Google's Nexus One Not Getting Android 4.0 Update
by Andrew Cunningham on October 26, 2011 3:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Android
- Ice Cream Sandwich
- Laptops
Google's Nexus One phone, manufactured by HTC and originally released in January of 2010, will not be receiving the Ice Cream Sandwich update along with other phones, says Google's Android product management director Hugo Barra, because the device is "too old."
The Nexus lineup has traditionally been used to showcase new, "stock" versions of Android without added manufacturer customizations, and as a result they typically receive access to new Android updates before other handsets. Google's decision not to support less-than-two-year-old Nexus One with its newest mobile OS stands in contrast to Apple's strategy for the oldest phone in its lineup, 2009's iPhone 3GS, which received most of iOS 5's new features when the update was released earlier this month.
Barra said that the Nexus S, the immediate successor of the Nexus One, would be getting the update over the air a few weeks after the launch of the new Galaxy Nexus next month. Nexus One owners hoping for an update will need to rely on the open source community to hook them up after Ice Cream Sandwich's source code is released to the public.
Source: PCMag
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Booster - Thursday, October 27, 2011 - link
But very clever for Google, indeed. They've created a demand for things you could live completely without before. And now not only you have to pay several hundred bucks to Google each year, this operating scam system also generates unnecessary internet traffic thus booming the mobile industry. I mean, do you really need to watch the weather widget on your home screen? I don't, but if I went with Google, I'd have to sheel out hundreds of dollars for the hardware, software and wireless services (probably thousands with a contract) to be able to do stupid things like checking weather on the smartphone. Very freaking smart indeed - create new demands people didn't even think they had, persuade them they need it - profit. Brilliant.doobydoo - Thursday, October 27, 2011 - link
Not very clever if people get fed up with the lack of upgrades and switch to another manufacturer.Tanclearas - Thursday, October 27, 2011 - link
I'm assuming that post was tongue in cheek...Google makes no money from the sale of handsets. Weird, huh?
If you are really looking for the money-making con-artists, well have you ever wondered why you have to pay hundreds of dollars more for an iPhone over an iPod with nearly identical hardware?
Google wouldn't even be the ones responsible for updating (or not) the Nexus One, which was manufactured by HTC. The more appropriate response from Google would have been "we don't decide which devices will or will not get an upgrade".
Many of the features of ICS aren't even applicable to the Nexus One, or even other fairly recent high-end Android phones. How useful is face unlock without a front-facing camera? How useful is more advanced multi-tasking controls on a device with 256MB of RAM? How many phones even have NFC hardware? Definitely not the Nexus One.
doobydoo - Friday, October 28, 2011 - link
Google does make money from the sale of Android handsets. Any Android handset that comes with Gmail, the Android Market, Google Search etc have paid Google a license per handset to use them.Of course, every download app later on is also money to Google, (even if free apps) through advertising or purchases.
Someone who has bought a Nexus One doesn't really care whos responsibility it is to update the software. The fact is that nobody has done it, and that's the important point. One company passing the buck to another is weak and irrelevant.
Some features of ICS may not be applicable to the Nexus One as you've said, but I'm assuming there are more than 2 new features on Android 4, probably including numerous security fixes and 'thousands' of other improvements. If I had bought an Android phone 7 months ago, I would not expect to have to miss out on these features. The operating system could easily disable Face recognition if the phone doesn't have a front facing camera, and could easily be configured to cope with differing amounts of RAM. There is basically no excuse for not letting people upgrade their phone.
Tanclearas - Friday, October 28, 2011 - link
Wrong. So very wrong. No license fees. Not to Google anyway. Just patent payments from the hardware vendors to Microsoft.Arguing about making money on downloaded apps is simply ridiculous. That is completely separate from handset sales, and Google isn't any "worse" than Apple (both take 30%).
And there aren't "thousands of new features". There are a handful, and most features added to ICS are more about enabling features for future phones. Some of those features have made it only onto some of the most recent phones.
I suppose you're thinking about all of the "revolutionary" features that made it into iOS 5? Like Siri? The app that used to be in the App store but Apple pulled and took away from users of "old" devices?
Stop painting Google as such a villain and Apple as the saviour of the downtrodden.
icebox - Thursday, October 27, 2011 - link
After they quit supporting the n800 and n900 fairly quick. But my wife's ~3y 5800 just got a new update a few days ago.Indeed, I was looking into android as my only viable alternative considering my usage style and it's frightening to see the rate at which manufacturers churn out devices. It's like everybody has 1-2 devices / month and that can only mean that most of the old devices are quickly becoming obsolete.
Mugur - Thursday, October 27, 2011 - link
I'm not worried about Nexus One... How about other Android phones from 2010 or older? :-) I'm sure most of them won't touch version 4 and I found it quite logical, just look at how Honeycomb ran on tablets: do you thing that any CPU or GPU (not to mention the graphic drivers) will support ICS? My bet is only for 2011 models and not all of them (I have a HTC ChaCha and I would put my money that it won't receive ICS...).shompa - Thursday, October 27, 2011 - link
Since Google does not control the graphical layer of the OS, they can't never GPU accelerate it.This is one of the reasons why single core A4 scores almost as fast as dual core Tegras.
This margin vill only expand as Apple use more and more SIMD/GPU/NEON/Apple visual engines stuff in their OS.
Apple can even do this cheaper then Android vendors since they design their own ARM SoC. The A5 is 30% larger then Tegra2 but costs as much as Tegra2. Apple does not need to make a profit on their A processors. Nvidia have to make a profit on their ARMS. So Apple get 30% real estate for "free"
melgross - Thursday, October 27, 2011 - link
This should be expected, as Android gets very poor support.http://theunderstatement.com/post/11982112928/andr...
shompa - Thursday, October 27, 2011 - link
Didn't Google announce at Google I/O that all Android vendors had agreed to support all phones at least 18 month?IOS was the first mobile OS that delivered major software updates. People seems to forget how it was before 2007.
All phones had telephone companies that branded them and preloaded them with crapware. No software updates besides hot fixes.