The developer dashboard has been updated, and there’s some big movement this month. In the post holiday window, KitKat is up a healthy 5.2% and Gingerbread drops another 1.3%. One thing you won’t see on the chart is Lollipop. Android 5.0 still hasn’t hit the 0.1% threshold to be included in the data, just like last month.
Google Play Services mitigates a lot of the concerns about updates – not that many people seem to understand that – but this is still Android’s biggest weakness by a huge margin. Sadly, it’s also something Google seems to be doing little about. Also, this.
…that Lollipop didn’t at least tap the meter. With Lollipop hitting at least a few high profile devices (Moto X 2014, LG G3, Nexus 5) I was expecting to see _something_. Two out of my three devices are on Lollipop, and the third will be tomorrow.
I guess it is a testimony to the overall dominance of Samsung devices.
Google has done what they can under the circumstances, by moving as much as possible to Google Player Services as mentioned. Beyond that, given Android’s OEM/carrier driven model, little can be done other than supporting those manufacturers who have a history of responsive updating. Unfortunately, Samsung’s infinite supply of marketing dollars renders this pretty ineffective as well.
Edited 2015-01-08 00:13 UTC
“It’s nice to see more movement this month, especially where Gingerbread is concerned. This ancient version of Android…”
Gingerbread, ancient?
The last version of Gingerbread (2.3.7) wasn’t released until September, 2011. Devices with Gingerbread pre-installed were undoubtedly still being sold long after that.
What kind of operating system is “ancient” after only three years?!?
OT but FYI, Windows XP sp3 still works just fine after 8 years.
Turns out my only Android device is also Gingerbread, 2.3.5. What’s wrong with it and why should I upgrade? Seems to continue working just perfectly.
Every mobile operating system, no matter if it was made by Apple, Microsoft, BlackBerry, Nokia or Google
No, it really doesn’t still work just fine anymore and it was from a market that had been through a lot more maturing than Android 2.x
Well it seems that neither Samsung nor Google consider it “ancient” since they’ve never released an OS update for my device.
Using XP right now. Works fine, just like it does every single day. Internet, email, office, gaming…
What a strange logic. When they don’t release OS updates anymore that means they DO consider it ancient (just like your XP doesn’t get updates anymore)
And I am not going to argue about Windows XP. If it works fine for you…great. But as an OS it doesn’t work fine anymore and you are missing out on many new features
With XP, I continue to use it partially because it continues to do everything I need, and rather well. But also to prove it can. I do have newer computers with Windows 7, but they are not my daily-use machines.
With Android, on the other hand, upgrading doesn’t seem to be an option. It seems the device was discontinued in early 2013 but still available for sale at some major retailers as recently as early 2014, meaning that many people have owned these less than one or two years.
I hope 1-2 years is not the new Ancient.
Maybe that’s what Thom meant by his comment, “this is still Android’s biggest weakness by a huge margin.”
Edited 2015-01-08 17:47 UTC
It’s just horrible logic all the way around.
Firstly, it’s not just that 3-5 year old software can’t be okay without updates (unlikely) nor that software requires significant updates once a year or sooner… it’s that software updates are available for months or years without being made available (if not mandated or greatly incentivized to apply). The updates exist (or at least the updates exist such that any OEM should be able to update within a brief period) but aren’t getting out.
Secondly, then turning around and saying that this poor performance is proof that it’s okay and not bad performance is just nonsense.
For those saying it’s unfair to compare to Apple, there is some truth to that. But it’s also true that that is what they are competing against. Also, despite the device diversity, that’s really not sufficient reason to NOT update. Yes, some models may be too low spec’ed to be updated. Yes, some OEMs with many models with regional or carrier specific settings may take some time, but it shouldn’t be more than many, many months and/or we should be able to see them steadily progressing through their most important phones, etc. The truth is: some (most) OEMs/carriers have little to zero interest in providing an up-to-date software upgrade path for their devices, it is an afterthought, a begrudging obligation that they will avoid as much as possible. The truth is that outside of the top devices from top manufacturers, which are still likely to wait months to more than a year, few devices are being provided a good system update path — which isn’t just new features but also bug and security fixes. Simply saying “Apple has it easier” doesn’t defend the true state of affairs in Android land.
Edited 2015-01-08 22:06 UTC
There are some apps that won’t install on WinXP anymore – that is my I’ve upgraded my wife’s PC to Win7.
There are several Android apps that don’t install on 2.3.X or have an ancient version (like gmail).
Yes, but Windows XP got security updates for a long time. Gingerbread doesn’t. So, it’s not only ancient because smartphone OSes were still developing rapidly, it is also ancient because it is not secure using an unpatched system.
So devices with Gingerbread installed should be updated. I’m not arguing, but who’s fault that they’re not and who’s responsibility to correct the situation, Google/Android? Samsung? Maybe consumers should buy all new stuff every two years?
Android didn’t add support for Bluetooth 4.0 (aka Bluetooth Low Energy, aka Bluetooth Smart) until Android 4.3.
At most this means that just over 45% of Android devices may support BT 4.0. And that is the best case scenario. Not all of that number actually has BT4.0 radios. Whereas with the exception of the iPad 2, all iOS 8 compatible devices support it.
This isn’t great news for those of use making devices that users interact with using their phones/tablets. You can develop for iOS and know that every device in manufacture support BT 4.0. Android is just a crapshoot. There isn’t even a way Android users can check short of installing an app.
No wonder Lollipop numbers are so low, not even Google make it easy: two months after release it is available for Nexus 7 (2012 and 2013) only in Wi-Fi versions, owners of 3G/LTE models are totally left out, not even factory images.
Also, you can see people with Nexus 5 Nexus 7 Wi-Fi complaining they didn’t receive yet the OTA upgrade.
You’re completely wrong, a simple Google search on your Android device would have lead you to the first entry from the result list :
https://developers.google.com/android/nexus/images
Go burn yourself a factory image.
There are no Lollipop images for the mobile versions of the Nexus 7.
As an owner of a Nexus 7 2013 LTE I’ve been convinced by Google to purchase my next tablet from Apple. Not so much because of the delay but the complete lack of communication about the reasons for the delay and expected release dates.
Edited 2015-01-08 15:53 UTC
XDA is your friend :
http://forum.xda-developers.com/nexus-7-2013/development-lte/rom-ao…
the point stands: Google is faulting itself with Lollipop adoption
I bought a Nexus device specifically so that I wouldn’t have to update manually with unofficial images which may or may not work properly.
Last official statement from Google regarding the Lollipop update for the Nexus 7 mobile versions that I’m aware of said that the rollout would begin sometime in the middle of December. It’s January and there are still no images much less any other statement.
Look again at your link, Nexus 7 [2013] (Mobile) and Nexus 7 (Mobile) have 4.4.4 as the latest release. Have you read the comment you are replying to?
There must be something wrong with 5.0. Motorola “announced” they were upgrading second gen Moto G to Lollipop. It was in November last year, two months ago. Yet my Moto G still haven’t received upgrade.
And this is retail-bought, no contract attached phone! So there can’t be any “telekom” delay, as this phone came straight from Motorola. They apparently stopped distributing upgrade, if they even started.
No Lollipop on my Moto G or Moto X either. But they were rolling it out in the US, Brazil, and India for the Moto G. That stopped, so there must have been some really serious showstopper bugs.
It is not fare to compare the update rate of Android to iOS because iOS only has one phone controlled by one single company.
But the fact remains that it is disappointing the update rate of the Android Phone manufactures. If it can only be as simple as Windows that you updated from XP to 7 on the same machine… until you get disappointed of the speed of the new OS on the old machine so you needed to buy a new one.
Yes and no. Since most higher end models are now using nearly the same SoC (Qualcom Snapdragon), it should not be that hard anymore. The problems is manufacturers with their skins *and* carriers.
One can only hope that people stop buying telco devices and that Google puts more and more functionality in the Play store, so that they can update it without the carriers and manufacturers.
They have gotten pretty far. My Kit Kat phones are half-material design these days
.
Edited 2015-01-09 07:12 UTC
Not surprised, since Android 5.0 went from paper-launch to buggy-launch to still-waiting-for-a-proper-launch.
Edited 2015-01-08 19:30 UTC
If you’re still running Gingerbread, then your Android device is probably now out of warranty, so an alternative route is to try out the latest CyanogenMod release you can find for your model (it may be 9 or 10 instead of 11 or 12). XDA Developers maintain a fair number of “unofficial” CM releases that don’t appear on cyanogenmod.org’s download pages, so they’re worth a try too.
The last tablet I bought – the Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5″ – sadly still hasn’t even got an official CM11 release (and no sign of an unofficial CM12 yet either), so I’m running an unofficial CM11 from XDA on it (works well, even if the useless fingerprint reader isn’t supported – *anything* is better than the awful Touchwiz).
Edited 2015-01-10 18:19 UTC
If you use a prepaid carrier (at the very least) there are still brand new Android 2.x devices still available brand new.