About next week...

[Kyle Gibb]

"Froyogeddon"

Thoughts/comments?

 

[YourMobileGuru]

Hardly....

It'll be really cool to get it on my Droud thogh

 

[Hearthatvoiceagain]

I think the idea that all the top end phones have now been promised Froyo within 2 months is brilliant. It seems OEM's and carriers have realised that there is a real hunger for OS upgrades amongst the Android Faithful and are actually competing with each other to get 2.2 on their device ASAP. This can only be a good thing.

I think the problem in the past was getting the Carriers (and some OEM's) into the mindset of upgradable phones. The upgrade cycles for Winmo and Blackberry phones were ponderously slow, they have had to realise that smartphones are different from dumbphones, where you were unlikely even to get a bugfixing update. They have also had to realise smartphone users are not like dumbphone users, we crave new features and new capabilities, we won't sit still for 18 months to 2 years waiting to upgrade our phone so we can get the latest version of the OS, we wan't it now and on the phones we already have.

I think that it has helped that the number of OEM's producing top end androids has grown, with Samsung and LG beginning to muscle in on the territory of HTC and Moto. This is where the Android model differs most from the iPhone one, and now that Android has proved to the masses that it can compete with the iPhone and people are asking for Android phones by name and (most importantly) comparison shopping between different models and carriers means that those OEMs and Carriers will know that having the latest version of android will be a major selling point for their product, so that the slow update cycle of the 1.0 devices will become a thing of the past.

 

[YourMobileGuru]

You don't think that's actually gonna happen do you? Even if the OEM comes through with the build in that time frame, the carrier still has to test it. It tool forever for VZW to accept a build of 2.1 for the Moto Droid and that was just stock Android. I think it's gonna get alot better than it was but I would not hold them to any dates.

I do think the competition is good to motivate them to get it done faster though

OH and BTW, I am not sure what dumb phone you are talking bout by my old LG Voyager had 4 firmware updates in just over a year and there is a newer one yet that I don't even ave because I don't use the phone anymore.. Maybe not all phones were that way but the good ones were.

 

[MikeBinOK]

The Sprint documentation that has been leaked says that they want to get 2.2 out "for competitive reasons". The quick response from the Droids suggests that VZW sees this as important also. So I think the perception among carriers is that this is an important competitive advantage, at least for now. Whether this is a one-time freakish event, or whether this becomes the new normal remains to be seen.

I'm not sure how we as Android users who want the state of the art to advance can encourage this behavior, but I like it and hope it continues!

 

[YourMobileGuru]

The Sprint documentation that has been leaked says that they want to get 2.2 out "for competitive reasons". The quick response from the Droids suggests that VZW sees this as important also. So I think the perception among carriers is that this is an important competitive advantage, at least for now. Whether this is a one-time freakish event, or whether this becomes the new normal remains to be seen.

I'm not sure how we as Android users who want the state of the art to advance can encourage this behavior, but I like it and hope it continues!

Well of course they want it for competitive reasons. Right now the EVO, Droid Inc, and X are (arguably) the top Android devices on the market and the Droid 2 is on the way and WILL have Froyo. No one with their salt even doubts that anymore. If the D2 comes to market before those devices gets Froyo then to most users that device automatically becomes the top device. (How many of us bout the original Droid over the Eris largely because it had 2.0.1 instead of 1.6?) Sprint/HTC don't want that and VZW/HTC don't want to stall sales of the DInc now that they are finally shipping again.

This competition is a very good thing, I'm not disputing that, all I'm saying is that we should not take any dates as factual. The absolute worst thing they could do would be the first out of the gate and have a bum upgrade, so the are going to be very very carefull. To many VZW users (and former VZW users) the BB Storm still leaves a sour taste in their mouths and memories. They don't wan to repeat that with Android now that it is their flagship.

 

[rpfarrah]

Still standing by, patiently waiting (sort of).