iOS users reach newer version 3X faster than Android

OneMoreThing... · Nov 21, 2011

iOS users reach newer version 3X faster than Android

iOS users reach the newest version of their platform about three times faster than their Android counterparts, Jumptap found after checking its traffic. About 32 percent of iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch owners on Jumptap's ad network were on the new OS just 15 days after launch. Even nine months after Android 2.3 had arrived, however, it was only just slightly larger than the 2.2 update at 44.4 percent....

rabbitjetta · Nov 27, 2011

It takes me about two days to update all of my things, 3 iPhones, an iPad and an iPod touch.

louishen · Nov 27, 2011

That's because the user and Apple are in charge of the OS updates.

With Android you are at the mercy of the carrier, who after they have sold you a device basically don't give a monkeys about you post sale

cwa107 · Nov 27, 2011

louishen said:
That's because the user and Apple are in charge of the OS updates.

With Android you are at the mercy of the carrier, who after they have sold you a device basically don't give a monkeys about you post sale

It's actually quite a bit worse than that. Aside from being at the mercy of the carrier, your particular hardware vendor has to tweak and tune the latest update for their customizations and hardware platform. Then it has to go through QA testing before they finally produce their own unique gold master and send it off to the carrier, who then has to package it up for deployment. And if they're anything like Verizon, you then have to wait for your phone to come up in the deployment rotation (i.e. the release isn't sent out at once to all devices, it goes in cycles - so some will get it on the first day, others will get it days or weeks later). You can do an end-run around that by grabbing your own ROM (usually from a seedy, third-part site who happened to snag it from some unknown source), but you'll lose all of your data by doing it this way.

In short, new Android releases generally take about 6 months before they hit the end-user with an OTA update.

Yet another reason why Android looks great on paper, but is rubbish in terms of end-user experience.

Leukeh · Dec 2, 2011

cwa107 said:
It's actually quite a bit worse than that. Aside from being at the mercy of the carrier, your particular hardware vendor has to tweak and tune the latest update for their customizations and hardware platform. Then it has to go through QA testing before they finally produce their own unique gold master and send it off to the carrier, who then has to package it up for deployment. And if they're anything like Verizon, you then have to wait for your phone to come up in the deployment rotation (i.e. the release isn't sent out at once to all devices, it goes in cycles - so some will get it on the first day, others will get it days or weeks later). You can do an end-run around that by grabbing your own ROM (usually from a seedy, third-part site who happened to snag it from some unknown source), but you'll lose all of your data by doing it this way.

In short, new Android releases generally take about 6 months before they hit the end-user with an OTA update.

Yet another reason why Android looks great on paper, but is rubbish in terms of end-user experience.

And in my experience "packaging up for deployment" from the carrier can take 3+ months from the release of the OS after the phone manufacturer has done their thing with it. They do their own rounds of bug testing (apparently) and load all their bloatware into it before sending it out.

Also most Android users I've come across either don't know what Android is OR don't realise they're using an old OS. It's only the techy guys who keep up with what's going on in the Android world who upgrade straight away. There's no easy iTunes sync to do it either - I have to use incredibly unstable Samsung software that ONLY runs on Windows to upgrade my phone.

I've yet to see an OTA update in Australia.

My Galaxy S was a regrettable purchase. Looking forward to the end of my contract...

_Stormin · Dec 4, 2011

See, but with Android you can download custom ROMs and then install them yourself. You need to copy paste some code, but if you can follow instructions its not impossible to get right on the first try. Some people would call all that effort a bad end user experience, but with Android it makes you one of the elite hackerz of the mobile device world.

cwa107 · Dec 4, 2011

_Stormin said:
See, but with Android you can download custom ROMs and then install them yourself. You need to copy paste some code, but if you can follow instructions its not impossible to get right on the first try. Some people would call all that effort a bad end user experience, but with Android it makes you one of the elite hackerz of the mobile device world.

I'm sure playing around with custom ROMs and tinkering with a phone that randomly reboots itself is great for those living in their parents' basements, living on cheese doodles and Mountain Dew Code Red (aka "elite hackerz"... man has that term ever become diluted, but I digress...).

I'd be willing to bet that those of us who are gainfully employed and/or live in the real world of productive adults and want something that "just works" are going to be turned off to that kind of a user experience.

_Stormin · Dec 4, 2011

Yeah, that's kinda where the sarcasm was going there...

Downloading code someone else wrote and following prewritten instructions doesn't make them hackers. It proves them to be tools when they act like they are though...

cwa107 · Dec 4, 2011

This is one of those times I wish we had a sarcasm smily for those of us who are too dense to pick up on it

Thanks for being a good sport

alexsd123 · Dec 4, 2011

cwa107 said:
This is one of those times I wish we had a sarcasm smily for those of us who are too dense to pick up on it

Thanks for being a good sport

I agree, I nominate ;D

CrimsonRequiem · Dec 4, 2011

"

" is the new sarcasm button.

Ttaylor394 · Dec 7, 2011

good article, and the site was pretty neat as well.. idk how often new things come up