Lead Android developer thinks a 5 month wait for an update is 'very rea

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Lead Android developer thinks a five-month wait for an update is 'very reasonable'

Jean-Baptiste Queru, technical lead on the Android Open Source Project (AOSP), has revealed his opinion on the current state of the project and the lengthy waits users face for updates. In a Google+ post, Queru congratulates Sony on its Android 4.0 update for the Tablet S and describes the Japanese company as being the biggest contributor to Android, leaving everyone else playing catch-up. By contributing code to the project, Sony should be able to ensure timely updates for its own devices as well as helping out the community at large. So why the long wait for Android 4.0?

Queru actually thinks the five months it took Sony to update the tablet from 3.0 Honeycomb to 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich is "very reasonable," as the two Android versions are "quite different" under the hood. He also adds that the differences between Gingerbread and Ice Cream Sandwich are huge, and so phone upgrades are likely to take longer. When asked why Asus updated its tablet much faster than Sony, Queru states that Asus worked together with Nvidia. Given the Transformer Prime's status as the flagship Tegra 3 tablet, it comes as no surprise that both parties would throw as many resources as they can at the tablet to ensure a timely update.

What really bothers Queru is that some Google-engineered devices still don't have the latest version of its own OS, thanks to delays in the carrier approval process. He's very glad that Google is back to selling devices directly, and will be "even happier" when he sees the program expanded to more countries.

Source: The Verge

[neo1911]

If he agrees that Asus and Nvidia churned out update very fast for Transformer Prime, why the F*** others take so long? Does he know that he is contradicting himself?

[limok]

Exactly the xoom hasn't been fully updated to 4.0 in the UK and it was one of the first android tablets out there.

[Ambroos]

If he agrees that Asus and Nvidia churned out update very fast for Transformer Prime, why the F*** others take so long? Does he know that he is contradicting himself?

nVidia and Asus worked together a lot, most development was parallel. Most other manufacturers don't get access to all needed drivers and HAL-stuff from their SoC-source that fast, and then it obviously takes a while to port all the included apps. That, and most companies (looking at you, Samsung) are just lazy.

Sony and Sony Mobile/Sony Ericsson), as it has been said, contribute a lot of their work to the Android source code, and they have very good developers. They improved memory management on ICS over the "standard" edition, and their software is rock solid. Good job Sony!

Sony Mobile is also the only manufacturer to date that actually completely reskinned their Android interface to match the ICS guidelines. With the 4.0 update (and on the Xperia S) all icons and almost all interface graphics got a major overhaul to fit Holo.

(For the record, Sony tablets are made by the Sony VAIO team, Sony Mobile (/Ericsson) Xperia smartphones are made by the SEMC (Sony (Ericsson) Mobile Communications) team. They work completely independent, but both of them contribute a lot of code to Android. They are slowly merging some development in common areas (mostly media-related such as Bravia Engine, Music Player, ...), but all of that is in a very early stage.)

[Boz]

If he agrees that Asus and Nvidia churned out update very fast for Transformer Prime, why the F*** others take so long? Does he know that he is contradicting himself?

I assume it's because ASUS goes about Android the proper way. They are putting a few apps and widget that are theirs but their Android installation is pretty much stock which makes them updated it very fast. I just got an upgrade on ASUS Transformer 1 to the latest ICS only few days ago. They are super fast.

[Hardcore Til I Die]

I long for the day companies stop putting their skins on everything and offer launcher downloads instead.

[Vice]

5 Month wait seems a bit long to me but I could live with that as-long as OEM's were more transparent about whether they are going to release an update at all.

[Matthew S.]

/major facepalm.

[remixedcat]

oh really when's the last time you had a blackberry or Symbian update???

*chirp* * chirp*

[.Neo]

I really don't have the patience to wait five months for an update, that is if I receive updates at all. Something that frequently remains to be seen.

[jakem1]

Let's not forget that it's now 7 months and only 7% of Android devices have been upgraded. Does he think that's acceptable?

[.Neo]

oh really when's the last time you had a blackberry or Symbian update???

Last month. In fact, at this point my BlackBerry Torch 9860 received more updates than my HTC Legend ever did.

I still loathe BlackBerry OS 7.1 though.

[Detection]

I assume it's because ASUS goes about Android the proper way. They are putting a few apps and widget that are theirs but their Android installation is pretty much stock which makes them updated it very fast. I just got an upgrade on ASUS Transformer 1 to the latest ICS only few days ago. They are super fast.

ASUS just mash together anything and send it out, they released 3 consecutive ICS builds for the TF101 to fix a major random reboot and sleep of death bug present since ICS day 1 and each update made things worse, one of them killed the volume and all of them made the bugs happen more frequently

They obviously either don't test their releases or they couldn't care less and send out useless crap anyway

They got together LOADS of (2) beta testers out of the 40+ that asked to be testers on XDA and then completely ignored them when they reported that the beta update did not fix the bugs, and sent them out to everyone anyway, three times.

Their amazing story they were telling everyone was "We can't replicate it"

How can you not replicate something that is happening to 99% of your customers when you own every revision of the TF101

I swore never to buy asus again after this, my TF101 was a paper weight for most of this year

[funkydude]

oh really when's the last time you had a blackberry or Symbian update???

*chirp* * chirp*

The Belle update just came out a few months ago and Carla is due soon, so that's both your points invalidated. (mainly because you didn't bother to research them)

[Miuku.]

oh really when's the last time you had a blackberry or Symbian update???

Considering Android and Windows Phone are both playing catch up on even basic features, I wouldn't complain much about slow Symbian updates.

It's not so long ago Android people were all "Ooh myyyyy" over tethering. It made me laugh myself to tears.

[Matthew S.]

I'll say it again Android would be soo much better if the adopted the iOS approach to OS updates... F*ck the carrier push it all out, that is... if the vendors get their drivers done in time....

[.Neo]

I'll say it again Android would be soo much better if the adopted the iOS approach to OS updates... F*ck the carrier push it all out, that is... if the vendors get their drivers done in time....

That doesn't change anything about different manufacturers slapping on their custom interfaces and stuff.

[tiagosilva29]

At least they are getting fixes/updates/upgrades. I can't say the same about my bada.

**** you Samsung.

[Growled Member]

What really bothers Queru is that some Google-engineered devices still don't have the latest version of its own OS, thanks to delays in the carrier approval process.

That's a major fail.

[Gone]

Android will never be successful unless the versions can be updated quickly amongst different devices. Don't even get me started on it taking the manufacture so long to release their version because it is time consuming. If they would [***Motorola I'm singling you out for my Xyboard***] allow their devices to be unlocked and release their software in open source standards, then we'd have releases within weeks with such groups as Cyanogen.

So no, the guy is a jackass, I think a 5 month rate is very unacceptable.

[techbeck]

Android will never be successful

Never be? Have you been hiding in a cave the past couple of years?

[Noir Angel]

Considering Android and Windows Phone are both playing catch up on even basic features, I wouldn't complain much about slow Symbian updates.

It's not so long ago Android people were all "Ooh myyyyy" over tethering. It made me laugh myself to tears.

Firstly, you do realise that had little to do with Google and a lot to do with carriers, right? And secondly, what basic features is Android missing?

I'll say it again Android would be soo much better if the adopted the iOS approach to OS updates... F*ck the carrier push it all out, that is... if the vendors get their drivers done in time....

Do you even have a clue how Android works? The code for the OS is pushed into the open source projects, and the developers build and customise it for their devices from source. Google have NO CONTROL over how updates are pushed they just provide the OS. There's no conceivable way for them to forcibly update devices they didn't manufacture.

[Anibal P]

Android will never be successful unless the versions can be updated quickly amongst different devices. Don't even get me started on it taking the manufacture so long to release their version because it is time consuming. If they would [***Motorola I'm singling you out for my Xyboard***] allow their devices to be unlocked and release their software in open source standards, then we'd have releases within weeks with such groups as Cyanogen.

So no, the guy is a jackass, I think a 5 month rate is very unacceptable.

56% of the smartphone market worldwide says otherwise

[Noir Angel]

Android will never be successful unless the versions can be updated quickly amongst different devices. Don't even get me started on it taking the manufacture so long to release their version because it is time consuming. If they would [***Motorola I'm singling you out for my Xyboard***] allow their devices to be unlocked and release their software in open source standards, then we'd have releases within weeks with such groups as Cyanogen.

So no, the guy is a jackass, I think a 5 month rate is very unacceptable.

You're thinking like a geek and not like an average consumer. The average user won't give a toss about updates if the device already works well for them, most people that I know that have owned iPhones didn't even understand what the software updates were for and i'd wager the situation isn't much different for Android and BB users

[PyX]

It definitely lowers the value of a device.

While I never wait a single minute for an update on my iPhone, I always get all the features for the time that I own my phone. My phone is used at 100% of its potential for all the time that I own it.

On the other hand, on Android, if you?re always 4 months late, it?s like your device is used at 80% of its potential for 12 complete months in its life cycle, if your phone is good for 3 years and a new version is released yearly.

No thanks, Android. You see, deploying software updates right away on every phone is not good. It?s nothing, it?s neutral. But making users wait for updates is completely negative.