ICS market penetration

I too was impressed with Apple and their overall presentation. I have to admit they do their damndest to make sure their supporters feel pleased having owned an iOS device.

I wish Google would treat us this way. ╯△╰

P.s. I'll move this thread to our Lounge area.
On second thought … I believe the Android Lounge is where it suppose to be.

Once again, it boils down to the fact there are many makes and models of Android phones as opposed to the limited number of iDevices. And since manufacturers made the decision of custom interfaces and such, it slows it down even further.

Granted, many of these devices are capable of ICS, as rooting and flashing has shown us.

It also doesn't help that, a year later, Jellybean is suppose to be released late Fall/ early Winter, causing even more fragmentation. I'd rather Google stop and just perfect 4.0 and get more than 7% of all devices running it (that's a severely low number) before giving us Jellybean. I also personally believe all of the skinning should cease and desist. Many will disagree with me on that, but the Android base is dragging its feet with updates because of them.

You want to win the consumer over competition? There are other ways than to skin the phone. Give us features available on a pure, vanilla Android experience. Patent features significant to the brand of the company. Samsung can continue with its Galaxy-line, producing high-quality devices such as the GS2, GS3, Nexus, etc. HTC can make a line with its One-X or re-do the Incredible line (Verizon is destroying it). Motorola can keep pummeling us with the Razr and Droid-branded phones or whatever.

They shouldn't be able to change or undo all of Vanilla, but adding their own widgets or even building an "HTC Sense Launcher" or "TouchWiz Launcher" app if you WANT that experience would be okay. But all of this skinning mess is exactly that---a mess. I don't buy the phones for the skins. I buy them for their designs, hardware, software, and individual features over the other.

Like I said, most of you will disagree with me, but this IS a problem with Android. Its correctable. Nothing is impossible. Google just needs to be more assertive with its OS. I also think all major flagship phone presentations need to go through Google or another company to make sure Android is presented on the same level as iOS. Samsung's presentation of the GS3 was disgusting, ambiguous, and just plain weird. After 10 minutes I exited the tab and didn't bother to follow it anymore for the rest of the day. Again, others will disagree, but I think we can do better.

I'm hoping one day Google just creates its own phone. I feel like a true, pure, Android experience with features we've been clamoring for won't come until they make one.

Jellybean is an incremental update. It IS their attempt to perfect 4.0. Any technology that stops innovating dies.

Rxpert83 said:

Jellybean is an incremental update. It IS their attempt to perfect 4.0. Any technology that stops innovating dies.

Click to expand...

Oh really? Didn't know that.

No one said for them to stop innovating. Perfect, then top it. Incremental updates should just be continuations from the current version. Why not Android 4.1 ICS or something? Just adds to the confusion, IMHO. Save Jellybean for when Android makes another breakthrough like with ICS. It was a monumental change for Android that only 7% are experiencing. That's pretty darn terrible. Only so many people are getting to experience 4.0, and its not even the Vanilla Android experience. Its the skinned experience, so you have to enjoy it with something on top of it that delays updates, lags, and bogs the phone down with additional bloat and memory usage.

As if it

The problem is that the android manufacturers are more interested in selling you a new device rather than updating an existing one. They do not make any money from updating the OS in a device that has already been sold. When a new OS comes out, they use it as an excuse to push sales of their newest models. I bought a Galaxy Tab 7 plus about one month ago. It had only become available in Canada in about March. They are now being cleared out and will probably be discontinued as they push the sales of the Galaxy Tab 2. Based upon past experience, chances are when the old device is finally updated, it will be very buggy which will drive some to just buy the next model. IMO, one of the things that really drives Android sales is that Android devices become obsolete very quickly.

You have to give credit to Apple for the support they give to their customers and their devices.

Since we are on the topic of ICS and iOS6...here is an interesting article on the subject.

kristalsoldier said:

Since we are on the topic of ICS and iOS6...here is an interesting article on the subject.

Click to expand...

But what is the advantage of ICS if over 90% of Android users can't use it at this time?

funpig said:

But what is the advantage of ICS if over 90% of Android users can't use it at this time?

Click to expand...

I feel Google needs to do a better job at working with the phone Manufacturers. It seems like Google releases a new OS version, then the manufactures take their sweet time getting the updates out. My time most phones see an update Google has yet another OS version released.

funpig said:

But what is the advantage of ICS if over 90% of Android users can't use it at this time?

Click to expand...

Well...in addition to what Valorian mentioned, I think two things need to happen and one of them falls squarely in Google's court.

The first is that the last two generations of Android phones have to die out. This means that the full spectrum of Android phones/ tabs have to run ICS. This will take some time - but personally I think it will happen over the next 18 months or so.

The second is that Google really needs to stagger out the Android updates. You can't be having an updated OS being pushed to some devices and not to others - at some point the gap will be immense - like between GB and ICS. My devices are a prime example. My phone (a low-end Samsung) runs GB (2.3.6) while my tab (A500) runs ICS. In real terms, I don't see any real problems as these two devices interact. But the principle is what is at stake.

Now see Google is readying Jelly Bean and ICS is not yet distributed to all devices (this again being because of the hardware specs, I strongly suspect). This kind of a internal disjoint within Android may be a problem.

Perhaps Google can stagger out their releases over a longer period of time - but I ain't holding my breath for that to happen.

kristalsoldier said:

Perhaps Google can stagger out their releases over a longer period of time - but I ain't holding my breath for that to happen.

Click to expand...

Being that their competition won’t sit around and wait for them to catch up, neither am I. Apple and Google are handling progress completely differently. The former keeps all its ducks in a row, they all get the same OS updates at the same time. While that is good for uniformity, it does slow the updates down. Google apparently wants to be as cutting-edge as they can and if it means last year’s droid gets left behind, too bamn dad.

There's also a problem with oversaturation. Motorola is good with this. First the Razr, than the Razr Maxx, and now there's a 'Razr HD' supposedly headed our way? All this does is piss people off. You get the hottest new phone and two weeks later, they throw something out with a bigger battery, and I suppose this 'HD' one gives better screen resolution? Its nonsense.

AppsRUs said:

All this does is piss people off.

Click to expand...

Also known as Razr Burn.

If it wasn't for being able to root and install a custom ROM I would probably seriously consider iPhone, Windows, or even a BlackBerry 10 phone as my primary phone. I hate being left behind on outdated software.

The thing that really amazes me is how these gifted developers can release an updated ROM months before a multi billion dollar company like Samsung, Moto, or HTC can get around to doing it.

chrlswltrs said:

I hate being left behind on outdated software.

Click to expand...

I

The last GB device in my working collection is the HTC EVO 3D. Hopefully Sprint launches the ICS update.

For me personally, just about everyone of my devices other than my old retired Androids are in ICS. They include Acer Iconia A500, A200 and A100, Asus Transformer Prime, Samsung Galaxy S2 (official update), Galaxy Nexus, Nexus S and now the Galaxy S3.

It took a while for the Galaxy S2 to hit (international version with the dual core Exynos), but when it did, the level of ICS is higher than on my Galaxy Nexus (poor yakjuwx version). Whether you like Touchwiz or not, ICS on the S2 is simply more spunkier than on the Galaxy Nexus.

Also noting that tablets are much better getting into ICS as compared to the smartphones. Asus and Acer especially are quick in delivering updates and offers a practically "raw" Android experience. I may buy a Samsung smartphone, but I won't buy their tablets for this reason.

Please note that Google itself did not sanction Android ICS 4.0.1 and 4.0.2 to other makers due to the bugs in those versions. The first truly "gold" version for all manufacturers was 4.0.3.