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Topic: Smartphones

Google won't upgrade Nexus One to Ice Cream Sandwich

Summary: The latest update on Ice Cream Sandwich is good news for Nexus S owners, but bad news for those still holding onto a Nexus One.

Ricardo Bilton

By for The ToyBox |

When Samsung's Galaxy Nexus launches later this month, it will herald the arrival of Ice Cream Sandwich, the latest version of Android. That's exciting news, but for owners of Google's now-ancient Nexus One there may not be so much to be excited about.

According to Google’s Product Management Director of Android Hugo Barra, the Nexus One is just too old to get the upgrade to the next version of Android. HTC released the phone in January 2010, making the phone just under two years old by this point. It was previously thought that Google would make an attempt to upgrade the Nexus One to Android 4.0, but apparently that's not the case.

But good news for Nexus S owners: Google is confirming yet again that the device will see the upgrade to Ice Cream Sandwich. This time, Barra went further to specify a more concrete timeframe of "within weeks." That would date it right around the the release of the Galaxy Nexus, which is scheduled for mid-November.

[Telegraph]

Topics: Smartphones, Google, Mobility

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  • RE: Google won't upgrade Nexus One to Ice Cream Sandwich

    Really pissing off the core followers with this crap. The Nexus S is only marginally more powerful than the N1. There is no justifiable reason to not upgrade the N1 other than the greed to force people to buy a new phone. I might buy a new phone, soon as I find an OS from someone I feel I can trust in the future.

    First you broke our N1's, then you disabled features, now you are holding out on a viable update. Maybe you are as evil as people say Google.

    Thinking twice about buying anything involving Google again.
    timspublic1@...
    Reply Vote

    • That's the thing - they WANT you to buy the Nexus S

      @timspublic1@...
      What ROI do they get (from the work on Ice cream) if they upgraded the Nexus 1?

      Yet buy a Nexus S, and they get their cut.
      William Farrell
      Reply Vote

      • Hmmmmm.......

        @William Farrell

        Google gets a cut if you buy a new phone?
        For them whether you run it on N1 or S should make no difference I would think.....
        rhonin
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Google won't upgrade Nexus One to Ice Cream Sandwich

        @rhonin
        I think so from N1 or NS because they are Google branded/marketed phones. If you buy Google branded/marketed obviously Google gets it ROI.
        Ram U
        Reply Vote

      • They did make their ROI from the initial sale of the Nexus One

        @William Farrell
        but how do you recoupe the new costs associated with Ice Cream from upgrading the OS if you don't buy another phone? And the next time, and the next, ect?

        Unless it will allow you to take advantage of larger, newer, and slightly higher priced apps?
        William Farrell
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Google won't upgrade Nexus One to Ice Cream Sandwich

        @William Farrell
        And then sell your N1 so I can buy it cheaply on eBay!
        Johan Safari
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Google won't upgrade Nexus One to Ice Cream Sandwich

        @William Farrell

        I don't doubt that the move is to push more upgrades but they do get benefits from upgrading a phone such as the N1 in the way of customer loyalty (something that is hard to win back once you've lost it). You just heard from one customer who is upset enough to change brands over this; there will probably be many others. And because their competition (Apple) IS supporting older hardware to a certain extent, this is probably something Google should seriously think about.

        Besides, Google is not in the phone business to directly sell phones. They're in the business to sell advertisements; so technically, it shouldn't matter to them which devices the OS runs on as long as the device is capable. More likely, this is part of an agreement with Samsung to help them push their phones.

        JMHO,
        kb5ynf
        Reply Vote

      • <a href="http://www.tran33m.net/vb/">Google</a>

        @William Farrell IOS 5 not so great support. Upgraded iPhone 4 and new IOS wiped out all photos and notes. Every IOS upgrade has run slower than previous. Glad work bought the iPhone, I wouldn't spend my own money on it.
        ytaa1
        Reply Vote

    • RE: Google won't upgrade Nexus One to Ice Cream Sandwich

      @timspublic1@...

      This is why people prefer iPhone platform than Android. IOS has great support. There's a limitation for the hardware, but Apple treats the phone equally.
      nexgenmax
      Reply Vote

      • RE: Google won't upgrade Nexus One to Ice Cream Sandwich

        @nexgenmax

        What google doing is wrong, but Apple is no better than Google. IOS let you upgrade, but slows your phone down so you need to upgrade to a new phone. That is worst than Google.

        BTW, siri only works on iphone 4s and that has nothing to do with the hardware. Apple is one of the greediest company; it wants to suck every cents out of you.
        My_2_Cents
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Google won't upgrade Nexus One to Ice Cream Sandwich

        @nexgenmax

        IOS 5 not so great support. Upgraded iPhone 4 and new IOS wiped out all photos and notes. Every IOS upgrade has run slower than previous. Glad work bought the iPhone, I wouldn't spend my own money on it.
        ghirte@...
        Reply Vote

      • Tests prove that old iOS devices actually became faster with the new iOS

        @My_2_Cents, ghirte: ... not slower. Especially iPhone 3Gs, which is almost 2.5 years old.
        DDERSSS
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Google won't upgrade Nexus One to Ice Cream Sandwich

        @nexgenmax

        People prefer iPhone platform? That's not what the market share statistics say.

        As My_2_Cents points out, Siri only works on iPhone 4S, not iPad 2, not iPhone 4. Not because of hardware, but because Apple want to force customers to buy another device.
        lindsaytheflint
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Google won't upgrade Nexus One to Ice Cream Sandwich

        @My_2_Cents wrong you are!

        Please consider actually researching the device before you blab about it. Thank you kindly.
        markh789
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Google won't upgrade Nexus One to Ice Cream Sandwich

        @nexgenmax uh they only have 5 phones now and every time there is an OS update they leave features out for the previous version. So what your saying is just straight bs.
        Jimster480
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Google won't upgrade Nexus One to Ice Cream Sandwich

        @nexgenmax

        I don't know that this argument will hold much water; judging by market share, people plainly prefer Android over iOS (at least on phones). Besides, most people do upgrade every two years; so, this is not likely to be a major issue for them.
        kb5ynf
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Google won't upgrade Nexus One to Ice Cream Sandwich

        @My 2 Cents, from all reports I've seen iOS 5 runs fine on the iPhone 4, and actually runs faster on the 3GS than iOS 4 did. When the hardware is too slow (e.g. original iPhone and iPhone 3G) they will cut off updates a bit sooner, but PCMag had a graph that showed that every iPhone model was still running the most current version of the OS 3 years after release.
        http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2395401,00.asp
        KPOM1
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Google won't upgrade Nexus One to Ice Cream Sandwich

        @My_2_Cents - iOS 5 runs a lot faster than iOS 4 did on my iPhone 4. Friends of mine with the 3GS also state that iOS 5 runs faster on their phones than iOS 4 did. Going back to an older device and older software, iOS 3.1 ran faster than iOS 2 or even iOS 1.1 did on my first generation iPod Touch. I do agree with you on Siri, however, and I think that Apple should release Siri for everything else capable of iOS 5 with the 5.1 update.
        Champ_Kind
        Reply Vote

        • RE: Google won't upgrade Nexus One to Ice Cream Sandwich

          @ghirte@ I guess you did it on the first day like the millions upon millions of others. I had to run a restore on my 4, but my wife's 4 was fine.
          Champ_Kind
          Reply Vote

      • RE: Google won't upgrade Nexus One to Ice Cream Sandwich

        @My_2_Cents and others, I find it funny that you are bashing Apple who is supporting a phone almost 2 1/2 years on with the latest software update but seem to all but give Google a pass on not supporting their top of the line phone from less than 2 years ago. I have not looked at the hardware specs but sounds like the Nexus 1 should handle the upgrade just fine. It's call giving the customer a reason to upgrade. It's not that the Nexus 1 can't handle the upgrade but they want you to upgrade the phone just as Apple has done by restricting Siri the 4S. I don't agree with either one but it's funny how some will bash Apple over this while they support older devices but don't see an issue when Google pulls the same tactics if not worse. At least Apple only left out one feature, not excluding complete devices.
        non-biased
        Reply Vote
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