Google Steps Up Pressure On Partners Tardy In Updating Android

Megalith

Megalith

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Google is supposedly “getting serious” about tackling fragmentation with Android, which is definitely one of the OS’s biggest problems. The company is taking steps to shame vendors that lag behind, but there’s also those pesky carriers to worry about.

Google is using more forceful tactics. It has drawn up lists that rank top phone makers by how up-to-date their handsets are, based on security patches and operating system versions, according to people familiar with the matter. Google shared this list with Android partners earlier this year. It has discussed making it public to highlight proactive manufacturers and shame tardy vendors through omission from the list, two of the people said. The people didn’t want to be identified to maintain their relationships with Google.
 
Android manufactures are dicks , they want you to buy the latest and greatest model out there and wont update more than one OS version (4.4 > 5 , 5 > 6 etc.)
Apple gives a wider update lifetime , but they are bigger dicks since updating 3 year old iPhone to latest iOS will effectively kill it , and you cant revert to older version.
 
It's quite bad the forced obsolescence that android phones have because of service providers. If you don't think not having the latest version is forced obsolescence then you don't care much about protecting the data that's on your phone, with shit like digital wallets now of days that's just dangerous let alone thinks like banking apps etc.
 
Not sure how they can tackle that, unless the follow microsoft's route where they are planning to push the updates themselves
 
There was a time when I had to get custom ROMs to get the latest updates for my Android. Seems like much hasn't changed since my Epic. Currently on an S5 and I'm finding myself bored with Android. Partly due to having to hunt down my own updates, and partly because i have to get a custom ROM for features i would have figured would be stock Android by now.

I dunno. Maybe I'm getting bored of Android altogether, if such a thing is possible.
 
This is the reason I have been looking at getting a damn iphone. I have a note 4 . Which is a nice ass phone but if no one will update it and I can't load my own shit on it because they want to lock every damn thing down now days. What's the point in staying with android. They just now figured out a way to root it and the note 6 will be out soon. My next phone will be a Google phone or a iphone. Phones are getting where you don't need a new one every year to have a fast one. Companies don't want to update anything ,also the phone companies, so you will forced to get a new phone to have the latest OS. I need to stay with android for some of the apps I need for work. But it's really pissing me off.
 
I wish Google would limit the number of different phones a manufacturer could produce each year, targeting one phone at each price point, so they could all function to the best of their ability. Samsung, LG, HTC, and Motorola flooded the market with 135 different android smartphones in 2014, so there's no incentive to provide updates when they're in the business of cutting corners (no pun intended).
 
Makeroflostsouls said:
This is the reason I have been looking at getting a damn iphone. I have a note 4 . Which is a nice ass phone but if no one will update it and I can't load my own shit on it because they want to lock every damn thing down now days. What's the point in staying with android. They just now figured out a way to root it and the note 6 will be out soon.
Click to expand...

T-Mobile is supposed to update the Note 4 to 6.0, but I'm still waiting. With 6.0 I figure it should be good for a few more years.

They stopped updating the S3 with version 4.3, saying that the phone was too slow to run 5.x. Big lie. I rooted it and loaded 5.1, and it's more responsive than it was on 4.3. Decided to keep it as a backup phone, incase a family member needs it.
 
Google won't "fix" this unless they also put pressure on the carriers. The typical carrier response is usually that they are testing the updates. Preferably Google can stop carriers from putting their shitware on every phone in such a manner that Android updates break the shitware. Doesn't matter if the OEM releases an update when the carriers never release it.
 
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BloodyIron said:
How about my Nexus 4 and not getting major versions any more?
Click to expand...

I don't think Google is “getting serious”, when they won't even update their own phone (Nexus 4) that would have no problem running 6.0

We have a couple Nexus 4's and the only problem is the limited 16GB of flash and the lack of an SD card slot. If I could add another 16GB of flash for video/picture storage, I wouldn't have to hear my kids complain about running out of space when they are taking pictures/videos.
 
Ocellaris said:
Google won't "fix" this unless they also put pressure on the carriers. The typical carrier response is usually that they are testing the updates. Preferably Google can stop carriers from putting their shitware on every phone in such a manner that Android updates break the shitware. Doesn't matter if the OEM releases an update when the carriers never release it.
Click to expand...

I have never understood why the carriers have a say in the matter, Google bypasses them entirely with all nexus devices so I don't see any reason why all the other manufacturers can't do the same. No one want's the carrier shovelware, so give users the option to bypass ii if they want the latest and greatest firmware. It absolutely gives me the shits that, despite being relatively knew and powerful, I am still waiting on my Note 4 to receive the latest Marshmallow update.
 
Makeroflostsouls said:
This is the reason I have been looking at getting a damn iphone. I have a note 4 . Which is a nice ass phone but if no one will update it and I can't load my own shit on it because they want to lock every damn thing down now days. What's the point in staying with android. They just now figured out a way to root it and the note 6 will be out soon. My next phone will be a Google phone or a iphone. Phones are getting where you don't need a new one every year to have a fast one. Companies don't want to update anything ,also the phone companies, so you will forced to get a new phone to have the latest OS. I need to stay with android for some of the apps I need for work. But it's really pissing me off.
Click to expand...

I've been thinking of the same thing myself. I've run Android for a long time. I used to do tons of rooting and run custom roms and apps. But now, eh. It's stale and the phone manufacturers have made it so difficult to root some of the devices. Seriously, jailreaking an iPhone is a snap in comparison. I don't know why they've made it so difficult.

I'm sick of the fragmentation with Android. I'm sick of being a version behind. I'm sick of my phone being locked down when it was previously at your own risk.

I too am thinking of just getting an iPhone and jailbreaking it. It's not that bad. Currently I have a Gen 1 Droid Turbo which is an amazing phone EXCEPT that it can be rooted. Otherwise, great hardware.

One thing I wish Android / Google would do is come up with tiered hardware. Say 3 tiers and at minimum you must have this, this and this. Currently you can get a great screen. or a fast processor, or decent battery life, or a decent camera, or a good camera, or optical image stabilization. But oh you want all of those things together at a low, mid or high tier. Haha, get lost.

So maybe a jailbroken iPhone is the answer? Who knows. Had them before and hated it. This probably won't be any different.
 
Blade-Runner said:
I have never understood why the carriers have a say in the matter, Google bypasses them entirely with all nexus devices so I don't see any reason why all the other manufacturers can't do the same. No one want's the carrier shovelware, so give users the option to bypass ii if they want the latest and greatest firmware. It absolutely gives me the shits that, despite being relatively knew and powerful, I am still waiting on my Note 4 to receive the latest Marshmallow update.
Click to expand...
Actually, I am baffled that the word "carrier" is even mentioned at all, doesn't the phone update via the internet and is DL'ed directly from the manufacturer's servers? Where does carrier fit in? Do they all say "hey, make the phones update through our servers, not yours"???

Or is this a US thing? Even carrier locked phones over here in Taiwan doesn't lock their update routines through their server, the phones all update via their respective official channels.
 
chenw said:
Actually, I am baffled that the word "carrier" is even mentioned at all, doesn't the phone update via the internet and is DL'ed directly from the manufacturer's servers? Where does carrier fit in? Do they all say "hey, make the phones update through our servers, not yours"???

Or is this a US thing? Even carrier locked phones over here in Taiwan doesn't lock their update routines through their server, the phones all update via their respective official channels.
Click to expand...
In the US the updates are not only being bogged down by the OEMs but by the carriers as well.

So here is the process by which Android updates have to go through for users in the US.
  1. New software released by Google.
  2. OEMs get the update which then they have to merge in any changes that Google made into their bastardized version Android that they're using (TouchWiz, Sense, etc.) and hope to God that whatever Google changed didn't break the whole house of cards in the process.
  3. The OEM sends the update pack to the carrier which the carrier then sends back to the OEM containing the changes they want added to it be it additional bloatware, carrier network changes, network additions like VoLTE, etc.
  4. The OEM then gets these change requests from the carrier and makes those changes.
  5. The OEM then sends what it thinks that the carrier wants the update to be like to the carrier which... oh wait, did you think it would be finalized now? Nope. The carriers then submit more changes to the OEM.
  6. The OEM does those changes and submits the changes back to the carrier.
  7. Repeat steps 3 through 6 a couple of times.
  8. And now finally, eight months later the end user finally gets the update only to have the whole entire shitty process start all over again when Google releases a new version of Android.
And now you know why Android phones are notorious for not getting updates on time in the US. God damn it, I hate it.
 
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chenw said:
Actually, I am baffled that the word "carrier" is even mentioned at all, doesn't the phone update via the internet and is DL'ed directly from the manufacturer's servers? Where does carrier fit in? Do they all say "hey, make the phones update through our servers, not yours"???

Or is this a US thing? Even carrier locked phones over here in Taiwan doesn't lock their update routines through their server, the phones all update via their respective official channels.
Click to expand...

Part of the allure of android over iOS was that it was open source so both carriers and manufacturers could modify and brand it to make their products unique. In the US, what really happened was some unique tweaks and improvements but also a lot of crapware to get more money/products out there etc. Now to me this was acceptable for contract subsidized phones.

Now that most carriers are trying to get away from subsidized hardware, one would think the branding and crapware would also go away with contracts and cheap phones... but nope still there so far. At least now we can disable most of them like the bloatware that comes with Windows when bought with a computer (though I say you still can't just wipe and install plain android as easily as windows).
 
The single best decision that Apple made when releasing the iPhone was that they essentially told the carriers in the US "Go fuck yourselves, this is the way it's going to be done and you have no say in the matter."
 
As for the OEMs, Android is a money printing machine; every time they release a new model device it practically prints the stuff for them. So from a purely economic point of view, there's no good business reason for the OEM to develop software updates for their older devices.

Let's face some things here... If you were an executive in one of these OEMs, Samsung for instance. What would you rather do?
  1. Develop software updates for your older devices which not only costs the company money but also takes away from the R&D of new devices.
  2. Put the effort into making the "Next Big Thing" which is pretty damn well guaranteed to bring in the cash like nobody's business.
Hmm... if I were an executive which one of those choices would I choose? Choice #2 of course, silly.

So basically from a purely economic point of view there's really no reason why the OEM should update your phone. They already have your money after all. The OEMs consider it a done deal the moment you hand over your cash.
 
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trparky said:
As for the OEMs, Android is a money printing machine; every time they release a new model device it practically prints the stuff for them. So from a purely economic point of view, there's no good business reason for the OEM to develop software updates for their older devices.

Let's face some things here... If you were an executive in one of these OEMs, Samsung for instance. What would you rather do?
  1. Develop software updates for your older devices which not only costs the company money but also takes away from the R&D of new devices.
  2. Put the effort into making the "Next Big Thing" which is pretty damn well guaranteed to bring in the cash like nobody's business.
Hmm... if I were an executive which one of those choices would I choose? Choice #2 of course, silly.

So basically from a purely economic point of view there's really no reason why the OEM should update your phone. They already have your money after all. The OEMs consider it a done deal the moment you hand over your cash.
Click to expand...

I completely understand this. So in this case just leave the damn phone unlocked so I can run whatever the he'll I want on it :)
 
Makeroflostsouls said:
This is the reason I have been looking at getting a damn iphone. I have a note 4 . Which is a nice ass phone but if no one will update it and I can't load my own shit on it because they want to lock every damn thing down now days. What's the point in staying with android.
Click to expand...
That's pretty much the very reason why I went to the iPhone. I had four Android devices before I bought the iPhone 6 Plus.
  1. Samsung Droid Charge
  2. Samsung Galaxy Nexus (Good God, the cellular radio in that device sucked big time!)
  3. Samsung Galaxy S4
  4. Samsung Note 3
As you might have guessed, all of those devices (except for the Nexus device) suffered from a serious lack of software updates. After some convincing from two good friends of mine I jumped ship to the iPhone platform and to tell you the truth, I've been happy ever since. I've gotten every iOS update regardless of the fact that I have AT&T as my carrier. I've been so pleased with the iPhone experience that I plan on getting the next iPhone when it comes out in September of this year. I have no intention of looking at the Android platform ever again.
Makeroflostsouls said:
I completely understand this. So in this case just leave the damn phone unlocked so I can run whatever the he'll I want on it :)
Click to expand...
Sure, if the OEMs were forced to unlock the device after they stopped caring about it I would be all for this idea. But, who the hell are we kidding here? The chances of that happening are slim and none, and slim just left town.
 
trparky said:
In the US the updates are not only being bogged down by the OEMs but by the carriers as well.

So here is the process by which Android updates have to go through for users in the US.
  1. New software released by Google.
  2. OEMs get the update which then they have to merge in any changes that Google made into their bastardized version Android that they're using (TouchWiz, Sense, etc.) and hope to God that whatever Google changed didn't break the whole house of cards in the process.
  3. The OEM sends the update pack to the carrier which the carrier then sends back to the OEM containing the changes they want added to it be it additional bloatware, carrier network changes, network additions like VoLTE, etc.
  4. The OEM then gets these change requests from the carrier and makes those changes.
  5. The OEM then sends what it thinks that the carrier wants the update to be like to the carrier which... oh wait, did you think it would be finalized now? Nope. The carriers then submit more changes to the OEM.
  6. The OEM does those changes and submits the changes back to the carrier.
  7. Repeat steps 3 through 6 a couple of times.
  8. And now finally, eight months later the end user finally gets the update only to have the whole entire shitty process start all over again when Google releases a new version of Android.
And now you know why Android phones are notorious for not getting updates on time in the US. God damn it, I hate it.
Click to expand...

Jeez, and I thought OEM updating is already bad enough... my Padfone was rumoured to get Marshmallow update several months ago, hasn't happened yet, but it did take them awhile with Lollipop so no surprises there. Our carriers hasn't pulled that crap yet (even phones bound by contract are bound only on paper, the phone is physically the same as you would get if you bought a "empty phone" as we call it).

Does non-contract version of such phones also go through this grueling process?
 
chenw said:
Does non-contract version of such phones also go through this grueling process?
Click to expand...
If you buy your device from a carrier it doesn't matter if you bought the device outright or you bought it under contract, the carrier will have gotten their ugly dirty hands into something that they have no damn business in.

As for pre-paid devices that are often sold for dirt-cheap by prepaid carriers? That I'm not sure of but since the device is usually cheap as shit, the OEM probably doesn't think that they have to do anything for you. Hell, most of those dirt-cheap devices don't even have accessories like phone cases made for them.
 
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