Android Pie Passes 20% Adoption After 12 Months (venturebeat.com) 36
Google today shared that in August 2019, Android Pie had 22.6% adoption. From a report: That means the second-latest version of Android was running on a fifth of devices after some 12 months. Google did not share adoption numbers for any other Android version, including Android 10, the latest version that started rolling out last month. Meanwhile, iOS 13 passed 50% adoption in less than a month. With over 2.5 billion active Android devices out there, Android's distribution is useful information for anyone who makes decisions regarding Google's mobile operating system.
Re: Why so slow? (Score:5, Insightful)
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And for most devices the updates are managed by the telcos, for some reason.
You think your Android device checks update.android.com ? PUHLEAZE.
Re: Why so slow? (Score:4, Interesting)
You think your Android device checks update.android.com ? PUHLEAZE.
Mine contacts Lenovo because I bought a non-carrier Moto X4. They've been about a month behind on security updates, but consistently — they keep bringing them out, at least. Question is, will I get 10?
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Sadly, I think it's come down to getting Pixel phones. They are overpriced for what you get but they at least get updates. Sony is bad about updates too, they've already burned me once with the Xperia Play. They promised all Xperia devices at the time would get ICS, and they did it for all phones but the Play, claiming they couldn't get the controller working. The community did get it working, but the PSX emulator doesn't work on ICS, and that's at least half the reason for that phone in the first place. Pl
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Both me and my wife's Sony Xperia phones got updates for two years after release. I wish it was more, but I have the sense that that's better than most.
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Motorola sells phones in the Android One program (like the X4). It's not amazingly long support, but better than they do for their other phones. They're required to do 2 years OS upgrades, plus monthly security patches for 3 years.
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Its entirely sales driven with zero thought about the users.
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Your Android device is updated via Google Play Services. While it can't update the kernel or drivers, it does update all the Android components that apps interact with.
As such you are getting important security and reliability patches direct from Google if you have an Android device. In fact to use the Android branding a device must accept Google patches, it's one of the core requirements.
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Because manufacturers heavily customize the Android image for their devices to help differentiate and stand out in the market. Those customizations mean that they need to re-customize to support whatever new stuff Google puts out. And that is if they even release the update at all instead of using it to justify customers to purchase a new device.
I wish they'd stop that -- I love Samsung hardware and would probably have a Galaxy S10 if not for the fact that I hate their Touchwiz interface and just want pure android.
Android updates (Score:5, Informative)
Unlike the Windows platform for PC, the user is not in control of the update process.
You can't just go to google and say, please update my phone.
You have to wait for the carrier, and or manufacturer.
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and, if your current carrier is not the original one (ie, unlocked phone now on a different carrier), you get no updates at all. This seems to be a recipe for a security disaster.
At least some manufacturers let you install updates through another channel. Lenovorola has a PC-based update utility for their phones. Now they just need to actually bring out Android 10 for my Moto X4 Android One. They say they're evaluating it and will have an announcement later this year, which I fear is just a way to run out the clock on updates for this device... Why haven't they been evaluating it? Obviously they did upgrade me to Pie, and they have been releasing security updates monthly or more...
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Everyone should have bought a Windows Phone, the carriers pushed people towards Android because that gave the carriers more control over extracting money from their customers, and now we all pay for this in the long run.
Yeah, we should all have jumped to an OS Microsoft took 20 years NOT to understand how to do mobile OS.
Did it already allow to sync contacts without tethering to a windows computer when it died?
Re: Android updates (Score:2)
Re: Android updates (Score:1)
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Unlike the Windows platform for PC, the user is not in control of the update process.
You can't just go to google and say, please update my phone.
You have to wait for the carrier, and or manufacturer.
OTOH, a surprising number of users who have access to an update don't accept it. I probably shouldn't share numbers, but I recently looked up the percentage of Pixel 1s that are still running Nougat (the OS the Pixel 1 launched with), and I was shocked at how high it was, for a device that has received regular updates for the last three years, and that tends to be purchased more often by more technically-minded people.
I understand that many people dislike updates because they don't want the device's beha
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Or you can install Lineage or another open source OS. Like a desktop PC you need to make sure your hardware is compatible when you buy.
Actually you do still get updates direct from Google, via Play Services. While the core OS (kernel, drivers) can only be updated by your device manufacturer most of Android sits on top of all that and is updated separately. That's particularly important for security fixes, which is why you don't see vast Android phone botnets.
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...and lose some stuff in the process. I did this for years, but you're locked out of banking apps and android pay since most devices no longer pass SafetyNet checks. I was able to fool it with Magisk for a while but it's a cat and mouse game that I got tired of playing.
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Banking apps check SafetyNet status. LineageOS won't pass SafetyNet without Magisk, and that works for a while until Google expands SafetyNet checks and it no longer passes. Eventually Magisk gets better at hiding and it works again. This is the cat and mouse game I am referring to.
Root works fine, and will probably work for life. It's the other checks that get you.
Android patch level (Score:1)
Dildo + Toothbrush = Smartphone (Score:1)
I guess with wifi calling now you can just upgrade a hotspot to get new LTE or 5G bands for a mobile provider, but unless its a recent Apple phone, your phone may only stay minty-fresh for a year or two. What a raw deal.
Misleading (Score:1)
This is a bit misleading as Google has long removed a lot of the critical pieces of updating to the Play Store precisely because of this problem. New versions of Android only provide new features that have to have the hardware to support them. Apple does the same thing except to get a lot of the new features you have to buy an entirely new device. Your old one may say it's on the newest version but those fancy new features won't come along for the ride. But while the different versions of Android can be ver
Re:Misleading (Score:4, Informative)
This is a bit misleading as Google has long removed a lot of the critical pieces of updating to the Play Store precisely because of this problem. New versions of Android only provide new features that have to have the hardware to support them. Apple does the same thing except to get a lot of the new features you have to buy an entirely new device. Your old one may say it's on the newest version but those fancy new features won't come along for the ride. But while the different versions of Android can be very problematic, the dichotomy we keep making between iOS and Android is getting stale and even stupid as we're comparing one vendor to dozens. A better comparison would be the adoption rate of all Samsung phones compared to HTC/LG/Motorola.
Please stop with this tired defense of android by saying Apple does this anywhere near as much as Android.
There are maybe 1 to 3 features in a new iOS each year that dont make it to all phones. One year it was portrait mode, this year it is deep fusion and night shift camera modes that require iPhone 11 hardware. Meanwhile there are TONS of new features that all the Apple devices will get in each new iOS release.
Android sucks for updates and it wont ever be truly fixed. You're making a completely false equivalency here...
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Android devices get new features too. With iOS much of the core functionality is baked in to the OS, where as on Android it is via apps that get updated separately. For example Android devices get any updates to the Camera app that their hardware can support via normal app updates, not via OS updates.
Look, the camera app is right here: https://play.google.com/store/... [google.com]
So on Android OS updates are not that important. They offer new APIs but are decoupled security fixes and app feature updates.
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This is a bit misleading as Google has long removed a lot of the critical pieces of updating to the Play Store precisely because of this problem. New versions of Android only provide new features that have to have the hardware to support them.
They also provide new security features, and at some point there are also no more security fixes for the old version, while the new version continues to get them. So I'm afraid it very much does matter.
But while the different versions of Android can be very problematic, the dichotomy we keep making between iOS and Android is getting stale and even stupid as we're comparing one vendor to dozens.
Google wants us to believe Android is one thing. It's not stupid to complain that it isn't. But there would need to be a binary driver ABI...
Android pie ?!? (Score:2)
Context (Score:3)
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Yeah - this was the part that was interesting to me, how much would Treble affect the upgrade rate.
On my biggest app (AnkiDroid, 1.3MM users), I've got 46.4% Pie and 3.6% Android 10 even, making it 50% Pie or newer which is actually a fantastic improvement. We still support down to Android 4 / API15 and are tilted towards the developing world for installs even so we should represent that market
I think the most interesting thing will be the version jumps from 8 to everything as that was the treble introducti