[Hearthatvoiceagain]

It's been nearly a month now since Google unveiled the giant gingerbread man on their campus and as of right now there has been no solid sign of when it will be with us, so obviously people have been asking, where the hell is Gingerbread? I would like to run through a few theories on the delay, they split neatly into 3 categories (there is a 4th but we will come to that later), Software, Hardware and Services.

Software

Simply put, Gingerbread may not be done, either they ran into some delay with the coding or found some bug very late on which has caused them to go back and fix it. I find the first Idea unlikely, as I don't think they would put up the statue till they were ready and since they proper definition of ready would mean that they had thoroughly tested the code I don't see the second one being likely.

Hardware

This concerns the unconfirmed Nexus S phone from Samsung which was supposedly going to be launched with Gingerbread. Rumour has it this has either been delayed by a hardware problem or completely pulled to be replaced by a better phone. Unless the phone is something different from a Stock Android Galaxy S (which is again what some of the rumours say it is) I cant see how hardware could be the reason and surely neither Samsung nor anyone else has a complete better phone that close to full production that they would decide to replace a model that was on the verge of release.

Services

There's a whole bunch of stuff that Google showed at I/O that might be dropping with Gingerbread and some other things like Near Field technology which will allow you to swipe your phone over a sensor to pay for things. These things take time to set up. We have seen changes to the developers pages for the Market that implies the Web based market may be coming, but things like the music store take a hell of a lot of work to set up just in the negotiations with record labels let alone all the back end and what would be the point of being able to pay for things through your phone if nobody accepts that method of payment. Maybe Google are waiting on a few more signatures so that they have a bigger splash at launch.

That brings me to the 4th option I mentioned. Maybe Gingerbread is not delayed at all. Maybe this is all going as Google planed it. Just because previous updates have come out in a couple of weeks of their statue doesn't make this a law, certainly no one at Google has ever made the link. We are all here because we love Android and obviously we all want the latest and greatest version but just sit tight and it will be here before you know it.

In closing I would just like to share with you the picture I have as my phones current splashscreen.

[russell5]

my thought is they are going to release it when apple releases 4.2 (or whatever update they have coming.)

PS this is probably so far from the truth

[silverfang77]

This waiting sucks. I want Gingerbread now.

[WildmanRuss]

I'll just be happy to get Froyo on my Samsung Epic 4G, when is that finally going to happen?

[wrecklass]

Was the original post:
[ ] Completely obvious
[ ] Totally obvious
[ ] Simply obvious
[ ] All of the above

Yes it is probably delayed for one of those reasons. Now we can start hearing all of the "I have no patience, Google needs to release it now cause I said so."

Then after they release we can hear all of the "Geeze this is so buggy, why didn't they hold the release until it was perfect."

I feel like I am on a Blizzard forum.


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Sent on my EVO 4G with Tapatalk

[gpsskimaps]

I believe the Google staff is still dogfooding it.

I used it for a bit on a friend's phone. It felt kindaa laggy.

[Phil Nickinson]

Was the original post:
[ ] Completely obvious
[ ] Totally obvious
[ ] Simply obvious
[ ] All of the above

Actually, it was pretty well thought out and pretty well explained. I'm in the "All according to plan" category -- I think. If they really wanted to launch it with the Nexus S (and I'm not sold on that) and the rumors of the NS are true, that could explain it. But I'm not sold on that.

That said, it HAS just about been a month since the statue appeared, and that's a long time, compared to the other releases.

[EGOliath]

I'm more worried about which devices will receive Gingerbread than when it will be released.

[Chris Kerrigan]

I'm more worried about which devices will receive Gingerbread than when it will be released.

Not to mention how many completely CAPABLE devices won't get it...

[douglaswilson]

I am trying to decide if I should get the incredible now or wait for the incredible HD... would anyone know if the incredible be upgradeable to gingerbread? Thanks.

[kinster02]

That had to put it back in the oven...it wasn't brown enough...just a little while longer.

[pbcEVO]

Gingerbread will come out after black friday.. too much hype with the sales of that and after that day people focus on christmas and those sales and new items begin to launch.. look for gingerbread the first week of december.

[pbcEVO]

Dont get any droid, if i was you i would wait for samsung to release the rumored phone with a tegra 2 , the phone will have good hardware and samsung uses some of the best screens. the only thing they lack is a interface like htc's sense. the phone should be released early 2011.

[Gator352]

I think they overbaked the gingerbread and it's hard as a rock so they are waiting for the "merita bread" to soften it up in the tupperware.

Seriously though. They will release when they are ready too.

[digitalslacker]

I'm going with tomorrow, Monday, but it'll be a lack luster release from a media perspective. Just a "it's here" with a download.
my guess

[dhero]

Seems like if there was a holdup / change of direction with the next Nexus hardware platform, it would explain why Google debuted Gingerbread and then nothing much happened. Google could also hold it up until they're ready with their own Nexus hardware. On the other hand, what is being trumpeted that woukd be particularly useful for the carriers? Especially when many top shelf phones (Samsung Galaxy series, and others) have still not received the froyo 2.2 updates in the USA.

[Chris Kerrigan]

Dont get any droid, if i was you i would wait for samsung to release the rumored phone with a tegra 2 , the phone will have good hardware and samsung uses some of the best screens. the only thing they lack is a interface like htc's sense. the phone should be released early 2011.

Am I the only one that is not big on the Sense UI? If you ask me it's just way too busy...

Anyway, it'll be interesting to see just how Google goes about unveiling Gingerbread as well.

[Phil Nickinson]

Dont get any droid, if i was you i would wait for samsung to release the rumored phone with a tegra 2 , the phone will have good hardware and samsung uses some of the best screens. the only thing they lack is a interface like htc's sense. the phone should be released early 2011.

Samsung makes its own chips. Why would it do a Tegra 2 phone? Gawd, I hate rumors.

[Baconator]

I think that Gingerbread will be presented the last weeks of November and start being rolled out on devices starting December. Gingerbread - December - Christmas - you see a connection. Also if you are planning on getting a device I recomend gettin a Vanilla Android device like the Nexus One or the Nexus S when it comes out because they will get updates before other devices.

[mattgyver83]

They are waiting for Cyanogenmod 6.1 to leave RC status so they can be sure it stacks up ;\

[HTCSense]

The Nexus One was announced during January, they had a dedicated press event for that where invites were sent a week before (Dec 29)

I'm pretty much sure they'll do a conjoined press event for both Gingerbread And the Nexus S when the time comes. Whenever that is.

[Stang68]

Maybe they'll release it on Cyber Monday...it's possible.

All I want is a stock Android device like a Nexus on Verizon. I don't wanna wait for updates anymoreeee.

[gundamunicornmeister]

I bet they found a few showstoppers that caused Google to delay it. Hopefully they are taking the additional time to clean up the UI further so the Android haters will quit complaining about it.

What I'd wish is for Google to totally own the upgrade experience. Google needs to take the upgrade path out of the carriers hands, & allow everyone running Android to get a version of Gingerbread. It's sad that so many devices that could run FroYo doesn't have an upgrade path. Google needs to make it right and just get everyone up to Gingerbread.

[Baconator]

Well I would advise anyone who is wanting to upgrade to a new phone to get a Vanilla Android device, because you are sure to get ugrades before others and look at the Nexus One its almost 1YEAR old and still getting updates before other devices usually devices get one update and then they are trash (no offense). I know because I have a HTC Hero and hate not having FroYo so I am waiting for the Nexus S so I will be sure to get updates.

[GeoKaplan]

This may be one of those times when the rumor mill had the story right...

There was a story on one of the Android websites when the Nexus S was delayed (after the leak of the Best Buy ad mockup, etc). The story was that Samsung testers determined the phone needed a dual-core CPU, and thus plopped one in the Nexus S.

The problem, though, was that Gingerbread wasn't optimized for dual-core processors. This seems strange, since it has been a given that dual-core CPUs were arriving Q1 of 2011.

Still, this would explain the delay in bringing the software out, especially a delay which seems very last-second, based upon the Kremlinology of the arrival of the statue, etc. Both the Nexus S and Gingerbread could see their arrival before Christmas, but this is something which will simply happen on its own schedule.

Meanwhile, Google needs to get Gingerbread out into the marketplace so it can bring Honeycomb out shortly thereafter. Honeycomb is the OS built for tablets, and given the heat in that sector of the market it makes sense that Google and the manufacturers want Honeycomb out ASAP.