Android By Russell Holly Jul. 1, 2014 10:27 am
With Google’s next Android release slated for later this year, we decided to take a look back at the last major platform update in order to better determine when each manufacturer can be expected to update your current device to Android L.
If you’ve got a Nexus 5 or Nexus 7 and don’t mind a less than flawless user experience, you can flash Android L to your phone in Developer Preview form and check it out. You’ll then get the final build of Android L just after it is officially released.
For the sake of argument, lets say you are one of most Android users out there who do not have a Nexus device. HTC, Samsung, Motorola, and LG make up the big four in the Android hardware market today, and you can bet that their current flagships will be getting the update to Android L once they figure out how to splice their enhancements and features into the mix. What does that mean for users? It means waiting, and in some cases waiting quite a while.
Google released Android 4.4 to the world, complete with a Nexus 5 to run it, on October 31, 2013. While Google works with several of its partners to ensure that these updates can happen as quickly as possible, there’s quite a bit of work to be done. Hardware manufacturers need to bake their own features into the updates, as well as implement fixes for things such as processor performance or radio optimization that wasn’t pushed out as a separate update. Then there’s the testing time to make sure everything works as intended. From that point, each carrier gets a build to test independently to ensure the best possible experience on their respective networks. If the carrier encounters any problems, everything starts over. If the carrier approves the build, an Over The Air update is scheduled and eventually pushed out to the masses.
As you can see, Verizon Wireless is almost always the slowest when it comes to updates for their phones. Even without that delay, however, there’s still a lot of time in between the launch date and when your phone tells you that you have an update available to install. Motorola seems to have found the best way to ensure the fastest updates, but a lot of that is due to the number of apps Motorola has pushed to the Google Play Store. They update separate from the core build and lack a truly unique user experience. In fact, the Moto X is the only one of the high end Android phones outside of the Nexus program to have more than one Android 4.4-based update.
Motorola had actually beaten Google’s Nexus 4 to the Android 4.4 update initially, but after Google sorted out some OS-level bugs everyone prepared an update to Android 4.4.2 instead. The Moto X and Moto G are repeatedly hailed as being almost like a Nexus device with how close they are to the version of Android Google ships. Every other manufacturer has to work a great deal more to see their massive suite of features added to the new version of Android before it arrives on your phone.
Google hasn’t issued a firm date for the launch of Android L, but the available information suggests anywhere from three to five months for the update to hit your device depending on your carrier and manufacturer. HTC claims that unlocked, non-carrier restricted versions of the HTC One M8 will see Android L within 90 days of the official release, and so far they are the only manufacturer to make such a claim. It’s unclear whether this is because HTC knows something the other guys don’t, because of a yet unannounced Nexus tablet rumored to be part of the L release, or of this is just the natural progression of the transparency efforts HTC has made over the last year when it comes to their updates.
So there you have it. Unless you’ve got a Moto X, a Nexus phone, or something with Google Play Edition or Developer Edition in the name, you’ve got quite the wait ahead of you.
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If you’ve got a Nexus 5 or Nexus 7 and don’t mind a less than flawless user experience, you can flash Android L to your phone in Developer Preview form and check it out. You’ll then get the final build of Android L just after it is officially released.
For the sake of argument, lets say you are one of most Android users out there who do not have a Nexus device. HTC, Samsung, Motorola, and LG make up the big four in the Android hardware market today, and you can bet that their current flagships will be getting the update to Android L once they figure out how to splice their enhancements and features into the mix. What does that mean for users? It means waiting, and in some cases waiting quite a while.
Google released Android 4.4 to the world, complete with a Nexus 5 to run it, on October 31, 2013. While Google works with several of its partners to ensure that these updates can happen as quickly as possible, there’s quite a bit of work to be done. Hardware manufacturers need to bake their own features into the updates, as well as implement fixes for things such as processor performance or radio optimization that wasn’t pushed out as a separate update. Then there’s the testing time to make sure everything works as intended. From that point, each carrier gets a build to test independently to ensure the best possible experience on their respective networks. If the carrier encounters any problems, everything starts over. If the carrier approves the build, an Over The Air update is scheduled and eventually pushed out to the masses.
As you can see, Verizon Wireless is almost always the slowest when it comes to updates for their phones. Even without that delay, however, there’s still a lot of time in between the launch date and when your phone tells you that you have an update available to install. Motorola seems to have found the best way to ensure the fastest updates, but a lot of that is due to the number of apps Motorola has pushed to the Google Play Store. They update separate from the core build and lack a truly unique user experience. In fact, the Moto X is the only one of the high end Android phones outside of the Nexus program to have more than one Android 4.4-based update.
Motorola had actually beaten Google’s Nexus 4 to the Android 4.4 update initially, but after Google sorted out some OS-level bugs everyone prepared an update to Android 4.4.2 instead. The Moto X and Moto G are repeatedly hailed as being almost like a Nexus device with how close they are to the version of Android Google ships. Every other manufacturer has to work a great deal more to see their massive suite of features added to the new version of Android before it arrives on your phone.
Google hasn’t issued a firm date for the launch of Android L, but the available information suggests anywhere from three to five months for the update to hit your device depending on your carrier and manufacturer. HTC claims that unlocked, non-carrier restricted versions of the HTC One M8 will see Android L within 90 days of the official release, and so far they are the only manufacturer to make such a claim. It’s unclear whether this is because HTC knows something the other guys don’t, because of a yet unannounced Nexus tablet rumored to be part of the L release, or of this is just the natural progression of the transparency efforts HTC has made over the last year when it comes to their updates.
So there you have it. Unless you’ve got a Moto X, a Nexus phone, or something with Google Play Edition or Developer Edition in the name, you’ve got quite the wait ahead of you.
More...
