Nexus OS Update Life

Greg C

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With news that Google would not be updating the Galaxy Nexus to Android 4.4.... Google further revealed that Nexus devices would only receive updates for 18 months. I'm very disappointed with this news. When I bought my Nexus 4 I thought that it would receive updates for at LEAST a couple years. That is (was) part of the allure of buying into the Nexus brand. What are other's thoughts on this?
 

festinator

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With news that Google would not be updating the Galaxy Nexus to Android 4.4.... Google further revealed that Nexus devices would only receive updates for 18 months. I'm very disappointed with this news. When I bought my Nexus 4 I thought that it would receive updates for at LEAST a couple years. That is (was) part of the allure of buying into the Nexus brand. What are other's thoughts on this?

I'm a bit disappointed too. But it just means I'll be buying every other nexus phone that comes out, and since they're so affordable, it isn't as if it'll cost too much money. I'm skipping the 5 and I'll be picking up whatever is next.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using AC Forums mobile app
 

1210saad

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That sucks I usually keep my phones for at least 2 years then I switch. But that might not be the case with the nexus 4 because it has nice specs.

Posted via Android Central App on Nexus 4
 

ohyeahar

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I think 18 months is quite fair. With the speed at which mobile tech is evolving, it wouldn?t be practical to support a phone for a couple of years. Even 2 years would be really stretching it.

Besides, with the way Google is offloading so many things to Google Play Services and updating their core apps via Google Play, OS updates are becoming less and less relevant.
 

Hungerdunger

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While it's nice to have the latest software, would it really affect your day-to-day operations if you couldn't update software after 18 months of a phone's life? After all, Android is maturing as an operating system. I didn't find the last upgrade from 4.2 to 4.3 made much real difference and while I'm hoping 4.4 might improve performance or battery life on my Nexus 4 slightly, I doubt whether it will significantly enhance my life. And as the owner of a Sony tablet which I bought a year ago and which is still running 4.1.1 with so signs of any further updates, I'd say that 18 months isn't too bad.
 

Citizen Coyote

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My impression was the GNex wouldn't get the update because it runs TI (Texas Instruments) chips, and they're now out of the smartphone SoC business. A weak excuse, but if you've only got so many resources you focus them where you can. Same thing happened with the Motorola Photon 4G vs. some of its siblings like the Droid Bionic. The former ran on a Tegra 2 chip, and got axed from the planned update to 4.0 because of it.

That said, Google itself once pushed for manufacturers to support at least an 18 month upgrade path. While that effort pretty much failed, the GNex held to that. We'll see what happens with the Nexus 4 come next year, but I suspect that I'll pick up a new phone then regardless.
 

TheeWolf2

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Besides, with the way Google is offloading so many things to Google Play Services and updating their core apps via Google Play, OS updates are becoming less and less relevant.

I don't agree. You don't update your OS because of new apps, but because a new version means more stability, better battery and better performance. I think Kitkat is an amazing upgrade, especially due to Project Svelte.
 

ohyeahar

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I don't agree. You don't update your OS because of new apps, but because a new version means more stability, better battery and better performance. I think Kitkat is an amazing upgrade, especially due to Project Svelte.

I see your point. I?m not saying ?meh? to OS updates. It?s just not that big of a deal when the device you?re talking about updating is 2 generations behind. People tend to expect that an OS update would make their old hardware magically feel like the latest and greatest. That?s just never the case and so I understand why Google stated they?ll stop support for products older than 18 months. It?s just them being practical and realistic.
 
Oct 14, 2011
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I know it is disappointing but this the way Google have always done it.

When Google release a new phone it has a new version of the OS,the previous version also get the new OS but the version before that does not. This means Google only have to support two phones (current version and previous version). This reduces the testing required for OS updates, and therefore support cost, of these low margin devices.

We should therefore expect the OS released on the next Nexus to not be available to the Nexus 4.
 

TechAddict

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Hmmm. For me one of the BIG factors in choosing Nexus, making up for the lack of an SD and removable battery is the timely updating to current OS, mostly, as has been pointed out, for stability, security and added features. IMO, 18 months is quite lame in terms of supporting devices, little better than the abandon ware approach of some other well known manufacturers, I'd never by HTC again that's for sure!

Whatever people thing of Apple, the iPhone 3GS is 4 years old now and only now has it not got IOS 7. Yes not all Apple devices have got all the features , just as, it seems, not all Nexus devices will get the same features that the N5 has. I'd be loathe to go back to Apple as I prefer many of the options available through Android BUT this news for me definitely means that the reasons to buy Nexus over Samsung just took a significant nose-dive, especially as in these parts the Nexus devices are sold and available at full OEM (as opposed to Google subsidised) price. Here the N5 is is $627 vs the SGS4, now only $526 (albeit the S4 was $659 at launch - it's hardly an 'old' device though), the benefit of buying the N5 being what precisely???
 
Oct 14, 2011
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Whatever people thing of Apple, the iPhone 3GS is 4 years old now and only now has it not got IOS 7.

You have to remember that that Apple sell older versions of their phones at cheaper prices, Apple only stopped selling the 3GS in 2012 (when iPhone 5 was introduced). If we say the iPhone 3GS was supported for 1 year after sales stopped, then we can also say Google supported the Galaxy Nexus for 1 years after GNex sales stopped.
 

someguy01234

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Yeah, but from my experience (using family member's iPhones), iOS 7 run terrible on older iPhones and they purposefully withhold features like Siri. I honestly think KitKat is going to run smoother on the my single core Exynos Samsung Captivate (sure you have to root) than iOS7 on the dualcore iPhone 4S after seeing how sluggish the YouTube app run on it.

Sorry if your location don't have the Nexus at Google subsidized price, but you still have a lot of choices for Android devices than iPhones. Even if it cost more than the S4, I still see a clear benefit, no trademark Touchwiz lag and fast updates for example, no region locking or any goofy flash counters. People doesn't realize the Galaxy Nexus sold for $750 when it was released and it 'was' a great phone then.
 

CoMoNexus

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Google further revealed that Nexus devices would only receive updates for 18 months. I'm very disappointed with this news. When I bought my Nexus 4 I thought that it would receive updates for at LEAST a couple years.

Although a lot of people said that Google would upgrade the N4 first and often, I never read anything where Google confirmed that. So I bought the N4 assuming that Google might abandon the N4 sooner rather than later.
 

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