AT&T, Google duke it out over who causes Android upgrade delays
Linked by Thom Holwerda on Tue 8th May 2012 17:55 UTC
PDAs, Cellphones, Wireless This is fun. The number one iOS carrier duking it out with the company behind the world's most popular smartphone operating system. Last month, Google's lead for the Android Open Source Project, Jean-Baptiste Queru, more or less blamed carriers (see comments) for Android's upgrade woes. Yesterday, AT&T's CEO Randall Stephenson retaliated, blaming Google for the delays. And yes, Google already responded to that, too.
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There are 3 to the dance
by B. Janssen on Tue 8th May 2012 21:40 UTC
B. Janssen
Member since:
2006-10-11

This strikes me as odd. For Android this is a three-way setup, while with Apple this is a two-way setup.

Google delivers Android to the OEMs, who deliver the hardware to the carriers. It's not that hard to see that the OEMs play an important role in this situation. Those have to bring the updates to their hardware first, before the carriers can delay anything. So, why do European market or "unlocked" devices suffer long update cycles, too, if the (US) carriers are to blame?

Reply Score: 2

RE: There are 3 to the dance
by Thom_Holwerda on Tue 8th May 2012 21:44 in reply to "There are 3 to the dance"
Thom_Holwerda Member since:
2005-06-29

So, why do European market or "unlocked" devices suffer long update cycles, too, if the (US) carriers are to blame?


The international SII got ICS way before the US variants (do those even have ICS?).

Reply Parent Score: 3

B. Janssen Member since:
2006-10-11

"So, why do European market or "unlocked" devices suffer long update cycles, too, if the (US) carriers are to blame?


The international SII got ICS way before the US variants (do those even have ICS?). "

The official (never mind the leaks) ICS update was rolled out to the GS2 in the middle of April. Less than a month ago, bit I digress. So, the GS2 is on ICS, but what other phones -- besides the Nexus-line -- are?

All I have seen are statements of intent, but no actions yet.

EDIT: crappy quote formating

Edited 2012-05-09 06:06 UTC

Reply Parent Score: 2

jared_wilkes Member since:
2011-04-25

"Way before" seems a major overreach. There is truth that non-US carriers may move a little quicker in general, but it is not that substantial. It's just as likely that the even lower-end phones which barely sell in the US, if at all, but are sold in great numbers throughout Asia, are not being updated at all -- never mind in a timely fashion.

We are looking at a shift from it taking 1 year to achieve 50% of the latest OS to potentially well over 16 months across all markets.

Is it your argument that the US is so "way behind" the EU and other parts of the world that it is primarily responsible for the slow rate of adoption? Or that, subtracting the US, a 9-12 month adoption curve would be much more acceptable than a 12-16 month adoption curve?

Edited 2012-05-09 07:03 UTC

Reply Parent Score: 1

Bill Shooter of Bul Member since:
2006-07-14

yes, there are delays for Euro phones, but the delay is generally much longer for US phones, even when there is minimal difference between the euro/global version and the US version.

The Sony Experia X10 was released with android 1.6, upgraded to 2.1 everywhere but on At&t Nov 2010 or so, which didn't get it until April of 2011. The Galaxy s based captivate didn't get 2.2 for months after Europe did. I don't know of any phone that got updates in the US faster than or even the same time as the global/euro version.

So, this means that either the US just has higher standards, and the versions we get are free of bugs that plague the non US versions, or much of the testing is unnecessary.

Reply Parent Score: 3

Athlander Member since:
2008-03-10


So, this means that either the US just has higher standards, and the versions we get are free of bugs that plague the non US versions, or much of the testing is unnecessary.


Maybe it takes a bit of time for the carriers to program surveillance backdoors into the updates for the FBI?

Reply Parent Score: 2

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RE: There are 3 to the dance
by phoenix on Tue 8th May 2012 22:03 in reply to "There are 3 to the dance"
phoenix Member since:
2005-07-11

This strikes me as odd. For Android this is a three-way setup, while with Apple this is a two-way setup.

Google delivers Android to the OEMs, who deliver the hardware to the carriers. It's not that hard to see that the OEMs play an important role in this situation. Those have to bring the updates to their hardware first, before the carriers can delay anything. So, why do European market or "unlocked" devices suffer long update cycles, too, if the (US) carriers are to blame?


European and Asian countries get updates to Android phones long before North America does. Everything else being equal, the only real difference is the carriers.

For example, Xperia 2011 phones in Europe/Asia started getting updates to 4.0.3 last month. North America isn't expected to get these updates for another month or so, in order for Rogers, AT&T, et al to "certify" the updates.

Reply Parent Score: 4

jared_wilkes Member since:
2011-04-25

Just to be clear: We are talking about the difference between 6-7 months and 8-9 months after release of the OS update for a phone less than 12 months old as if one is acceptable and the other is not?

Reply Parent Score: 2

RE: There are 3 to the dance
by rjamorim on Tue 8th May 2012 23:33 in reply to "There are 3 to the dance"
rjamorim Member since:
2005-12-05

This strikes me as odd. For Android this is a three-way setup, while with Apple this is a two-way setup.


Apple isn't even a two-way setup, they are single-way! They simply release a new version of iOS and the users update it wirelessly, the carriers have no say whatsoever.

Reply Parent Score: 3