Android: Slowing down the innovation train?
Summary: Android updates will likely become a once a year event, according to Andy Rubin, chief of Google's mobile platforms. The big question: Will that help or hurt Android in the smartphone race?
Android updates will likely become a once a year event, according to Andy Rubin, chief of Google's mobile platforms. The big question: Will that help or hurt Android in the smartphone race?
Rubin told the Mercury News' Troy Wolverton:
Our product cycle is now, basically twice a year, and it will probably end up being once a year when things start settling down, because a platform that's moving — it's hard for developers to keep up. I want developers to basically leverage the innovation. I don't want developers to have to predict the innovation.
The point is well taken from a developer perspective. However, Android's innovation velocity is the mobile operating system's best feature. One of the most striking things about Android is that it innovates quickly. That fast pace is why Android is largely on par with Apple's iPhone. That pace is how Android can pass the iPhone.
Further downstream, Android's rapid development is why its market share is surging. What happens if Android's development cycle slows once a year and matches Windows Phone 7 on the innovation cycle? Does Android let Microsoft off the carpet?
There's a balance here. How frequently should Android be released to balance developer interests and innovation?
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Talkback
That rate of development is not sustainable
RE: Android: Slowing down the innovation train?
There are several areas in which Android has already surpassed Apple i.e. configurable mobile hotspot, also the Windows Phone 7 has clearly innovated past Apple in a couple of areas notably social network integration and photo/video sharing.
RE: Android: Slowing down the innovation train?
windows mobile 5.5 was able to do hotspots, so was my iphone in 2008, so including carrier based services just makes you look like an idiot.
windows 7 phone, the entire eco system, is way way closer to how apple setup there eco system. They trashed all the work up to 6.5 when they bought danger.
your one of those people with just enough information to hang themselves.
You got that one totally backwards
Apple can't do anything until someone else innovates it.
GUI? Check.
Mouse? Check.
PMP? Check.
Smartphone? Check.
Tablet? Check.
RE: Android: Slowing down the innovation train?
funny how when MS at the time the largest tech company in the world tried to make the tablet, smart phone thing happen way earlier, and it didn't work at all.
I guess there's more to just being first with hardware and software. Maybe it's more about doing it right?
i'm guessing you named yourself non-zealot to thinly disguise the fact that you are a full blown "fandroid" as they put it?
seriously, you people are more annoying than the MS and Apple zealots.
RE: Android: Slowing down the innovation train?
That alone seals it's success for hundreds of millions.
You hit the nail on the head...
"Android updates will likely become a once a year event"...
Hey... The Special Olympics are a once a year event... Coincidence??? I think not...
RE: Android: Slowing down the innovation train?
And yet Apple fanboys remain retarded year round...
Decoupling
Wow that sounds largely unsubstantiated
Ive never heard a non techy android phone owner say that.
"Further downstream, Android?s rapid development is why its market share is surging."
Really? So you think it's market share would stop growing if they stopped with 2.2 for 12 months? You think this has more to do with their market share than Moto/Verizon advertizing? With iphones AT&T lock in? With its multi device availability? With WP7 not being out yet? Hmmmm. It be interesting to see what you base this on.
RE: Android: Slowing down the innovation train?
RE: Android: Slowing down the innovation train?
The same way linux works now. This will allow re-integration with the linux kernel, reduce and eliminate future OS "fragmentation" and stop the necessity of the Carriers from having to provide ROM updates to each handset model. This is a very sophisticated mobile OS model, and no one else has even proposed it. I would not be surprised if Steve Jobs mentions it on June 7th as the future of the iPhone OS as well, since there will (supposedly) be iPhone devices on multiple carriers sometime in the next 5 years or so... (HA! I crack myself up!)
RE: Android: Slowing down the innovation train?
2.2 doesn't support on board encryption for email. Good luck getting it into real corporate servers. Won't be running on mine.
Android: Slowing down the ***FRAGMENTATION*** train
Oh the irony
How funny that Apple proudly announces 5,000 iPhone OS apps in the App Store that will only run on the iPad.
Cue the double standards...
I think you have that backwards...
No, your reading comprehension needs a bit of work
I did not say there were only 5,000 iPhone OS apps that will run on the iPad. I said there were 5,000 iPhone OS apps that will [b]only[/b] run on the iPad. That is the [b]exact[/b] type of fragmentation that all the Apple zealots were screaming about with Android: [i]Android sucks because not all Android apps will run on all Android devices.[/i] Well, that simply isn't true. What [b]is[/b] true is that not all iPhone OS apps will run on all iPhone OS devices. There are, in fact, 5,000 apps that will not run on 95% of the iPhone OS devices out there. Talk about fragmented!!!!
RE: Android: Slowing down the innovation train?
<b>I did not say there were only 5,000 iPhone OS apps that will run on the iPad. I said there were 5,000 iPhone OS apps that will only run on the iPad.</b>
So?
<b>That is the exact type of fragmentation that all the Apple zealots were screaming about with Android: </b>
Wrong. Some people were complaining (as opposed to "all the Apple zealots screaming") because Android is fragmented both across different phones (different capabillities, screens, specs etc) as well as across different versions of the Android OS (some devices and/or vendors do not even support automatic upgrade).
<b>Android sucks because not all Android apps will run on all Android devices. Well, that simply isn't true.</b>
Actually it is. Apps made with Android 2.x specific APIs will not work in Android 1.x phones.
Now, while this is also true for apps using APIs found in later versions of iPhone OS, the difference is that in iPhone-land, you can easily upgrade your phone to the latest OS version --it's one click away.
Not all Android devices/vendors support upgrading to newer Android versions. There are hundrends of thousands of people stuck with obsolete Android phones.
<b> What is true is that not all iPhone OS apps will run on all iPhone OS devices. There are, in fact, 5,000 apps that will not run on 95% of the iPhone OS devices out there. Talk about fragmented!!!!</b>
You keep using that word, "fragmented". I don't think it means what you think it means.
Those apps are not incompatible with the iPhone because of a fragmented development environment, they are incompatible because they are built *specifically* to take advantage of the larger form factor of the iPad, a different class of device.
It's the difference between "targeting a specific device willingly in order to take advantage of it's capabilities" (customization) and "having to write to the lowest common denominator or deal with variously spec'ed phones, from various vendors with different OS versions, some of which cannot be upgraded" (fragmentation).
Sounds like their OEM partners and devs were complaining....
Android biggest problems .....
#1- Stop adding features without quality control. Android has too many features that are halfazz implemented. They need some sort of quality control or at least test things well before release.
#2- Updates. Where are the OS updates for people who purchase Droids or early HTC models? If people complained about iPhone 4.0 being available to only 3GS and up, why is it OK for Android users to get not even a minor update?