Android Orphans: Visualizing a Sad History of Support

Post by gcb » Thu, Oct 27, 2011, 8:54 PM UTC

jamesfrank wrote: post #173

gcb wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i don't buy this 'a good contender for iOS'. they are different leagues. The people that consider an android or ios as equals and decide on device color or price won't even know what this table is about. history is repeating. iOS is a IBM mainframe. with it's golden cuffs. Android is the radio shack PC. with it's "require soldering". i give that android is still in it's infancy. and that the availability of OSes are…

There may be some truth to that for the type of person who reads HN, but it's certainly not true for the wider public. Most people don't care about having full control of their mobile device, they just want it to work.

Post by gte910h » Thu, Oct 27, 2011, 8:57 PM UTC

SamColes wrote: post #34

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…

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.

Post by gcb » Thu, Oct 27, 2011, 9:01 PM UTC

mdwrigh2 wrote: post #178

gcb wrote: post #136

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"

To be fair, you do get to use all of the new accessories and cables. Plus if you want to run ICS, while Google may not support it, it certainly seems like Cyanogen will have a version for the N1.

Post by barredo » Thu, Oct 27, 2011, 9:06 PM UTC

guelo wrote: post #165

barredo wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

That's highly doubtful. After the source is available the full transition to the new OS by all manufacturers, even the cheap ones, seems to take about 6 months. Gingerbread source was released last December and there were no Froyo devices being sold by summer.

Post by masklinn » Thu, Oct 27, 2011, 9:22 PM UTC

watmough wrote: post #184

masklinn wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

4.2.1 did improve things significantly, but it only made the 3G go from "completely unusable" to "slightly painful to use". The device is still much slower and less smooth than on 3.1 due to higher base memory requirements (as a result, not only are most applications slower to load some will not load at all on 4.2 and will instead crash due to going OOM and not being able to clear out anything upon receiving an OOM s…

I say this somewhat tongue in cheek, but you wouldn't say 'improve' if you'd ever seen my wife swearing at her phone. My own app FemCal, runs pretty well on 3.1.3 on a 2G, but I think almost everything is a struggle for iOS 4 on the 3G. In particular, the new Facebook app appears to be unusable on the 3G nowadays.