Android Mobile Updates – My New Year wish!

What is the biggest gripe of Android users? Battery! and the second one? Android updates. There are a lot of terms floating around like fragmentation and variety but the bottom line is- There are too many Androids out there.

Now, there is a difference between having different variants of the same version and having different versions altogether. For example- There is CynogenMod, AOKP, Samsung’s TouchWiz, HTC’s Sense and Sony’s own skin UXP, Motorola’s skins and what not. These are all varied and quite different from each other.

Of course, then there is the stock option as well which very few people actually have ever used. These though maybe world apart in how they look or feel may be based on the same software version. It is like theming a Windows computer and thus it rarely has a major affect at the core functionality. It is more for enhancing or reducing productivity.

One cannot do this in an iPhone and this is considered a big gripe in Android community against Apple.

The second thing – The glaring problem is that there are many versions of the Android running around. There is of course the 4.2 and 4.1 (Jelly Beans) and then 4.0 (Ice cream Sandwich). The story till here reads fine. It is kind of like Windows 7 ruling the roost while Windows 8 gets ready. But, then we get deeper in the mud with Android 2.3, 2.2 and 2.1 running on some phones. I do not even want to believe that there is some phone that is still running 1.6.

Current Android Version Distribution

If we see this in Windows framework – Imagine some PCs running Win 95 and even 3.1. Not only is it hilarious but think about how unsafe Windows XP is from Windows 7 and if we put the same iteration on Android it is almost criminal to run anything past Android 4.0 now.

I understand when a phone is too old to run a newer version but when CynogenMod makes it work then it means that the originally company either did not work hard enough or maybe they do not want to update so that people buy their new phones. Whatever be the reason it is not the way you treat your customers and definitely not when you want them to stick to you.

When a new OS from Apple releases it gets updated on all the present phones. If some part of the software cannot run then it is left out but at least security wise each iPhone (whichever version) is rock solid and at par.

For this New Year, I hope Mobile companies take a turn and make updates fast. Ideally, I would love to have my phone updated in a month of the new OS released and the last thing I want is to buy a new phone to get new software.

Would love to hear your views on this.

[This article has been written by Kunal Prakash]