Discussion about
The only phone w/ Android 2.2 is no longer for sale?
This seems infinitely frustrating! The Nexus One is the only Android phone on the market right now that supports Android 2.2 and it is no longer being offered for sale. To my friends of the Android loving variety, how do you feel about that? It seems kind of backwards to me, but I'm curious whether or not this bothers most people.
Right now I can see the frustration, but with Android being open source this trend of an updated OS being released weeks or months ahead of devices that are sold with it installed or upgraded to it will be normal. With closed source systems the control of software updates in conjunction with hardware releases and updating previous hardware is easy. I see this is as the consumers entering a change of expectations never before needed in the mobile space. The lag of open source software and hardware has been around forever, but remains something still new to most getting their first Android phones.
The expectation to have updated software on devices launching on hardware that is sold after an update is announced as well as software updates on current hardware I think is coming from two places in the mobile space. First, the iPhone really started the major trend of phones that become more and more valuable with major software updates in time with a modern mobile operating system. iOS being of course a closed environment, Apple sent consumer expectations to always have updates in timely manners and in conjunction with new hardware releases. The second feeder of this expectation is that updates to most phones have been and still are a rare thing. Remember, there are way more non smartphones still sold then smartphones. Consider the amount of phones sold that are just information appliances. Every dumb phone and feature phone, outside of a maintenance release, will probably have the same software on it that was sold on it after two years. Now with the flood of people coming to Android phones from these simple phones, they aren't quite sure how to understand or handle the software fragmentation. A solution may not be Google running frantic to time updates with the vast many manufacturers and/or carriers, but rather to educate the public and set expectations for software updates accordingly.
As time moves forward and Google matures the OS more and more, future updates will probably have less core functionalities that would be considered major features and if Google can manage a way to separate much of what becomes updated in newer OS versions like their proprietary apps (Gmail, Market, etc.) and do what they did with the Maps app, updates could almost become just kernel modifications and include minor functionalities that would improve overall speed and compatibility with newer computing standards as opposed to including multitouch in the browser or free turn by turn navigation, features that formerly separated by an adjacent software update can dramatically change the experience using the phone.
The expectation to have updated software on devices launching on hardware that is sold after an update is announced as well as software updates on current hardware I think is coming from two places in the mobile space. First, the iPhone really started the major trend of phones that become more and more valuable with major software updates in time with a modern mobile operating system. iOS being of course a closed environment, Apple sent consumer expectations to always have updates in timely manners and in conjunction with new hardware releases. The second feeder of this expectation is that updates to most phones have been and still are a rare thing. Remember, there are way more non smartphones still sold then smartphones. Consider the amount of phones sold that are just information appliances. Every dumb phone and feature phone, outside of a maintenance release, will probably have the same software on it that was sold on it after two years. Now with the flood of people coming to Android phones from these simple phones, they aren't quite sure how to understand or handle the software fragmentation. A solution may not be Google running frantic to time updates with the vast many manufacturers and/or carriers, but rather to educate the public and set expectations for software updates accordingly.
As time moves forward and Google matures the OS more and more, future updates will probably have less core functionalities that would be considered major features and if Google can manage a way to separate much of what becomes updated in newer OS versions like their proprietary apps (Gmail, Market, etc.) and do what they did with the Maps app, updates could almost become just kernel modifications and include minor functionalities that would improve overall speed and compatibility with newer computing standards as opposed to including multitouch in the browser or free turn by turn navigation, features that formerly separated by an adjacent software update can dramatically change the experience using the phone.
Yes, it is bothersome. If the only Android phones I have to buy are ones that are locked, full of junkware, and won’t be updated, then I don’t want to be a part of that ecosystem.
Well I am not reading to much into it, sure it was a short shelf life in the US but with the Droid 2 being sold possibly as soon as next with with 2.2, and the Droid, X and Incredible getting 2.2 rumored next week, I don't think 2 weeks with a 2.2 phone being sold is going to affect a damn thing. in all honesty most people who were even interested in the Nexus bought one in the last six months and the general public would be just as happy with the X, Slide, Evo or Captivate.
I agree, sure now it sucks for us consumers but in the end by the time I get to upgrade or your next upgrade cycle the phones that will be out will be so much better then the one you had and not just an incremental upgrade with a new case or extra features(and I am not bashing the iphone since this is the trend for all phones, through it in a new case add a few more features or not and resell it. BB, Nokia Samsung all do this.)
I'm less frustrated about the Nexus One than I am just about how Google handles their Android upgrade process in general. It's one thing for vendor specific builds, like Sense, to lag behind the upgrade path. But it's something else entirely for stock Android devices, like the Droid, to still be stuck with 2.1.
The Droid X is getting 2.2 as we speak: www.engadget.com/2010/07/28/android-2-2-upgrade-fo...
But you're right. It's rather silly that the only phone on which Google's latest mobile OS is officially widely available on is permanently off the market.
But you're right. It's rather silly that the only phone on which Google's latest mobile OS is officially widely available on is permanently off the market.
