Microsoft’s Windows chief, Terry Myerson, isn’t pulling any punches against Android this week. Speaking during a keynote appearance at Microsoft’s Ignite conference in Chicago, Myerson knocked Google’s Android update plans. “Google ships a big pile of… code, with no commitment to update your device,” Myerson said, with an intentional pause that left the audience laughing. “Google takes no responsibility to update customer devices and refuses to take responsibility to update their devices, leaving end users and businesses increasingly exposed every day they use an Android device.”
He’s completely right, of course, but his words does have a souer taste when you look at Microsoft’s Windows Phone and Windows RT update history and near future.
And here’s why:
> Google ships a big pile of… code,
Seriously? Has he ever read the OOXML spec? Yep, those lines with references to Office 97 hidden secret voodoo-who-knows-what-the-hell-do-that entries, for example.
> with no commitment to update your device,
Hum… I’m lost. When was the last time MS *update* my device? Nope, he throws patches that *might* fix a problem I don’t have (most scenarios it opens new vector attacks)
Oh, now I get it, he meant the kind of updates like moving from Android 2.x to 4.x . Like what they did when moving from Windows 98 to Windows XP (when I had to buy new hardware to make it run) or from Windows XP to Windows 7 (when I had to buy new hardware to run the bloatware OS) or when I had to move from Windows 7 to Windows 8.1 Update 1 ’cause they decided to EOL Windows 7.
> Google takes no responsibility to update customer devices and refuses to take responsibility to update their devices, leaving END USER and businesses increasingly exposed every day they use an Android device.
Erm… your updates come with a nice *if it breaks, we will fix it, someday* for end-users. ’cause last time I told you a bug in MS Office Word broke working copy of my Final Degree Project, I didn’t got any other response than “we’ll fix it”.
Also, MS don’t take responsibility when updating OS ’cause they say “buy new hardware” and takes no shame on that.
Exactly. And I have had no end of troubles with updating Windows 8.1 on my home computer. Every few months I get an update that refuses to install. It goes through the entire process, and then rolls it back. This started with their stupid mandatory update a while back. I had to reinstall the entire operating system to get the update to install. Microsoft seems to be the pot calling the kettle black in this case.
And its not like they “Commit to updating” their windows phone devices any more than Android devices…. a year or two and they won’t be supported either.
I’m surprised they’re supported at all! I thought they’d give up producing them already since they haven’t really been that successful in the market. They’re stubborn; I’ll give them that!
WP8 is already outselling iOS in many markets.
If you remove carrier subsidies Apple would be fscked.
I love these kinds of statistics. If you torturously narrow your definition and ensure to pick the one statistic where you number is bigger, just look, my number is bigger than your number!
As you don’t provide a source, we’ll go with http://goo.gl/X9Jm76 (It’s a Forbes article)
Well okay, sure, those are markets. They’ve totally got that key Kenyan demographic sewn up.
So let’s look at the figures. Let’s go for Italy; Italy is on that list and it has it’s own figures.
WP sales (Q3 2013): 16.1%
iOS sales (Q3 2013): 10.1%
Clearly Apple are doomed. Wonder where that other 75% of sales went, though?
Android sales (Q3 2013): 68.8%
Oh, well, never mind then.
P.S: If I sell one Tiger Repealing Rock, and then sell a second rock two months later, I’ve doubled my market share of Tiger Repealing Rocks. I might only have sold two in the quarter, but I have a 100% growth rate.
Kenya has 45 million people – nearly twice as Australia (which is considered a key iOS market).
http://www.fiercemobilegovernment.com/story/mobile-phone-ownership-…
Edited 2015-05-05 10:01 UTC
Kenya only has 45 million people – nearly 30 times less than China (which is considered a key iOS market).
Yay selective comparisons! I win again!
There is one thing I would like to add to sales statistics. My brother got a family plan and 4 MS WP, I guess, they were included as promotion. My brother do use one of them, all the other members bought Android devices (one Samsung, one LG and one Sony).
Sales stats: MS.WP->57.14% Android->42.86%
Real use stats: MS.WP->25.00% Android->75.00%
I’m not aware if it is typical or not but, I guess, it shows something we all know about statistics, they must be always carefully analyzed.
Most of these countries are “value” markets, not valued markets. China – that is where the next sales boom will come from.
Case in point – China has GDP that’s 5x of India’s, with comparable populations.
You keep trotting this one out, and it’s not really true.
Carriers aren’t charities. They pass on the entire cost of the phones to customers. This is why when you get a phone from a carrier you get tied in to a multi-year contract. It’s essentially a finance deal.
When I got my phone I ran the numbers. I compared the cost of a SIM-only contract and buying my phone outright against a contract with a carrier “subsidised” phone. The total amount I’d have to pay out over the two years of the contract was about the same.
Also generally if you sign up for a carrier subsidised phone and you don’t change your phone or contract when the lock-in period ends you will stay on the same tariff and pay significantly more.
Well that is a big pile of …. inaccuracy
Any pc that can run Windows 7 can run Windows 8.1 and Windows 10. Windows 7 is not EOL.
Yes, you needed to update your hardware between Windows 95 and XP and between XP and 7 (most machines that run 98 run XP just fine) which means that between 1995 and 2015 you had to update your hardware…twice. That means 7 years on average for hardware to really need to replace it. Of course replacing it more often gave you a better experience (no SSD’s years ago) but you really didn’t have to.
Microsoft gave me the update from Windows Phone 8 to 8.1 which made the OS extremely usable and the latest Denim update made the camera work so much faster and better. Another half year and Windows 10 will come to ALL devices and make them better again.
Google throws code over the wall and knows that most devices will not get it. That is not Googles fault but it is a big weakness in the Android ecosystem that results in an incredible amount of unpatched devices. Not like Windows devices where some users choose not to update, but simply cannot update.
I don’t know what Microsoft has done to you that makes you despise them so much yet you keep using their products apparently
Actually, the Dell Pentium 4 machine I got in 2003 runs Windows 7 just fine. Of course, it’s a little sluggish, but still quite usable for light tasks. (I haven’t tried installing Windows 8 or 10 on it, so don’t know if those will work or not.)
I wouldn’t be surprised if 8 runs on it then. To me, 8 seemed a little faster than 7. My main problem with 8 has been the updates, but the OS itself seems fine. I don’t even mind the Metro Start Menu!
speaking of inaccuracies, back in Win 98 days, 32-64MB of RAM was the norm, try running XP SP3 on that… (SP3 because earlier versions of XP are full of security holes)
In order to avoid hitting the page-file you need 512 MB of RAM; which was the max 98 could handle. So theoretically, as long as you had a 98 mobo that could handle 512 MB of RAM you could run XP, albeit not well.
A P4 is about the median of longevity. You can run 95 through to Win7 on a P4 (I haven’t personally tested Win8/10 on a P4)
My Nexus 4’s camera still regularly reboots the OS… and it’s a Nexus device. I’m not alone. This is even after, what, 4, or 5 updates to Android since the bug appeared.
I have a Nexus 4 also. It is constantly locking up with a black screen, with a reboot the only way to unlock it. I actually have both a Nexus 4 and a Blackberry Z30, which I like to switch the sim card with from time to time. It’s usually in the Blackberry though, since I can’t trust the Nexus 4.
Actually, yes!! I get that too. I totally forgot. But only since Lollipop. I use the Nexus 4 infrequently now so it happens a lot less. Most of the time it’s off, so it never gets to the point where the black screen happens. At some point I’ll re-flash it with Sailfish for a bit and see how that goes, but for the moment it is just my back-up phone.
I use a Windows phone most of the time now. I have developer unlocked it to play at writing apps, and it’s all very easy – given it’s just C# and xaml. The Windows phone OS annoys me every now and again, but on the whole, I like it more than unstable Android. The keyboard is the most annoying thing, but then I think that is just buggy hardware (Lumia 535, though they mostly fixed the issue in the last couple of update, it still does detect some phantom taps.)
I have HTC WP 8s at home that will never see an upgrade.
So let’s just remember that Microsoft dumps a big pile of … bits and gives no promises what happens next.
Looking at my now-replaced Windows phone’s update history, Microsoft ships a whole lot of… nothing.
It’s the fault of the carriers. My nexus 4 is still getting OTA updates.
And yet when Windows Phone updates come out, the carrier mysteriously is able to approve them within a few months: https://www.microsoft.com/en/mobile/support/software-update/wp8-soft…
I’ve had 3 OTA updates on my Windows phone in the 3 or so months since I got it. Each time I got a notification and just ran the update… Mine is not locked to a provider though.
Updates vs upgrades. A lot of Android phones get updates as well.
Big companies slams each others products. News at 11.
I’m actually liking Satya Nadella nowadays. (I find it quite impossible to hate a whole company, btw.)
I know this is naive.
Is there a good reason why Phones can’t just have a UEFI?
Core drivers are provided in the UEFI by the manufacturer and the OS loads on top of that. So OS fixes and updates would be down to them and UEFI updates down to the manufacturer.
Or is it that these companies just want to sell you another thing every 2 years…
That is not entirely crazy. The way Sailfish boots on Android devices has some kind of hardware abstraction and translation layer… except it relies on the fact that the Android system you overwrite with Sailfish still has drivers available etc.
As others pointed out, it’s not up to Google to update the carrier’s/manufacturer’s software. Google updates the base OS, then the carriers/manufacturers do their part.
I’m still waiting for Windows Phone 8.1 Update 2 on my Nokia phone. So much for being available only in “exclusive” markets.
Google indeed does not give one cent about all the Android phones out there that aren’t even compatible with their playstore ecosystem.
Thats like expecting Linux core developers to fix outdated packages from a god knows which flavour or Linux distribution just becase well it’s Linux..
This will never happen.
Windows had this problem in the past, but as time went by (10 years in fact) the windows generic drivers have gotten good enough to run on a multitude of devices out of the box…
Neither Google (nor Linux for that matter) is there yet unfortunately.
I fully agree with you. It is mainly the responsibility of the different phone manufactures to deliver the updates to their devices. Any company that does not change anything from the Android that Google releases would deliver updates within a month of release to their devices.
So true that it’s just like Linux kernel, the user-land of each distribution is full responsibility of that distribution.
What becomes even more strange is that Microsoft is at the same time trying even harder to align themselves with android, getting their apps released for the platform and getting them preloaded on Android devices.
I have a saying that “when a junkie tells you not to take drugs, you don’t ignore the advice just because of where it comes from”.
I’m no fan of Google OR Microsoft (or Apple for that matter), but this whole debate is off topic. I have devices by all these companies, and Android is 1,000x more usable on a touch interface. Address that Microsoft, and maybe you can talk about update schedules. Windows 8.1 is practically unusable compared to an Android tablet. Have you guys even LOOKED at how Android works as an interface? You are way, WAY behind.
Oh and MS is good a updating theirs. Like for instance the Surface RT tablet will be getting a whole lot of nothing when Windows 10 comes out! :-X