Has Google Done Enough to Keep Android Phones Up-to-date? - christensensayinten61

Google announced a new version of Android this week with whatever impressive new features, merely it's confusing if IT's done enough to solve a job that has dogged its perambulating OS: fragmentation.

Even as it announced the close at hand launch of Humanoid 4.1, or Jellify Noodle, the absolute majority of users are still gushing Gingerbread, which is three major releases behind. According to Google's have figures, just 7 percent are functional the current version, Ice Cream Sandwich, which launched last October.

That means apps that water faucet into the a la mode innovations in the OS aren't available to most Android users. It also agency developers, the lifeblood of the platform, are forced to test their apps across multiple devices and multiple versions of the OS.

So when Google's Hugo Barra announced a "platform developer kit out" during the opening keynote at I/O this week, the news was greeted with applause. The PDK will provide Android phone makers with a preview version of upcoming Humanoid releases, devising it easier for them to get the stylish software in their new phones.

Currently, Google completes function on an OS update and and then shares information technology with cow dung and telephone makers, WHO make sure it works with their hardware and melodic line it for their needs. Carriers and so sell the devices to consumers.

The PDK volition provide chip and phone makers with a release of the Android update before in the litigate, before it's finalized. That will tolerate them to start their exploitation puzzle out sooner and get the software into consumers' hands more quickly when it's finished, according to Google.

Simply is the PDK sufficient to unattackable for developers the single substance abuser experience for big numbers of Android users that developers crave?

In a "fireside gossip" with the Android squad, the packed household of developers had more questions about Atomic number 76 fragmentation than Google had answers.

Asked how the company intended to get Jellify Attic to users faster than it has Ice Clobber Sandwich, a staffer aforesaid, "We're going to first of all dedicate you free devices; that's ane good way to start." Google is giving free tablets and phones to developers at the event.

One developer asked about the Humanoid Alliance announced at I/O in 2022 that would see that smartphones got regular updates for at to the lowest degree 18 months. The Bond was a commitment from OEMs to control that users of their phones got relevant updates quick, Google said.

The reception was within reason light-minded. "What we said last year is that we would make sure devices got supported for 18 months, simply information technology hasn't been 18 months since last year so we can't prove surgery disprove if it's working or non," aforementioned Dave Burke, Humanoid engineering director.

It is perhaps this kind of gossip that leads psychoanalyst Brian Blau, with Gartner, to conclude that Google "must non upkeep" about the atomization emerge.

To be fair, Google faces a difficult problem. Some OEMs and wandering carriers customise the open-root OS, so that there are differences even for users running the Sami variant of Android on opposite devices or with incompatible providers. And neither OEMs nor carriers are in the business of providing OS updates, and have incentives for encouraging users to buy new phones instead.

The PDK won't change whatever of those factors. Its goal is simply to get phones running a particular version of the Bone into consumers' hands quicker, Google representatives told developers.

Google does feature at to the lowest degree one style to fix the job, according to psychoanalyst Ezra Gottheil, with Technology Business Search. The company could create a variation of Mechanical man that is more homogenous across devices and carriers, he said. Users could past update the OS like a shot from Google, very much like iOS users suffice from Apple. But the OEMs and carriers want to be able to customize the OS to make it look like their production, according to Gottheil.

Google must therefore pilot between angering its hardware partners and its developers.

"They're trying to knock the edges of the problem," Gottheil said.

Just fragmentation contributes to the high monetary value of making apps for Android, according to flying analytics firm Flurry, meaning Google risks chasing its developers inaccurate if it does too itty-bitty to address the problem.

"The danger there would be they mystify a report of having no decent apps, but I think they'ray kind of far away from that," Gottheil said.

So, developers at the conference seemed to accept that atomisation can be an occupational hazard of ASCII text file growing. They also noted that Google offers tools in its hold up libraries to help them work with the multiple versions of Android.

"Android is truly the first clock time that we give an OS that can keep going this widely different array of devices, and just about you sack write the same code that's really easily portable, which has been the dream up. I really think that the pros of that far preponderate a more blended organization where you only have few different pieces of hardware," said Zack Juhasz, of a yet-to-launch startup, Tenkiv.

Cameron Scott covers lookup, web services and concealment for The IDG News Service. Stick to Cameron on Chirrup at CScott_IDG.

Source: https://www.pcworld.com/article/465718/has_google_done_enough_to_keep_android_phones_uptodate.html

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