Android....What

[SEGA]

Android needs to get there updates in order........

I was in verizon and I saw a rep trying to explain to a couple what phone has what, it was a smorgasbord of confusion.

This phone has 2.1, this phone has 2.2, this tablet will have 3.0, the people were constantly looking at the guy like wtf....

Google and Phone devs need to start setting some rules, like all android phones from (place date here) will have '2.3,2.4,3.0,' and all phones that 'could' support the new OS version will have an update on this (place date here).

People like myself don't want to buy a phone with a 2 year contract (DroidX-here), to find out that 5 months down the road a new version is coming out, and here is a list of phones that will have this OS, and a list of phones that might 'rumor this, rumor that' will get an update for it.

Needles to say the people went with the iPhone when I was in the store, and who would blame them, they hand them a phone and say here is a phone that's just like the other apple phones, not 15 different versions of Androids, who wouldn't choose the simpler way?

Just like Netflix. I'm just kinda peeved like a pink pony because I got the DroidX thinking Netflix would be coming out for it, now there is talk that only snapdragon phones will get it, and not ALL snapdragon pones will get it, it's just getting confusing and rumor-fested.

I know Netflix doesn't want to release it because of security, but come on, what movie are you going to steal from a phone stream as opposed to downloading it on there PC if they really wanted it. Not to mention have you seen the selection of Netflix movies available? Is there really a reason to worry about hacks?

Sorry I'm just trying to figure out my next phone to get, and tired of going through the same 'this phone will have this, but this phone will have that' BS. I want a phone that will last the 2 year contract with no worries of features or updates.

(non-rooted user)

 

[jstafford1]

I got an old Moto flip phone lying around...

J/k I totally understand.....the fractured nature of Android at the momment makes it tough. It will get back together and get better. Rapid advancement has its toll. Android grew up a lot this past year and the manufacturers aren't used to this type of updating.

Sent from somewhere...

 

[bendystrawboy]

how can "android" get there act together, when "android" isn't a company, google is.

The only phone that google releases...in theory..is the nexus s....and guess what...its kept up to date.

its easy to keep the iphone up to date...you know why...its the only phone that runs ios, with two models that only vary in storage space.

aps like the netflix ap are made for specific phones to differentiate themselves from the other android phones. Its called competition. The only competition in the iphone space is now verizon or at&t.

oh and just so you know, its called android fragmentation, google it, its been long discussed.

 

[Backnblack]

how can "android" get there act together, when "android" isn't a company, google is.
.

And the Carriers decide when to push an update, Not Google.

 

[Vulcan1600]

Please keep the language clean in the thread.

I don't ever see unity among all the cell phones especially since there's different manufacturers and there will be different O.S. release dates. You bring up the iPhone, there's not a bunch of iPhone clones out there, there's one iPhone, so of course there won't be several O.S. available for it.

 

[cobra2]

And the Carriers decide when to push an update, Not Google.

I thought it was the manufacturer plus the carrier who decided when a phone would receive an update.

Sent from the Throne.

 

[boostedhonda]

And the Carriers decide when to push an update, Not Google.

I thought it was the manufacturer plus the carrier who decided when a phone would receive an update.

Sent from the Throne.

You are correct.

Sent From My Blurless Droid X

 

[smokiedabong]

What is so confusing about having different Android versions on different devices ? How is this confusing ? It's easy like counting 1 , 2 , 3 , that's 2.1 - 2.2 - 2.3 . The UI is the same without any major differences and most of the applications work the same . There is a much bigger difference and confusion between a clean 2.2 and a Sense or Blur device but I see nothing wrong with that , I like to have where to choose from . Not everybody spends months and hundreds of hours on a forum waiting an update from 2.2 to 2.2.1 without them even noticing any difference afterwards .

 

[takeshi]

People like myself don't want to buy a phone with a 2 year contract (DroidX-here), to find out that 5 months down the road a new version is coming out, and here is a list of phones that will have this OS, and a list of phones that might 'rumor this, rumor that' will get an update for it.

People like yourself make up only a tiny fraction of a percentage of the overall smartphone user base. This is a common misunderstanding on discussion forums since discussion forum users tend to have this preference and then assume that all smartphone users do as well. Most people have no clue what version of Android their device has and most don't care. Be careful assuming that your preferences are everyone else's as well.

It sounds to me like the Verizon rep needs to get it together. If a buyer is worried about the Android OS revision on the device then they buyer will clearly indicate so. If not, there's no reason to confuse the customer.

People like myself don't want to buy a phone with a 2 year contract (DroidX-here), to find out that 5 months down the road a new version is coming out, and here is a list of phones that will have this OS, and a list of phones that might 'rumor this, rumor that' will get an update for it.

That's precisely why I don't count on rumors. Those that do get what they deserve IMO.

I want a phone that will last the 2 year contract with no worries of features or updates.

Good luck with it. There are no guarantees in this regard.

 

[kodiak799]

In my view, 2.1 was a major upgrade because of the speed improvements (JIT). 2.2 brought us flash.

I'm not noticing any real improvements with Gingerbread, but I know they're there. You could argue the ability to run native code is a major improvement (and it is, especially for games). Not sure about native dual core support.

Then with Ice Cream you'll for sure have native dual core support and the scrollable widgets.

A phone running 2.2 can still be a great phone. After Ice Cream, so what if a new OS comes out every 6 months and I might not get it. I could still be running Win2000 on my computer and there's not really anything I'd miss (well, other than security issues). I think future upgrades are going to be mostly marginal tweaks and enhancement, and most of the neat new features will probably be for hardware your 6-12 month old phone won't have anyway.

 

[czerdrill]

I got an old Moto flip phone lying around...

J/k I totally understand.....the fractured nature of Android at the momment makes it tough. It will get back together and get better. Rapid advancement has its toll. Android grew up a lot this past year and the manufacturers aren't used to this type of updating.

Sent from somewhere...

I agree. The android boom had google playing catch up to implement as many features as they could. I think we should (hopefully) see a slowdown of OS versions from Google, and let everyone catch up. If they continue to crank them out then problems such as this will never go away.

 

[czerdrill]

how can "android" get there act together, when "android" isn't a company, google is.
.

And the Carriers decide when to push an update, Not Google.

But Google is the one that's releasing update after update without letting the carriers catch up. I wouldn't blame the carriers or the manufacturers for that. If you're going to say you're open source, and you're going to allow things such as Blur and Sense, then you've gotta slow down the updates at some point. I could just imagine the uproar if Motorola rushed an update just so everyone could get gingerbread. Then we'd see threads about "Motorola sucks, they can't do anything right, Blur is so buggy" blah blah blah. People are never happy haha...It's great that the Nexus gets updated, but the nexus is one of 70 something android phones. The updates will (should) slow down, and then we'll see more manufacturers catching up. Unfortunately though the current generation of phones will most probably remain fragmented and buggy.

 

[dezymond]

The variety you get with android is great, but I also would like to see some consistent updates. the problem is that the industry is moving so fast, that even the software is falling behind the hardware. Dual core phones are coming out, 4g is coming out, and everything else in between.

There are features on each update of the OS that older hardware can't handle so they're trying to accommodate each device.

 

[SixStringTheory]

Honestly the vast majority of people don't know or care what version of Android their phone runs. they walk in, pick up a DroidX, go "hey this is cool" and buy it.

Tech blogs and forums make a huge deal about it and cite it as the Achilles heel that will destroy Android but it doesn't have that big of an impact. Android growth is exploding regardless of the "OMG FRAGMENTATION!" cries we've been hearing since the G1.

 

[czerdrill]

Honestly the vast majority of people don't know or care what version of Android their phone runs. they walk in, pick up a DroidX, go "hey this is cool" and buy it.

Tech blogs and forums make a huge deal about it and cite it as the Achilles heel that will destroy Android but it doesn't have that big of an impact. Android growth is exploding regardless of the "OMG FRAGMENTATION!" cries we've been hearing since the G1.

I for one think it's funny that when it comes to technical specs like dual cores and more memory everyone says "Android is so much better than iPhone, and android users are smarter" and "why would you want a single core processor when you can have a dual core" but when it comes to fragmentation "no one really cares"...odd. It's either one or the other. You care what's on/in your phone or you don't.

The truth is that fragmentation does affect users, even if they're not technically sound to know what the heck it means. When an app stops working, and you call VZW you don't have to say "android fragmentation is a killer", you can also say "my app don't work no more".

My opinion is that no one really cares about technical specs and no one knows what fragmentation is. That doesn't mean they're not affected by both.