Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Android 4.1 Jelly Bean is now available

developer.android.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 142 posts

Re: Android 4.1 Jelly Bean is now available

#71

Post by gergles »

dangrossman wrote: post #33
wmf wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Realistically, there is a level beyond which you cannot increase profit through forced obsolescence. If I have a year left on my contract I am not going to buy a new phone, no matter how good it is. So the choice is not between a free software update and a new phone. It's a choice between a software update and nothing ; the update may actually be more profitable.

Explain why a free software update for a year-old phone would even be on their radar of choices? The only time carriers have provided free Android updates was when a brand new phone was being released around the time of a major Android update, and competing against other brand new phones that already have the update, putting their product at a disadvantage among comparison shoppers. What's the incentive to give you a…

The next phone you buy will not come from the OEM that screwed you out of an update.

Theoretically, at least.

Re: Android 4.1 Jelly Bean is now available

#72

Post by glhaynes »

wmf wrote: post #38
dangrossman wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Explain why a free software update for a year-old phone would even be on their radar of choices? The only time carriers have provided free Android updates was when a brand new phone was being released around the time of a major Android update, and competing against other brand new phones that already have the update, putting their product at a disadvantage among comparison shoppers. What's the incentive to give you a…

Apple gives free updates. An update would be profitable if they charged for it.

Interesting point. Has anybody charged for Android updates? IMO, $9.99 for a major upgrade wouldn't be offensive and could be a pretty decent chunk of revenue...

Re: Android 4.1 Jelly Bean is now available

#73

Post by AndrewDucker »

javajosh wrote: post #67

Let me offer a solution: It's time for Google to offer a Google+ Certification for Android. These certified devices would have two important characteristics: 1. They are guaranteed to run the latest version of Android for 5 years. 2. They are guaranteed to have a clean version of Android, without any carrier or device maker modifications. No doubt the marketing people can come up with other things to add to the list,…

Five years is ridiculous. The phones three years ago are vastly less powerful than the ones now - building Android so that it definitely fitted onto them would be nigh impossible.

Re: Android 4.1 Jelly Bean is now available

#74

Post by glogla »

javajosh wrote: post #67

Let me offer a solution: It's time for Google to offer a Google+ Certification for Android. These certified devices would have two important characteristics: 1. They are guaranteed to run the latest version of Android for 5 years. 2. They are guaranteed to have a clean version of Android, without any carrier or device maker modifications. No doubt the marketing people can come up with other things to add to the list,…

Five years is a really long time in the mobile industry, and will be for the coming decade, even if the crazy tempo is slowing somewhat. According to wikipedia [1] typical high-end 2009 phone (which is just three years) had 256 MB RAM and 600 mhz ARMv6 processor. I think two or three years would be enough, with todays rate of improvement.

Other than that, it's a great idea.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Android_devices

Re: Android 4.1 Jelly Bean is now available

#75

Post by WrkInProgress »

javajosh wrote: post #67

Let me offer a solution: It's time for Google to offer a Google+ Certification for Android. These certified devices would have two important characteristics: 1. They are guaranteed to run the latest version of Android for 5 years. 2. They are guaranteed to have a clean version of Android, without any carrier or device maker modifications. No doubt the marketing people can come up with other things to add to the list,…

Aren't you essentially describing the Nexus line of devices, minus the the tad unrealistic 5 years of software updates ?

Re: Android 4.1 Jelly Bean is now available

#76

Post by rprasad »

My phone, purchased brand-new last summer (the model itself is almost, but not quite a year old), still runs Android 2.3. It will run Android 2.3 forever, even though Google owns the company that made it. Jelly Bean, released last year, is still on less than 10% of all Android phones, and may never even exceed 15%.

If Google can't get its act together on the update situation, a lot of people, myself included, will not be buying Android phones the next time our contracts are up.

Re: Android 4.1 Jelly Bean is now available

#77

Post by tadfisher »

jshen wrote: post #29
cookiecaper wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is that? Your contract allows you to change phones at any time, you just can't get another subsidy or cancel your service without a fee until the extant contract expires. You are free to purchase another phone, second-hand or new, without cell company subsidy and switch to it.

And you think that is a good situation for Android users? Want the new OS, buy a new phone without a subsidy. That is one hell of a tag line for Android

Want Siri? Buy the iPhone 4S without a subsidy.

Sure worked for Apple...

Re: Android 4.1 Jelly Bean is now available

#78

Post by king_jester »

moe wrote: post #25
_ea1k wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

91% of the Android market is covered by 3 major versions (2.2, 2.3, and 4.0). 72% is covered by just two major versions (2.3 and 4.0). This problem isn't quite as severe as its made out to be. Dealing with the diverse hardware ecosystem and implementation bugs are both much larger problems, IMO.

This report disagrees with you rather strongly: http://opensignalmaps.com/reports/fragmentation.php It claims 2.3 and 2.4 make up for ~75% of the installed base, and the remaining 25% is just a mess.

This is true, but typically you will decide your minimum API level. A lot of apps moving to 2.0+ API level minimums in order to reduce the clutter.

However, compared to hardware variations and manufacturer/carrier modifications, API level is a piece of cake to handle.

Re: Android 4.1 Jelly Bean is now available

#79

Post by javajosh »

timdorr wrote: post #69
javajosh wrote: post #67

Let me offer a solution: It's time for Google to offer a Google+ Certification for Android. These certified devices would have two important characteristics: 1. They are guaranteed to run the latest version of Android for 5 years. 2. They are guaranteed to have a clean version of Android, without any carrier or device maker modifications. No doubt the marketing people can come up with other things to add to the list,…

This is great. The only thing I have a gripe with is: > They are guaranteed to run the latest version of Android for 5 years. 5 years is too long. The HTC Dream, the first Android phone, was released less than 4 years ago. It only has a 528Mhz processor and 192MB of RAM. I don't want to know what the ICS or JB experience would be on that device... Keep in mind the iPhone only turned 5 this year (the App Store turns 4…

Yes, you're probably right. 3 years is more reasonable. For some reason I thought Apple was supporting 5 year-old devices, but they are not. And they are the ones setting the standard, here.

Re: Android 4.1 Jelly Bean is now available

#80

Post by ryannielsen »

jshen wrote: post #50
ryannielsen wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And vendors like Motorola probably don't care about you and your situation. From their perspective, they likely see two things 1) a still growing cell phone market 2) a rapidly growing Android market As long as the market's still growing, and as long as the vast majority of Android users aren't disgruntled about being left behind, their efforts are best spent on building new phones and acquiring new customers. I'm cu…

" Motorola have zero incentive to spend time or capital on maintaining old devices." You are making a large assumption when you say this. Your assumption is that it won't hurt them in the long run. Maybe that is true, but it's a risky bet to make. I certainly won't buy another android phone. Maybe most normal users will, but I'm skeptical of that. Here's how normal users will realize they aren't getting updates, beca…

Here's how normal users will realize they aren't getting updates, because it happens to me often. Somehow they learn about some cool app they want and they go to the Play store to get it. But they can't find it. It doesn't show up on their search! It won't take long for them to figure out that they can't get it because it doesn't work for their old version of android.

Yes, but is there anything that enables them to make the cognitive leap from "my phone runs an old version of Android" to "my phone should have been updated to a new version of Android"?

What's to keep them from instead coming to the conclusion of "my phone is old, I should buy a new one"? You assume they understand what "Android" is, who creates Android, who creates their phone, and that the thing running on their phone that's called "Android" can be upgraded but the entity that created their phone prevents that from happening.

Many people are just buying a phone. Heck, many people are just getting a plan which happens to give them a free phone. They don't, and have no desire to, understand the nuances of the phone they just got. It makes calls, browses the internet, and may let them install these "app" things.

And what's to say some of the people who do understand some of these nuances don't erroneously blame Google and Android rather than their phone's manufacturer?

I really do bet most people out there just say "damn, my phone's old" and go try and buy a new phone as soon as they're able. Which is a win for companies like Motorola.

Post reply on HN