Motorola (NYSE:MMI) and HTC made announcements this week that gave mobile-device owners a better idea of when the new Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android operating system updates would be rolling out.
Motorola, whose proposed acquisition by Google was approved this week by the U.S. Justice Department, unveiled a reference chart that lists most of the devices in line for updates in the second or third quarter. HTC is enrolling select European customers in an “early access preview”—also known as a beta, or testing, phase—that is expected to roll out later in the U.S.
Android 4.0, nicknamed Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS), became available to a select group of devices starting last year. The release was a trickle, rather than a wave, and Google was forced to pause upgrades to its own Nexus S smartphone—co-developed with Samsung (PINK:SSNLF)—due to incompatibility issues. The long delays have increased criticism of the platform and have left many device owners yearning for a release date.
Motorola owners are going to have to wait on specific upgrade dates, but the company at least provided a broad ICS timeline. Motorola Xoom tablets, for example, began upgrades last month, but Xoom Family tablets will roll out in the second quarter. The third quarter will see the bulk of upgrades, with the Atrix, Photon, and Motorola XYBOARD devices finally getting their due.
Owners of HTC Sensation and Sensation XE phones have more to celebrate. ICS is coming to those devices, or at least to those owned by a small selection of users in Europe, at the end of March in the form of the above-mentioned beta, before it moves on to America.
The many flavors of Android
It’s a step in the right direction, but there is still a large population of Android users without a firm upgrade date after months of patient waiting. The continued Ice Cream Sandwich delays feed criticism that Android has become fragmented. There are currently six operating system versions, all with delicious sounding nicknames, that at least 1% of Android users have loaded onto a device: Donut (loaded by 1% of Android users), Éclair (7.6%), Froyo (27.8%), Gingerbread (58.6%), Honeycomb (3.4%), and Ice Cream Sandwich (1%). That doesn’t include customized versions of Android, such as the one Amazon developed for the Kindle Fire.
Application developers hoping to reach the widest audience would have to test the app on at least three of these operating systems to check for incompatibilities. On the consumer end, it raises uncertainty about whether a desired application will work on that device’s system. This stands in contrast to apps submitted to Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), which will work on most all Apple devices right out of the box.
Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt spoke at the International Consumer Electronics Show last month and insisted that Android was differentiated rather than fragmented. “Differentiation,” he explained, “means that you have a choice and the people who are making the phones, they’re going to compete on their view of innovation, and they’re going to try and convince you that theirs is better than somebody else.”
Schmidt has a valid point about differentiation creating greater competition, as evidenced by the current manufacturer push to get ICS-loaded devices out as quickly as possible. The delayed updates to existing devices, however, can make it appear that the company is off its development game. An unhappy customer could trade up to a preloaded ICS phone or walk away and buy an Apple iPhone or iPad. Firm ICS timelines, particularly for Google-developed devices like the Nexus S, would create more consumer confidence than the current, disorganized approach. Remember Microsoft’s (NASDAQ:MSFT) Vista? Many people would rather forget it.
