Hands0n
1st April 2010, 12:22 PM
This news is vital and comes not before its time too ...
In its very short life as an OS Android has already become quite fragmented with both "official" manufacturer and independent distributions of the system.
Whilst this may not be so bad for those of us who like to hack around with our OS and follow the likes of XDA forum, the vast majority of handset buyers are fairly simple and innocent folk who don't even know that you can change the OS yourself. Much less would they be inclined to do so even if they did know.
And so it is up to the manufacturers to keep the appeal and freshness of Android alive - something that, in my opinion, only HTC are doing! Witness for the prosecution is Sony Ericsson with their brand new Xperia X10 arriving on platform one with Android 1.6, albeit skinned with SE's "Rachael" Android skin. Not that there is anythin particularly nasty about Android 1.6, but it is hardly showcasing Android on SE's newest flagship handset.
So it goes on, with the likes of Samsung and others committing similar 'sins' against the OS.
If Google can pull this off then it will be a major step in the right direction. Whilst Android has very many plusses against that other world leading handset system OS X, it does fail miserably where it fragments and leaves users with varying capabilities on their devices. In some cases the only means for a user to update to Android 2.1 is to buy a brand new handset with it on because the manufacturer has abandoned them completely on their incumbent device (Samsung, until it got a ton of bad reaction from its Galaxy users, finally relented although they've yet to deliver).
I say "Go Google, go". You simply must do this.
It is one of the great unspoken truths of the smartphone industry that Google is known to be annoyed at the continued customisation - and consequently fragmentation - of its Android platform by over enthused handset makers. In fact, the motivation behind the Nexus One was to show users a 'hero' product that could illustrate the evolution of Android without needing to wait for custom skins to be updated. While sales were low, in this regard the Nexus One succeeded - but with handsets around the world scattered between Android 1.5, 1.6, 2.0 and 2.1 there needs to be another approach and Google believes it has found it...
Speaking to Engadget at CTIA last week, "people whose words carry weight" explained that Google would change the way it releases Android upgrades in future. Instead of pushing out entire new firmwares, it will start to decouple "many of Android's standard applications and components from the platform's core... making them downloadable and updatable through the Market [Android Marketplace]." In addition to this new functionality - such as the multitouch in v2.1 - will also be downloadable meaning users will not need to wait for Samsung, Motorola, Dell, HTC, etc to roll out a newly customised firmware.
Engadget claims this approach will begin over the next two major Android versions - 'Froyo' and 'Gingerbread' - and will coincide with Google finally slowing down the development speed on Android's core in favour of fleshing out apps and features. This sounds wise, given that no matter how much we like Android there remains the sense that the vanilla OS is a bit rough around the edges.
Can Google pull this off? Well, other than dictating that all manufacturers cannot customise Android anymore (I'd back this, but manufacturers would hate to lose their 'differentiators') it seems the most logical step forward. So watch this space...
Article source: http://www.trustedreviews.com/mobile-phones/news/2010/03/30/Google-to-Changing-Android-Updates-to-Combat-Fragmentation/p1
In its very short life as an OS Android has already become quite fragmented with both "official" manufacturer and independent distributions of the system.
Whilst this may not be so bad for those of us who like to hack around with our OS and follow the likes of XDA forum, the vast majority of handset buyers are fairly simple and innocent folk who don't even know that you can change the OS yourself. Much less would they be inclined to do so even if they did know.
And so it is up to the manufacturers to keep the appeal and freshness of Android alive - something that, in my opinion, only HTC are doing! Witness for the prosecution is Sony Ericsson with their brand new Xperia X10 arriving on platform one with Android 1.6, albeit skinned with SE's "Rachael" Android skin. Not that there is anythin particularly nasty about Android 1.6, but it is hardly showcasing Android on SE's newest flagship handset.
So it goes on, with the likes of Samsung and others committing similar 'sins' against the OS.
If Google can pull this off then it will be a major step in the right direction. Whilst Android has very many plusses against that other world leading handset system OS X, it does fail miserably where it fragments and leaves users with varying capabilities on their devices. In some cases the only means for a user to update to Android 2.1 is to buy a brand new handset with it on because the manufacturer has abandoned them completely on their incumbent device (Samsung, until it got a ton of bad reaction from its Galaxy users, finally relented although they've yet to deliver).
I say "Go Google, go". You simply must do this.
It is one of the great unspoken truths of the smartphone industry that Google is known to be annoyed at the continued customisation - and consequently fragmentation - of its Android platform by over enthused handset makers. In fact, the motivation behind the Nexus One was to show users a 'hero' product that could illustrate the evolution of Android without needing to wait for custom skins to be updated. While sales were low, in this regard the Nexus One succeeded - but with handsets around the world scattered between Android 1.5, 1.6, 2.0 and 2.1 there needs to be another approach and Google believes it has found it...
Speaking to Engadget at CTIA last week, "people whose words carry weight" explained that Google would change the way it releases Android upgrades in future. Instead of pushing out entire new firmwares, it will start to decouple "many of Android's standard applications and components from the platform's core... making them downloadable and updatable through the Market [Android Marketplace]." In addition to this new functionality - such as the multitouch in v2.1 - will also be downloadable meaning users will not need to wait for Samsung, Motorola, Dell, HTC, etc to roll out a newly customised firmware.
Engadget claims this approach will begin over the next two major Android versions - 'Froyo' and 'Gingerbread' - and will coincide with Google finally slowing down the development speed on Android's core in favour of fleshing out apps and features. This sounds wise, given that no matter how much we like Android there remains the sense that the vanilla OS is a bit rough around the edges.
Can Google pull this off? Well, other than dictating that all manufacturers cannot customise Android anymore (I'd back this, but manufacturers would hate to lose their 'differentiators') it seems the most logical step forward. So watch this space...
Article source: http://www.trustedreviews.com/mobile-phones/news/2010/03/30/Google-to-Changing-Android-Updates-to-Combat-Fragmentation/p1