Before this thread gets entirely out of hand, I'd like to chime in that despite Google trying to explain to the contrary that recommended specs for 3.0 are not the same as required specs, the blogsters just will not let the hell up.
Android Gingerbread Rumors Dismissed By Google on Twitter
And yet, only an hour ago....
We Just Caught the Gingerbread OS! (Android)
To be blunt - let's think Android instead of Androne before we take on the appearance of a Mac rumors site.
Google's own phone (now discontinued), the Nexus One, uses the 1 GHz Snapdragon 8250. Ours uses the Snapdragon 8650. These SoC processors are absolutely identical except for the radio control portion - in other words, the carrier difference.
While processor technology mega-obviously continues to evolve, let's recall a few simple things about the tech sector and our corner of it -
- The Snapdragon 8x50 was the first and therefore entry processor for the Android super-phone (a class above smartphone, thanks)
- Google's announcement of Froyo being the last planned stop in infrastructure for Android and discontinuing the Nexus One are not coindental
- Was the Nexus One _not_ created to prove to the market in general that Google _knew_ exactly what was required for a superphone hardware config to support Android? Did they not state that repeatedly?
- Were other, potentially more powerful, processors available at the time the Snapdragon 8x50 was chosen for the Nexus One? (answer=definitely yes)
- Is there not a history in the tech sector of an OS and it's apps stabililizing around a baseline level of performance despite rapid tech changes in various areas? (The Intel 386 command set and vast parts of the Windows API back in the day are but two examples - other examples _abound_ in both hardware and software.)
If I'm not mistaken, one can dig back through the fossil record and find that Google stated that Froyo would be the last overall update to the Android infrastructure and that Gingerbread would be the update on top of that to fulfill a richer user experience.
And while that's _possibly_ going to mean some great UI change, if that happens we're all going to have to see how the makers handle that in terms of their marketable differentiation via the UI.
You want my predictions (no is a good answer), here they are, and they're so lame that I should be paid for them:
- You'll replace your EVO because you're either bored with it or because some killer apps come along that swamp the Snapdragon 8x50 or the EVO in general and not because of Android supportability.
- Diehards with that just-because attitude will find ways to stay giddy while keeping their EVO as up-to-Android-date as humanly possible, even breaking common sense in design, because the EVO has the boundary point in the form of the superphone processor and is like the Nexus One a touchstone in the market.
- Many people may never see the pure Gingerbread, ever, unless rooted.
Cheers, thankAlot, carry on!