# Android Orphans



## sunnysidedown (Oct 28, 2011)

I thought some of you may find this chart rather interesting.







Article here:

http://theunderstatement.com/post/11982112928/android-orphans-visualizing-a-sad-history-of-support


----------



## grit (Oct 28, 2011)

sunnysidedown said:


> I thought some of you may find this chart rather interesting.
> 
> Article here:
> 
> http://theunderstatement.com/post/11982112928/android-orphans-visualizing-a-sad-history-of-support



Pity there is no data for  2011


----------



## sunnysidedown (Oct 28, 2011)

It seems it's planned, from his notes:

_
*Why stop at June 2010?*

I’m not going to. I do think that having 15 months or so of history gives a good perspective on how a phone has been treated, but it’s also just a labor issue - it takes a while to dredge through the various sites to determine the history of each device. I plan to continue on and might also try to publish the underlying table with references. I also acknowledge that it’s possible I’ve missed something along the way._


----------



## mauvais (Oct 28, 2011)

When you buy a car, do you expect a man to turn up ten years later and fit a new engine for free? You buy a phone with the software it comes with. Anything else is a bonus.

Some Android phones come out a few versions behind the curve. Stop the presses! If it's an issue, more fool the people for buying them. Of course Apple come out looking better because it's a closed shop.


----------



## tommers (Oct 28, 2011)

Since when was an iphone 4 $199?

£600 on O2.

We're getting ripped off.


----------



## elbows (Oct 28, 2011)

Regardless of why the data isn't shown, I find the chart misleading because it does not show what happened with the iPhone 3G once Apple stopped new iOS versions being available for that phone.

A messy Android update picture is a real issue though.


----------



## mauvais (Oct 28, 2011)

Compare and contrast:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_version_history

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IOS_version_history

Android 1.5: April 2009
Android 1.6: September 2009
Android 2.0: October 2009
Android 2.1: January 2010
Android 2.2: May 2010
Android 2.3: December 2010
Android 4.0: October 2011

iOS 1.0: June 2007
iOS 2.0: July 2008
iOS 3.0: June 2009
iOS 4.0: June 2010
iOS 5.0: June 2011

One device, one operating system, in-house. Hardly difficult to release a new product with the latest OS, is it?


----------



## elbows (Oct 28, 2011)

Well its not one device, the iOS 5 date is wrong, and point releases are missing, but yeah. Nobody is claiming that it is as easy for Android to get updated on a wide range of handsets in a timely fashion, that its somehow someone being slack or inept. But the issue exists, and this sort of thing is one of the things that makes Apple smug about their chosen business practices. Much the same with their desktop computers back in the day, by only supporting their OS on their own hardware Apple gained an advantage, albeit at great cost to the percentage adoption of their OS. It nearly killed them as Windows became so dominant.


----------



## mauvais (Oct 28, 2011)

There's interim Android releases too, but both lists there are what I'd use as major releases if compiling that chart. I may be wrong about iOS - not an Apple expert. If you set the parameters carefully enough, you can show whatever trend you like.

Regardless, what is the actual problem for the Android man on the Clapham omnibus? In its infancy, Android backwards compatibility in terms of apps and features was a headache, but these days I'm bimbling along on an unmaintained HTC Desire on 2.2 and not exactly feeling like I'm missing out on anything. I expect the problems may suffer some resurgence with v4, but does anyone really care?


----------



## editor (Oct 28, 2011)

I suspect most users aren't that bothered so long as they can download all the latest apps. This article explains it all pretty well:



> What's not clear in the study is that an "old" version of Android is still a very modern version of Android.
> 
> To illustrate: Froyo was released in May 2010, and Gingerbread was released in December 2010 – that's a gap of a mere seven months. It's easy to forget the pace of Android development, and in such an environment of pace, fragmentation ends up being necessary. Without "fragmenting" the platform – in this case without having a stream of new versions hitting the market – you cannot create adequate competitive pressure in the market. As Apple, and to an extent Microsoft, keep innovating, it's essential that Google is moving Android along at breakneck speed.
> 
> ...


http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2011/oct/28/android-fragmentation-not-really


----------



## Crispy (Oct 28, 2011)

mauvais said:


> but does anyone really care?



I'm guessing that developers do.

It would be interesting, however, to know how many users of iOS/Android actually apply OS updates when they are available. Most people I know with a 3GS are still running iOS 3, for example.


----------



## mauvais (Oct 28, 2011)

Crispy said:


> I'm guessing that developers do.


I'm one, and for the most part I don't. Fragmentation's a little annoying just in terms of form factor and UI differences, but I can write a single app that works very well on a budget 2.1 smartphone and a brand new 3.x tablet. The way they've structured development in this regard is less than brilliant, but hardly awful.

I suppose it depends what your baseline is. I heard of a J2ME developer that produced 14,000 versions of his app for compatibility with different handsets and networks. Quite how he arrived at that figure, the mind boggles, but it used to be Very Bad and now it's Mildly Troublesome at worst. I have a different set of notification icons for HTC Sense, and err, that's it.


----------



## Kid_Eternity (Oct 28, 2011)

Crispy said:


> I'm guessing that developers do.
> 
> It would be interesting, however, to know how many users of iOS/Android actually apply OS updates when they are available. Most people I know with a 3GS are still running iOS 3, for example.



No one I know is, even 3GS owners have updated to iOS5...


----------



## mrs quoad (Oct 28, 2011)

Don't think my t-mobile desire has updated for something like a year?!


----------



## mrs quoad (Oct 28, 2011)

Kid_Eternity said:


> No one I know is, even 3GS owners have updated to iOS5...


Arent you in a bit of a geek demographic?

Can remember walking past artichoke's iPod (4) and seeing something like 90 pending updates. She CERTAINLY won't update OS until and unless it's a precondition of hell freezing over.


----------



## Kid_Eternity (Oct 28, 2011)

mrs quoad said:


> Arent you in a bit of a geek demographic?
> 
> Can remember walking past artichoke's iPod (4) and seeing something like 90 pending updates. She CERTAINLY won't update OS until and unless it's a precondition of hell freezing over.



Actually no, the majority of my friends aren't geeks.


----------



## mauvais (Oct 28, 2011)

mrs quoad said:


> Don't think my t-mobile desire has updated for something like a year?!


Do you sleep at night?


----------



## mrs quoad (Oct 28, 2011)

mauvais said:


> Do you sleep at night?


I mostly lie awake wondering what happened to disasterpaint


----------



## mauvais (Oct 28, 2011)

mrs quoad said:


> I mostly lie awake wondering what happened to disasterpaint


It died and noone was left to depict its demise in a crude and unusual fashion.


----------



## mrs quoad (Oct 28, 2011)

mauvais said:


> It died and noone was left to depict its demise in a crude and unusual fashion.


You should disasterpaint that.


----------



## Corax (Nov 7, 2011)

Ice Cream Sandwich coming to HTC's Sensation and upwards from "early 2012"

What's the lag between Device manufacturers and networks for roll out usually like?


----------



## fractionMan (Nov 7, 2011)

Stupid bloody version names are starting to piss me off.


----------



## ChrisFilter (Nov 7, 2011)

Kid_Eternity said:


> No one I know is, even 3GS owners have updated to iOS5...



My Mrs is still on 4. A mate of mine went to 5 but it killed his battery so he downgraded.


----------



## beesonthewhatnow (Nov 7, 2011)

A lot of this wouldn't be an issue if the fucking handset makers and networks didn't insist on putting tons of crap on top of the OS.

I love the HTC sense stuff, but why can't they make it a downloadable option?

And name me one person who ever uses the shit the networks put on


----------



## Corax (Nov 7, 2011)

beesonthewhatnow said:


> A lot of this wouldn't be an issue if the fucking handset makers and networks didn't insist on putting tons of crap on top of the OS.
> 
> I love the HTC sense stuff, but why can't they make it a downloadable option?
> 
> And name me one person who ever uses the shit the networks put on


The one I really object to is "Win Cash".  FFS.


----------



## Kid_Eternity (Nov 7, 2011)

ChrisFilter said:


> My Mrs is still on 4. A mate of mine went to 5 but it killed his battery so he downgraded.



Not seen that battery thing in real life so far...


----------



## Ground Elder (Nov 7, 2011)

Oh,  I thought this was going to be a thread for people who have been abandoned because their partner won't stop playing with their fucking phone


----------



## souljacker (Nov 7, 2011)

Corax said:


> Ice Cream Sandwich coming to HTC's Sensation and upwards from "early 2012"
> 
> What's the lag between Device manufacturers and networks for roll out usually like?



With Orange, ime, about 6 months.

With t-mobile, about 150 million years.


----------



## Corax (Nov 7, 2011)

souljacker said:


> With Orange, ime, about 6 months.
> 
> With t-mobile, about 150 million years.


Any idea what Three's rep is for it?

Given that their whole thing is about the data usage, I'd hope they'd be reasonably rapid.  (?)


----------



## ChrisFilter (Nov 7, 2011)

Kid_Eternity said:


> Not seen that battery thing in real life so far...



Yeah. He thought it was his old 3GS battery so he replaced it with no joy. Being back on 4 everything's fine.


----------

