Google Releases Android 9 Pie as Previous Oreo Release is Installed on Just 12% of Devices

[OldSchoolMacGuy]

How is what you're describing not planned obsolescence? The original iPhone had CPU and RAM* capable of powering the most common app usages of modern iPhones. Why should we need way more resources to do the same tasks as before?

*Not including GPU here cause it's a different story.

You're ignoring the fact that some of those resources are used for background tasks and other pieces of the OS. Just because an app doesn't require more resources from one OS version to the next doesn't mean the system as a whole doesn't, also eating into the limited pool available.
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Midrange and budget phones may not get updated, but you get what you pay for afterall. All android flagship phones will get at least 2 years if OS updates and 3 years ot security updates.

Just 2 years of OS updates is pretty meek considering you're buying a flagship. Apple provides anywhere from 2-5 for all models, even the most basic.

 

[H3LL5P4WN]

Ok, so seems to be a lot of confusion here about how the two systems differ:

Android:

• Yearly new releases
• Security patches for old versions (currently from 6 and up) for around 3 years post-release
• Manufacturers control all major and security only updates
• Google update some core services but critically things like kernel are not
• Upgrades (until recently) have been harder for manufacturers because the chip manufacturers stop producing drivers

There are actually some advantages with the Google way here in that if a new very demanding release comes out it won't automatically update and cripple entry-level phones. The downside is that most manufacturers are pretty lousy at releasing security updates (although this is improving).

iOS

• Yearly new releases, devices supported for around 5 years now
  
• Security patches only for the current version (ignoring a few extreme scenarios)
• Apple control software and hardware

The advantage of this system is clearly most people get security updates. That said there seems to be an issue with newer versions slowing down older devices (which should be fixed in iOS 12.

I guess my point is that having an older Android does not automatically make you insecure so being on an older version is not as bad as it could be on iOS.

The critical flaw in your rather nice list, is the fact that everything you've listed for android only applies to a phone from google. And it has to be unlocked. If you're a sucker and got a verizon Pixel, you're still stuck behind their validation testing.

The unlocked HTC U12 Plus that I bought 2-ish months ago while supporting Treble, is only on 8.0. 9.0 was released yesterday and it's not available to me. It won't be, likely for at least 3 months, because while HTC's Sense overlay is light, it's still not as simple as just say, upgrading Windows 8.1 to Windows 10 due to all of the underlying changes HTC has made to support (arguably) the best android phone available currently.

On the flip side of that, my girlfriend's Essential PH-1 has had 9.0 available since yesterday (day 0). Essential's take on android is so stock that some claim it to be boring.

 

[RumorSeeker]

Well, choice in Android, caged to an ecosystem that is against free speech in the apple orchard.

 

[emulajavi]

The auto-rotation google is great!

 

[RickInHouston]

One of the main reasons I would not want to go back to android. Imagine owning an S9 stuck in Oreo for the next eight months after P is released. No thank you.

Can you imagine every iPhone back to 5S will be getting a speed increase when iOS 12 is released shortly ?

Buy a Pixel. Problem solved.

BTW, you can make a case against anything and everything. Try me. Give me an apple phone 'greatest feature'.

 

[Shanghaichica]

The critical flaw in your rather nice list, is the fact that everything you've listed for android only applies to a phone from google. And it has to be unlocked. If you're a sucker and got a verizon Pixel, you're still stuck behind their validation testing.

The unlocked HTC U12 Plus that I bought 2-ish months ago while supporting Treble, is only on 8.0. 9.0 was released yesterday and it's not available to me. It won't be, likely for at least 3 months, because while HTC's Sense overlay is light, it's still not as simple as just say, upgrading Windows 8.1 to Windows 10 due to all of the underlying changes HTC has made to support (arguably) the best android phone available currently.

On the flip side of that, my girlfriend's Essential PH-1 has had 9.0 available since yesterday (day 0). Essential's take on android is so stock that some claim it to be boring.

No it’s true for all the flagship android phones. Even if they have to wait months for it they get a software update every year for 2 years and 3 years of security updates.

 

[ISanych]

One of the main reasons I would not want to go back to android. Imagine owning an S9 stuck in Oreo for the next eight months after P is released. No thank you.

Can you imagine every iPhone back to 5S will be getting a speed increase when iOS 12 is released shortly ?

Samsung != Android. If you care about prompt updates choose vendor which will provide it. Get Pixel, OnePlus, Nokia. If you buy phone from top tier manufacturer but with heavily modified Android, you will have to wait. If you buy something cheap, most likely you will never see an update. You have options, but you have to do some research. In Apple world choice often already made for you.

 

[Lankyman]

Actually one has to be better just by using pure logic. We are not talking about unicorns it is very much quantifiable.

In that case it has to be Android then because of it's versatility and the fact it's open source.

 

[ISanych]

Oh, it is called "Pie"...

I was reading up on it a month ago and they were just calling it "P". I thought that was a really strange name.

That's how every android version work. During development you have only letter, name often chosen when most of development is done. Right now next version of Android is called just "Q".

 

[pika2000]

My iPad mini II can't run Fortnite (Wont't let me install it), can barely run War Robots, almost unusable. Is the cause iOS or hardware?

The iPad mini 2 was released in 2013.

Fortnite on Android requires 64bit Android (plenty of older Android handsets using 64bit SoCs but runs Android in 32bit mode), 3GB of RAM (it's not until recently that mid-range handsets get more than 2GB of RAM), and Adreno GPU 530 or better (which means only Snapdragon 820, released in 2015, and up).

So I wouldn't feel bad if your iPad mini 2 couldn't run fortnite.

 

[spacemnspiff]

However Apple is not always first to admit when it makes a mistake *couch* you are holding it wrong, here is a free bumper to fix that for you, however you are still holding it wrong *cough*

What you fail to mention is that Apple with iPhone 4 was the one of the first phone to offer body/frame mounted antenna design, before that the entire industry used internal antennas.

iPhone 4 paved the way for the industry to copy Apple's pioneering effort, and because of that even a $100 Android phone that customer bought at the expense of selling their life to Google also offers a body mounted antenna.

But not everyone chooses to look on the bright side.

 

[Maschil]

types of android devices out there vs types of ios devices? this info will continue to be idiotic at best.

 

[Heineken]

In that case it has to be Android then because of it's versatility and the fact it's open source.

Depends on who you ask. It being open source means little to me personally.

 

[H3LL5P4WN]

No it’s true for all the flagship android phones. Even if they have to wait months for it they get a software update every year for 2 years and 3 years of security updates.

Tell that to the HTC, LG, and Samedung users with a phone that is 2 years old, who are still waiting for Oreo. Or a Motorola user, period.

And that's just the big names in the US. You want to talk to the users of Huawei and Xiaomi in China?

 

[fat jez]

What you fail to mention is that Apple with iPhone 4 was the one of the first phone to offer body/frame mounted antenna design,

And a free bumper to stop your hand shorting out the antenna and dropping the signal (which mine did before I put it in a case). Loved the screen on the 4, hated the RF performance.

 

[Shanghaichica]

Tell that to the HTC, LG, and Samedung users with a phone that is 2 years old, who are still waiting for Oreo.

The S7 and S7 edge have already been updated to Oreo. They are 2 years old.

 

[TheFluffyDuck]

That rotational lock suggestion would be super handy.

 

[pika2000]

I really don't understand the appeal of this platform, its fragmented and a data-mining tool.

For a gadget geek, Android makes very affordable gadgets to tinker with. I mean I can get a great Android phone for $200, and I mean really nice Android handset with close to premium features. Example, for $200 (now even less), I can get the Mi A1, an Android One phone sporting SD625 with 4GB of RAM, 64GB storage, fingerprint sensor, and dual lens rear camera. For $200! That feels like a decent tradeoff for some data-mining.

Of course, the same cannot be said for Samsung or Pixel handsets, where you have to spend $600+ or even close to $1k, yet still have your data mined. But on the mid to lower end segments, Android has a lot of interesting stuff happening. The race now is to have a great $100 (or less) Android phone (which is why Google created the Android Go initiative).

 

[H3LL5P4WN]

The S7 and S7 edge have already been updated to Oreo. They are 2 years old.

https://www.androidauthority.com/android-8-0-update-784308/

That isn't exactly what I'd call timely updates.
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For a gadget geek, Android makes very affordable gadgets to tinker with. I mean I can get a great Android phone for $200, and I mean really nice Android handset with close to premium features. Example, for $200 (now even less), I can get the Mi A1, an Android One phone sporting SD625 with 4GB of RAM, 64GB storage, fingerprint sensor, and dual lens rear camera. For $200! That feels like a decent tradeoff for some data-mining.

Of course, the same cannot be said for Samsung or Pixel handsets, where you have to spend $600+ or even close to $1k, yet still have your data mined. But on the mid to lower end segments, Android has a lot of interesting stuff happening. The race now is to have a great $100 (or less) Android phone (which is why Google created the Android Go initiative).

I wouldn't call a budget phone great. Hell, I have a hard time calling something with an 835 (last year) or an 845 (this year), great.

And there is no trade off for datamining. Period.

 

[faded_glory]

There are "High Street retailers" in the UK, selling "new" devices, with Android 4 installed, as well as 5, 6, 7 & 8.

 

[Shanghaichica]

https://www.androidauthority.com/android-8-0-update-784308/

That isn't exactly what I'd call timely updates.
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I wouldn't call a budget phone great. Hell, I have a hard time calling something with an 835 (last year) or an 845 (this year), great.

And there is no trade off for datamining. Period.

No the updates aren’t timely but the OP you quoted didn’t say anything about getting updates in a timely manner or on day one.

The fact is on android if you buy a flagship phone you get at least 2 software updates (yearly) and 3 years oh security updates.

 

[pika2000]

I do like the android os model. Make an OS for all then let manufacturers customise reduces the friction Apple has with hardware specific OS.

It’s a downside that the latest OS is not always available but the apps on android are more like OS features too. It’s a different model and I prefer apples walled garden but it’s an excellent alternative with its own advantages too.

My biggest complaint about iOS is that it’s not available on any other hardware. This is cool when phones are what you want but Apple has been churning out 4 yrs of the same design and then the x was rushed with no size options effectively putting a stop to people upgrading for now.

Android would be great if Google followed Microsoft Windows' model. I mean I can get a $300 Windows laptop, and I would get the same Windows update as a $2000 laptop. The software, especially security patches, should not be determined by the segment of the hardware. So there could be $100 and $1000 Android phones, but the $100 one shouldn't be less secure just because it's cheaper.

But Google created Android not because they want to make great phones, they created Android as a trojan horse for their main source of income, search and ads. Thus they don't really care of Android itself as an OS, and they just gave it for free. Google only cares that you run Android. Once you sign in with your Google account on your Android phone, that's it. Who cares if you're on Kitkat or Pie.

 

[H3LL5P4WN]

No the updates aren’t timely but the OP you quoted didn’t say anything about getting updates in a timely manner or on day one.

The fact is on android if you buy a flagship phone you get at least 2 software updates (yearly) and 3 years oh security updates.

Again, there's no guarantee. There isn't even a promise with fingers crossed behind the back. On Android, you're lucky if you get an occasional security update and straight up hashtag blessed if you get an OS update.

Case in point, again, my U12+ that shipped with 8.0 instead of 8.1 and the March security update. In June. Just last week, I received the June security update (along with bugfixes). This phone is 2 months old. My ex with an unlocked Motorola Moto X (2nd generation), didn't get Marshmallow for 2 years. At that point, Nougat was already old and Oreo was starting to trickle out.

 

[pika2000]

https://www.androidauthority.com/android-8-0-update-784308/

That isn't exactly what I'd call timely updates.
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I wouldn't call a budget phone great. Hell, I have a hard time calling something with an 835 (last year) or an 845 (this year), great.

And there is no trade off for datamining. Period.

Unless you're an avid gamer, arguing about anything less than a flagship Snapdragon to be not great is akin to arguing that anything less of a core i7 to be not a good computer. Those flagship chips are there for the high demand use and flagship positioning.

But you don't need a snapdragon 845 to make phone calls, do a whatsapp message/call, and update your social media. Even a Mediatek chip can do those just fine. Just like in the PC world, you don't need an i7 to run MS Office. The fact that I can get a mid-range spec with flagship niceties (like 4GB of RAM, 64GB storage, and even dual lens camera) for $200 is awesome in my book.

I do agree that if put privacy to be a must without compromise, then Android is not an option. Thus I myself use my iPhone as my regular daily phone.

 

[Shanghaichica]

For a gadget geek, Android makes very affordable gadgets to tinker with. I mean I can get a great Android phone for $200, and I mean really nice Android handset with close to premium features. Example, for $200 (now even less), I can get the Mi A1, an Android One phone sporting SD625 with 4GB of RAM, 64GB storage, fingerprint sensor, and dual lens rear camera. For $200! That feels like a decent tradeoff for some data-mining.

Of course, the same cannot be said for Samsung or Pixel handsets, where you have to spend $600+ or even close to $1k, yet still have your data mined. But on the mid to lower end segments, Android has a lot of interesting stuff happening. The race now is to have a great $100 (or less) Android phone (which is why Google created the Android Go initiative).

The pixel or Samsung flagship has more features and is better than your budget android phone.