“As is the case with most other alternative smartphone platforms, Android users appear to often remain stuck with the firmware version their phone shipped with originally,” McLean reports. “This is primarily due to fragmentation problems that require the hardware maker, software platform vendor, and the mobile provider to work together to create and deliver custom updates for each model.”
McLean reports, “According to Android OS ad traffic figures published by AdMob, there was an initial migration from Android 1.5 ‘Cupcake’ to 1.6 ‘Donut’ last fall, followed by another shift to Android 2.x ‘Eclair’ during the holiday season. But rather than being the result of user’s software upgrade cycles, it appears that the shifts were largely the result of new hardware being sold with the new version already installed on it… Many Android phone models do not get the latest operating system updates for months after the official update is completed, due to delays by the provider or hardware maker, either of which may want or need to address layers of customization they’ve made to the generic Android distribution.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers "Dale S.," "Wandering Joe," "James W.," and "Ottawa Mark" for the heads up.]
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