computer enthusiasts care about firmware updates. In real life, I know many people who are satisfied with their Android 1.6, 2.1 and iOS 3.x. These people, even if they know that upgrade is available won't bother. The existing device with it's current firmware works for them, so why change it.

Read the whole article. It matters for developers and for the platform. Even if users don't (know they) care.

Users are missing security fixes, developers can't use new features in new versions.

Re: Android Orphans: Visualizing a Sad History of Support

#136

Post by gcb »

Great graph.

and to think i switched from a series of Nokia phones (because they loose support every 6mo, to the point you can't even buy a working headset cable or extra charger for them) and bought a nexus one because i thought "spending $700 to buy an OPEN phone directly from google will get updated software for life and consistent use of cables and standards"

Re: Android Orphans: Visualizing a Sad History of Support

#137

Post by falling »

technoslut wrote: post #8
d_r wrote: post #6

The 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…

>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.

Do you really call "sweeping the crap under the carpet" "solving" the problem? I call it a workaround, at best. Users will often want the used space back too, not just hide the icon.

Re: Android Orphans: Visualizing a Sad History of Support

#138

Post by there »

Fingel wrote: post #97
gujk wrote: post #56

Earlier 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.

I'd argue its just as easy/easier to "crossgrade the OS" (whatever that means) on an android phone as a PC. Step 1: get a .zip from http://www.cyanogenmod.com/ Step 2: Place it on your SD card. Step 3: Reboot phone, hold down the power button, select "install update". Now you have an android device with the latest software, no bloatware, and a host of other awesome features.

i've never seen an android device be able to be upgraded that way, and i work on an android rom.

even on the nexus phones which are arguably the most friendly to installing a custom rom, you have to hook the phone up to a computer, install the android sdk for usb drivers and download a fastboot binary, run "fastboot oem unlock", erase all of your phone's data, then install the custom rom and set everything back up.

on nearly every other phone, the process is much more complicated involving hacks to get around a locked bootloader. i remember doing this on my mytouch 3g and the process involved 2 microsd cards, a hex editor, and a strange website where i had to type in some serial number or something from my phone and download a specially crafted binary for it to put on one of the sd cards.

Re: Android Orphans: Visualizing a Sad History of Support

#139

Post by vetinari »

degusta wrote: post #2

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

Could you also make a chart showing, how long the phone is supported after it stops selling? For example, 3G was being sold up until iPhone 4 introduction, but the iOS4 was the last update it has seen. Similarly, 3GS is still being sold, but that does not mean that it will be supported for next three years.

Re: Android Orphans: Visualizing a Sad History of Support

#140

Post by WiseWeasel »

vetinari wrote: post #125
recoiledsnake wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is that you're relying on a third party which does it in their free time. I am not sure they're up to the level of the Linux kernel or Firefox yet. And installing stuff on a PC is ingrained into people's psyche, if they can't do it themselves, they get some other folks to do it for them. Upgrading phones? Not so much. My friend never updated her iPhone 4 once. She once used iTunes to transfer songs to it…

That's why this entire topic is a tempest in the teapot. Only us geeks and computer enthusiasts care about firmware updates. In real life, I know many people who are satisfied with their Android 1.6, 2.1 and iOS 3.x. These people, even if they know that upgrade is available won't bother. The existing device with it's current firmware works for them, so why change it.

There are several significant problems with this that do impact regular people as well:

1) Developers must invest more time and money in order to support a wider range of firmware revisions, as the user base is more fractured. This leads to less app selection for users, and more buggy behavior on apps that are available. If you're an iOS developer, you can focus on just the last major firmware revision and reach 95%+ of the market, or support the last two major firmware revisions and reach 99%+ of the market, whereas on Android, you're forced to support a few more than that, and the populations stuck at each older revision are much more significant. Read the article for Android stats by revision. Here's an article with a bit more detail on the iOS side:

http://www.marco.org/2011/08/13/instapaper-ios-device-and-ve...

2) Performance and security updates are unavailable, making the user experience sub-optimal, and potentially putting users' personal information at risk.

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