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End of Android fragmentation???

It won't be the end but it'll be nice to know that certain manufacturers will give guaranteed software updates for 18 months. There will be less wondering and waiting and speculation.
 
here is my concern...while they will guarantee updates for 18 months...does that really mean anything??...for instance...

Froyo was released to OEM's the day the X launched...we didn't get out update till September?...Gingerbread was released to OEM's in December(?)...we don't have our update yet...

so will the OEM's be forced to stick to some sort of time table for turning around Vanilla Android and getting their overlays (Blur, Sense, etc..) installed over top and get them out??

i worry that it doesn't actually mean we will get more updates...it could still be a "if it gets done" type thing...

HOPEFULLY it means that if a source code is released to OEMS within 18 months of the phones release that it will get the update...
 
i kind of agree with Metfanant. I'm skeptical of this topic and maybe they just did it to get some heat off of them about all of this. I'm pretty sure our beloved DX's will receive official GB and then probably a bug fix update after that and i bet that will be it. Which by then will probably be 18 mos after release. So...i guess take this whole thing however you want. Personally i'm not getting my hopes up.
 
The caveat to the 18 month thing is that the phone has to have the horsepower to support the new version. If the phone falls under the minimum standards for the new version than the update guarantee doesn't apply.

That should open the door enough for a lot of hardware vendors/wireless carriers to not worry about releasing updates for every phone they support...
 
Yeah, there are alot of "IFs and BUTs"....additionally, what is the normal "shelf life" of handsets today? Many will reach EOL before 18 months anyway....Doubt they will update hansets that are no longer being sold. Overall, I think it is a good thing...and a step in the right direction.

Another thought..perhaps Google should require the manufacturers to have a minimun amount of internal memory...enought to avoid the "low on memory" message many low end Android handsets experience with just a few apps installed...which can give Android a bad name.
 
Yeah, we the device will receive updates for 18 months. At month 17 they say, we just couldn't get the bugs worked out, sorry,we tried, buy a new device.
 
It seems that Google updates tend to work with most of their phones, however things get left out that they don't figure the phone can handle. There are a lot more a-la-carte items being pushed to particular phones these days. I would expect this to continue.
 
I think we will need to take the 18 month timeframe mentioned as a guide, not as a "Cast In Stone" directive.
 
so what about devices that are already released....18 months from the original DX release puts us right at the time ICS is supposed to be released.....just wishful thinking :)

this is good news though. but it does say "up to 18 mos." and not "at least 18mos"
 
Turdbogls said:
so what about devices that are already released....18 months from the original DX release puts us right at the time ICS is supposed to be released.....just wishful thinking :)

this is good news though. but it does say "up to 18 mos." and not "at least 18mos"
Click to expand...


Yeah well ICS will release just like Froyo and GB. It will release on dev phones first, then take up to 6 mos for it to land on current phones. so really i don't expect to see ICS for the og DX
 
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