Orphaned Androids And You

This morning I came across this blog post describing the state of affairs for owners of Android devices and the updates to their operating system.  Or lack of updates.

The post is an informative read and one that I will be recommending to anyone who asks me about whether they should buy an Android phone or not.  As someone who has owned two seperate Android devices, along with a whole slew of other smart phone devices, I can say that it's a real eye opener.

Now before someone starts getting on my case for being an Apple fan boy let me say up front that while I love my iPhone I'm not married to the thing.  There are a lot of things about Android that I liked, and miss.  There are some things about my iPhone I don't like.  In fact, except for my one brief two month stint as a BlackBerry user there are things I like and miss about all the smart phones I've used.  As for BlackBerry the only thing I miss is nothing.

In the past I've made references here and out in the world to how Android is starting to become the next Windows, and not in a good way.  Many may have forgotten due to the longevity of Windows XP just how fragmented Windows was back in the 1990's and early 2000's.  There were several different versions out in the wild at the same time and literally thousands of different hardware configurations to contend with.  Who remembers having to read the side of the box software shipped in to see if your hardware and operating system would handle it?  It would start with which version of Windws was supported, moved on to which sort of CPU and CPU speed, and then went on about memory, graphics card, and other such things.  Windows XP was on the market for so long that part of this issue became moot but there was still the nagging hardware questions.  Android is on its way to making the whole Windows thing look passe.

In its mad rush to compete with the iPhone Google has been pushing the envelope in its development of Android.  Each year there have been at least two or three major updates to Android touting great new features and UI enhancements.  I have to admit that the latest, Android 4 "Ice Cream Sandwich" looks pretty nice and has piqued my interest but I know from watching the mobile industry that I do NOT want to get caught up in the nightmare that is Android.  As Google took the wraps off of Android 4 the first phones and tablets running the last two generations of their operating system were just fully coming to market and the handset manufacturers have already started making vague coments about just when, and if, their current models will get the updates.  Thanks to the poor system in place for handling this where the updates first have to go from Google to the manufacturers and then on to the various service providers for approval means that at about the time ICS is set to roll out to those devices Google will be holding another news conference announcing the next big update.

In other words, you committ yourself to a two year contract with hardware that may, or may not, stay up to date with OS updates.

For many people this will be just fine.  As long as their phone works with calls, surfs the web, and handles email and messaging they are happy.  They will encoutner problems down the road with apps.  In the moble computing space it's the apps that help make the device what it is.  Sooner rather than later people will start running in to the issues of app compatibility.  It's already started on a smaller scale but as more developers look to write software for the Android platform they will have to take into consideration the fragmentation of this space.  There are about three major hardware configurations (Snapdragon, Tegra 2, and TI OMAP CPUs with single, dual, and now quad-core architecture) that have to be taken into consideration.  Then after that is the "skin" and customizations that the various manufacturers add on top of Android.  While it is possible to write software that can take all of this into account it can lead to code bloat (larger apps) and quirky performance on some hardware platforms.  The code bloat means that larger storage space will be required and the quirky performance means that the developers will have to spend more time and money developing their software.  Some may be turned off from developing for Android while others may turn away.  Another possibility is paying a premium for their appications being on Android compared to either iOS or Windows Mobile.

As for what I recommend to folks asking me which Android device to buy I tend to receommend one of the "flagship" Nexus devices.  With one of the Nexus branded devcies you get the plainest version of Android with no manufacturer or carrier customizations loaded onto the device.  The updates come straight from Google, usually over-the-air and tend to stay current with the latest versions of Android a lot longer than the rest of the line up of devices.  The original Nexus came out over three years ago and recieved the latest versions of Android all the way up until ICS, which the hardware will not support.  Three years versus six months (at best!) is a better investment.