Google has confirmed on its Android developer mailing list that two of its longstanding reference devices in the Motorola Xoom tablet and the Samsung Nexus S will not be following in the footsteps of its successors in the Nexus 7 and Galaxy Nexus, with the search giant deciding that the devices were too old to be able to handle the new update, despite both being updated to Jelly Bean 4.1 earlier this year.
In fact, Google is recommending that both devices explicitly be left on 4.1 as there is no direct support at the hardware level for the latest version. While the lack of 4.2 for both devices may seem arbitrary, it should be kept in mind that both devices have been consistently updated since their initial release in 2010, through 3 generations of Android operating systems, a feat that very few manufacturers can claim themselves.
Now that these two devices have been officially supplanted by the Nexus 4 and the Nexus 7/10 tablets, it remains to be seen how far those reference devices will go in terms of Android updates. If two years of generational updates on Nexus class devices can be considered the norm and not the exception, then Android manufacturers still have a long way to go in terms of long-term device support, especially with the current wave of 9-month flagship cycles that are doing more harm to the current perception of Android as many 2011 and 2012 flagships outside of recently announced models have yet to receive promised updates.
I don’t see a single thing in Android 4.2 that keeps XOOM from updating to it. Not one. Planned obsolesence even spreads to the Googleplex. Sigh.
When Ubuntu one day becomes the most popular mobile OS, these guys are really going to wish they hadn’t pulled crud like this.
Ubuntu may be popular with the tech crowd, the general mass hasn’t heard about it or care. I work retail for a mobile company and most people don’t care about android builds, they care about price more then anything.
I’d say that’s because Canonical has been smart and avoided disaster. Ubuntu has cancelled at least three (by my count) mobile initiatives because they couldn’t take on Apple.
I think the Nexus 7 release was the start of Canonical focusing full-time on mobile. They forked GNOME and can do what they want with the user interface.
As to cost, the more patent suits Android gets, the more an OS like Ubuntu can be attractive in terms of cost too. Ubuntu isn’t rooted in Java, and has been sold on millions of machines without a single infringement case. It’s probably too late for anyone to go after Ubuntu, not so with Android.
That’s possible if they have a nice phone at a low cost people will buy it. From what I seen, cost, camera mp and screen size is what people look for.