Android 4.1 upgrade prospects are unknown

Whenever there is an important system upgrade, the first thought that everyone has flashed in mind is: "When can I use it?" ” For Android users, getting the exact answer is undoubtedly going through waiting, rumors, hints, leaks, and even frustration. When the Android 4.1 Jelly Bean System was released at the Google I/O Developers Conference, all participants had a common desire: this situation will change. But unfortunately, from the attitude of major Android OEMs, the current situation is still unclear.

According to Google, it is expected that the Jelly Bean System will be installed in July, including only a few "Nexus Level" devices, including Nexus S, Galaxy Nexus and Motorola Xoom. To get more For information, we contacted a number of OEMs and asked them when they would upgrade their existing devices to Android 4.1, but most said “no comment”. Acer, Asus, and HTC declined to say when to use Android 4.1, HTC added: "More information is being watched." & rdquo; LG said that it is evaluating the performance of Android 4.1 on existing devices, but did not release any official news. As of press time, Motorola has not responded.

Samsung is more straightforward, reiterating that the Nexus S and Galaxy Nexus will upgrade the system and issue the following statement for other devices that meet the jelly bean requirements: “Samsung will soon announce which other devices will be eligible for upgrade. The result of the frozen bean system. As the world's largest smartphone manufacturer, Samsung led the Android community with the best of its kind, such as the Galaxy S III, and developed new devices such as the Galaxy Note. Samsung has the largest number of Nexus branded devices, and we are pleased that Google has listed the Samsung Galaxy Nexus and Nexus S as the first devices to upgrade Jelly Beans, allowing these users to experience the system first. "The Galaxy S III is also expected to be upgraded," said a person familiar with the matter, in order to ensure that the phone meets the requirements of jelly beans, Samsung has upgraded the phone's memory to 2GB at the last minute. The jelly beans themselves are definitely You don't need so much memory, but if you work with TouchWiz technology, it may be necessary.

Solutions

Google at the I/O Developers Conference last year promised to work with manufacturers to develop new guidelines for rapid upgrades after the launch of the new Android platform. In the device …… in the long run, this will facilitate the continuous upgrade of the device. ” A number of companies have promised, "If the hardware conditions permit, upgrades will be provided for new devices within 18 months of the release of the new platform. & nbsp; Objectively speaking, due to the existence of "hardware conditions allow" such a precondition, the effect of the above commitment is greatly reduced. In short, the prospects for the upgrade of jelly beans are the same as those of previous generations, and we must continue to wait and see.

From the perspective of the overall market structure, you can understand the embarrassing situation of Android. Although Apple has never made any commitment to the upgrade, it has performed well and always provides users with new systems in a timely manner. Even Microsoft's performance is better than Google. Although the company recently announced that existing Windows Phone 7 devices cannot upgrade Windows Phone 8, Microsoft has at least set clear expectations for users. On the other hand, Google, even the closest partners, is not sure when it will be able to upgrade the latest system, which makes last year's promise a dead letter.

At this year's I/O Developers Conference, Google launched a project called "Platform Development Kit" for upgrades. Director of Android Product Management, Hugo. Hugo Barra explains this: “It's the same as the software development kit, except that it's for Android hardware developers. It contains the necessary source code and low-level API documentation to allow hardware developers to introduce Android into their hardware products. The platform development kit will be available to Android device partners two or three months before the launch of the new platform. ”

He added: "We have actually started this release —— the jelly bean platform development kit beta has been open to several companies for a few weeks, they have been for us Provide valuable feedback. We have already absorbed these feedbacks and will continue to be open to everyone in the future. The platform development kit enables Android OEMs and chipset manufacturers to collaborate with Google to innovate and ensure that the latest Android systems are fully optimized for hardware. ”

New Deal Impact

Prior to this, only Nexus partners were able to get a new generation of Android systems earlier. Sometimes, other companies have to wait until Google is completely open sourced for the new system to get the new system. From the point of view of Barra, Android will go through two release processes in the future: First, the hardware partners will get the new system a few months before the release; after that, it will be open to everyone when it is officially released.

What impact will this have on Android upgrades? Obviously, it is still too early to draw conclusions. Google may think that these months will allow partners to better introduce the Android system into the hardware, so as to carry out more effective upgrades, and even provide more clear upgrade expectations. However, compared to the software development cycle, months are not enough.

Think about it: Droid RAZR and Galaxy Nexus were released on the same day. Eight months later, in the same week that Droid RAZR just upgraded to Android 4.0, Google released Android 4.1. Although many users Both hope that vendors will sell more devices that use the Android native system, but these vendors are unlikely to give up on the Android system in the short term. In fact, for system customization like Sense and TouchWiz, the word “beautification” is too superficial, because such techniques usually require adjustments to the kernel, which takes longer.

As for the effectiveness of the new policy, I am afraid that it will be seen when the next generation of Android is released. But don't be too optimistic, by then, Google may be able to shirk its responsibility directly. When the next generation of Android was released, it could say: “We allowed OEMs to use the platform development kit two months ago. To know why you can't upgrade, just ask them. ” We can only expect the manufacturer to give an answer, if this is of course good, unfortunately, the probability is not big.