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Android 4.1 Jelly Bean is now available

developer.android.com

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Re: Android 4.1 Jelly Bean is now available

#2
Interesting RE: App Encryption. I had mentioned that years ago in IRC before Android was even a blip on Apple's radar and I was told that would not happen because the Market didn't want to ever modify the uploaded APK. It will be interesting to see if this curtails pirating, or more likely, just adds an extra step in the piracy process.

Re: Android 4.1 Jelly Bean is now available

#3
Really? I thought the keynote explicitly said the SDK would be available today, but that neither the source code nor the binary updates would be pushed to the public (as opposed to hardware manufacturers, who now have ahead-of-time PDK access) until mid-July.

(edit: In addition, the Nexus 7, running Jelly Bean, while available to purchase today, will itself not be shipping until mid-July. I really don't think it is available yet.)

Re: Android 4.1 Jelly Bean is now available

#5
Until the fragmentation problem is fixed, every new Android release only fills me with dread.

Normally when new versions of frameworks or software that I use come out, I like it. Except Android, because every new version of Android has lots of nice features that I won't be able to use and it is guaranteed to further fragment of the marketplace.

Android is the (old) Internet Explorer of mobile. I've never seen one application skew across versions so hard, or single-handedly fragment the space as much. (BTW kudos to MS for strongly encouraging their IE users upgrade).

What makes this perplexing is that Google has solved this problem with most of their other installed software offerings, Chrome particularly. There's basically only one version of Chrome (v 19 as I write this). Heck, even MS realized their mistake and is making efforts to roll up old IE users into the latest version. And of course Apple has done a fantastic job keeping all of it's users at the same iOS version.

I am well-aware of the OEM madness that drives Android fragmentation, and that you might think it's not "Google's fault" because of this. But I disagree. Google has vast resources and can basically do whatever it wants. If it wanted to require OEMs to build Android-upgradable phones, it could force them to do so. In fact, if they started doing this today you would hear loud cheers from around the world (and bitter complaining from the OEMs, but so what? There's a lot of money to be made and they'll get in line).

Re: Android 4.1 Jelly Bean is now available

#7
post #5

Until the fragmentation problem is fixed, every new Android release only fills me with dread. Normally when new versions of frameworks or software that I use come out, I like it. Except Android, because every new version of Android has lots of nice features that I won't be able to use and it is guaranteed to further fragment of the marketplace. Android is the (old) Internet Explorer of mobile. I've never seen one app…

> There's a lot of money to be made and they'll get in line

The fact that that's not true is precisely why timely upgrades aren't done. Verizon and Motorola sold you that Droid RAZR. They get nothing from spending engineer time to update it.

Also, what is this implication that Google is just being lazy or has some incentive to not have everyone running the latest OS. You really think Google so powerful that they can snap their fingers and make OEMs do what they want? Isn't the very existence (and initial struggle) of the Nexus line evidence against that?

Re: Android 4.1 Jelly Bean is now available

#8
post #5

Until the fragmentation problem is fixed, every new Android release only fills me with dread. Normally when new versions of frameworks or software that I use come out, I like it. Except Android, because every new version of Android has lots of nice features that I won't be able to use and it is guaranteed to further fragment of the marketplace. Android is the (old) Internet Explorer of mobile. I've never seen one app…

> There's a lot of money to be made and they'll get in line The fact that that's not true is precisely why timely upgrades aren't done. Verizon and Motorola sold you that Droid RAZR. They get nothing from spending engineer time to update it. Also, what is this implication that Google is just being lazy or has some incentive to not have everyone running the latest OS. You really think Google so powerful that they can…

Apple gets "nothing" from engineering their upgrades to be backwards compatible. That is, if "nothing" means being incredibly successful. People are actually rather smart about things like this, and they know that the iPhone "just works" and will continue to work, and that is a huge competitive advantage. And long-term competitive advantage is one of the classic components of "maximizing shareholder value". So yes, publicly traded OEMs (which is all of them) are legally required to maximize shareholder value, and they are not doing that.

P.S. I think you are a troll, based on this and prior discussions, and this is the last time I'm responding to you. I'd appreciate it if you'd not respond to my posts either. Thank you.

Re: Android 4.1 Jelly Bean is now available

#9
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There's a lot of money to be made and they'll get in line The fact that that's not true is precisely why timely upgrades aren't done. Verizon and Motorola sold you that Droid RAZR. They get nothing from spending engineer time to update it. Also, what is this implication that Google is just being lazy or has some incentive to not have everyone running the latest OS. You really think Google so powerful that they can…

Apple gets "nothing" from engineering their upgrades to be backwards compatible. That is, if "nothing" means being incredibly successful. People are actually rather smart about things like this, and they know that the iPhone "just works" and will continue to work, and that is a huge competitive advantage. And long-term competitive advantage is one of the classic components of "maximizing shareholder value". So yes, p…

I hope it's obvious that Motorola releasing the RAZR2 is more profitable than spending time working on software updates to the RAZR1 and I don't know why you insist on comparing Android OEMs to Apple when you yourself already point out that they have different goals and strategies by the nature of their products,

Re: Android 4.1 Jelly Bean is now available

#10
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There's a lot of money to be made and they'll get in line The fact that that's not true is precisely why timely upgrades aren't done. Verizon and Motorola sold you that Droid RAZR. They get nothing from spending engineer time to update it. Also, what is this implication that Google is just being lazy or has some incentive to not have everyone running the latest OS. You really think Google so powerful that they can…

Apple gets "nothing" from engineering their upgrades to be backwards compatible. That is, if "nothing" means being incredibly successful. People are actually rather smart about things like this, and they know that the iPhone "just works" and will continue to work, and that is a huge competitive advantage. And long-term competitive advantage is one of the classic components of "maximizing shareholder value". So yes, p…

They are maximizing shareholder value though. Each OEM is competing with the other OEMs producing for Android, and creating a new Android update for the older phones doesn't increase sells if another OEM releases a phone that has better specs in addition to having the newest OS.

Whenever any of my friends go shopping for a new Android phone, they immediately try to find the one with the highest specs. OEMs aren't going to waste time releasing an update for a phone that won't make them money anymore, they're going to spend time instead on making better hardware that will make money.

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