With the launch of Android 8.0 last year, Google released Project Treble into the world. Treble was one of Android’s biggest engineering projects ever, modularizing the Android operating system away from the hardware and greatly reducing the amount of work needed to update a device. The goal here is nothing short of fixing Android’s continual fragmentation problem, and now, six months later, it seems like the plan is actually working.
There are indeed some small signs of hope, but the reality is that as long as Samsung isn’t on board, it’s effectively all for naught. I find this article far too positive when you look at the reality of Android updates, but at least there’s some progress.
There are still new devices being issued that use old versions of Android, though — Garmin, for example, just released a navigation unit for trucks (Dezl 780) that is based on Android 6.0.1 (Marshmallow) despite there being two more recent versions. I’ve had two previous Garmin navigators and none of them seem to be based on Android, so this is a new departure for them and yet they use an old version of the OS, it’s very odd.
Garmin choose Android 6.0.1 for whatever reason on new devices. Don’t see how that’s related to the article.
That OEMs are mostly ignoring Google regarding Treble.
It’s not the same thing. Garmin builds single purpose devices where stability is of the up-most importance. And new Android Version means more bug squashing and instability risks.
But still, 7.x is stable and proven. So why would they go for 6.x if they could’ve gone for 7.x?
Maybe 6.x does what they want. Maybe they can’t stand the look and feel of 7.x?
Well, it would be nice if absolutely everything android was on treble, but first things first.
The real pain is in phones, mainstream phones by big manufacturers not getting security and/or os updates.
It would be a really nice world, in which the version of Android that Garmin is using on truck navigation units was our biggest fragmentation concern. But we’re not there yet.
Repeat after me… Samsung is not effin’ Android. Android is not Samsung.
If people want to buy an iffy phone with a crappy update history, that’s their problem. There are other Android phones available.
You are correct, but in the end it does not realy matter, we have two major mobile platforms Android and IOS. If I purchase a new ish phone (non refurbed but not necessarily the latest gen, there are 2 outcomes. Eiter I get an IOS devise which has the latest updates (if not they get installed on activation, or I get and android phone which may or may not have or ever get the latest patches/os version. I know it is my jip to reserach the products I buy, bit a lot of people just pick whatever their friends say is cool and don’t break theit wallet to badly, thinks lioke updates come way down on the list if it ever gets on there, result a lot of new android devices remain unpached and on releases that are old wit known exploits. I’m not sayying Apple is perfect, no company is but as long as you hae an ios device that is not EOLed you at les get updates. Is samsung better or worse than Other manufacturers using Android? I honestly don’t know
Samsung is worse than at least BlackBerry. They are pushing security updates almost every month (sometimes every month). Sure, they may not always update to the latest stable Android (although the KeyOne *will* receive 8.0 shortly and the Key2 *will* receive 9.0 – they’ve already promised that), but at least you you’re safe with the latest security updates for 3 years (so far, they are keeping up with that promise).
And Nokia is also pushing updates and also promised Android 9.0 support for at least a few of their devices., so Samsung is also doing worse than Nokia.
Edited 2018-06-12 09:16 UTC
Plain Android UI sucks, hence why non-technical consumers buy Samsung and Huawei with their eye pleasing UIs.
Ha ha ha! That’s a good one XD
What he says does sorta make sense though. What’s considered efficient and streamlined for techies might simply suck in the eyes of a regular user.
Let’s look at the classic case of a typical Windows installation. You might have a couple of desktop icons, nicely arranged tiles in your Start menu (or whatever it’s called these days), streamlined web browser layout with useful extensions, minimal background processes. That’s probably the equivalent of stock Android.
The regular Joe Schmoe on the other hand, thinks his desktop, with 500+ shortcuts splattered all over, every single “toolbar” in existance installed on his browser and a mile-long list of crap on his systray, is the coolest thing ever. Yeah, it probably runs like a sloth on weed, but he’s perfectly fine with it. That’s the equivalent of Samsung’s TouchPiss UI.
TL;DR – People tend to like crap.
Edited 2018-06-11 18:47 UTC
My Pixel XL thinks you’re funny.
Although to be fair, it’s running Apex as the default launcher.
The article specifically cites Samsung’s chip division as being one of the three (along with Qualcomm and MediaTek) SoC producers that Google is working directly with to integrate Treble into their board support packages. Combine that with licensing terms that require all phones that ship with Oreo or newer to be Treble certified, we should see all new Samsung phones shipping from now on with Treble under the hood.
If I’m willing to spend money for an iPhone because of updates, for the same amount I may have top model from Samsung or others with updates too. I have Galaxy S2 with latest Android from LineageOS too (2011) and I bought it because of community work 7 years ago. Just make a decision.
But – really – who really needs new Android on own phone? iPhone needs because of new Safari. Android has new browser etc without new Android version.
Edited 2018-06-11 07:57 UTC
Do you use bluetooth? Then chances are, someone can hijack your phone remotely without you knowing it, unless you’re patched.
Do you use wifi? Then chances are, a hacker can intercept and manipulate all your wifi connections, unless you’re patched.
Those are just two of the vulnerabilities that came out within the last two years that affect many, many unpatched phones.
I still find it ridiculous that I can update a Linux distro to the newest release on my 10 years old laptop and can not update to the new Android OS version on my 3 year old mobile device, since the manufacturer abandoned any kind of firmware support for it.