Erratic updates have caused many a headache for those of us on Android, but how is your mobile maker doing? Well Ars Technica has carried out a study so you can see how every device maker ranks in the update stakes. And it's good news for anyone with an HTC phone.
In order to carry out the study, Ars Technica took "a selection of the highest-profile Android phones released since the OS debuted, going all the way back to the T-Mobile G1." It compared Google's release date of each new software version with when each phone actually received it, and rounded up the delay to the nearest month.
HTC came top, with Ars Technica noting that the Taiwanese company benefits from Google partnerships, especially in the early days.
"Of the phones surveyed, HTC has never lagged longer than a year between an update release and its issuance to a phone," Ars Technica says. "HTC's time-to-update average is a bit skewed due to the fact it got in on the ground floor of Android when updates came relatively easily, but it is still the most impressive of all the manufacturers, with a 4.7 month update average."
Samsung was second, followed by the Google-owned Motorola, and then LG.
But the overall picture of Android updates isn't too impressive. "Updates that take less than six months to reach phones remain rare overall, and these are increasingly rare in recent months," the site notes in its conclusion. Motorola and Samsung -- two big Android players -- are noted as faring poorly. Even HTC's relatively strong performance can be put down to early handsets produced by Google, which are now a distant memory.
The conclusion? If you want prompt updates, go for the Google flagship device.
Here in the UK, HTC started rolling out Android 4.1 Jelly Bean to the One X a couple of months ago, but that was just as Android 4.2 made an appearance. That's the problem with these updates -- as soon as you get one on your phone, there's a new one out.
What do you think of the nature of Android updates? Is it 'reasonable' to have to wait five months, as one Android engineer reckons? Let me know in the comments, or on Facebook.
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anonymous 23 December, 2012 13:21
well guess that is one benefit of ios devices. pretty much all their devices get the updates in one big release. regardless of how much less fragmentation ios has among its devices over android, any android-head has to admit apple are dedicated to dispatching there updates good,quickly and the updates 90% of the time are worth while (that said, guaranteed someone will probably somehow say im chatting crap because "apple failed apple maps and therefore their updates are terrible"but, oh well.)
CaptainPicard 23 December, 2012 13:51
I think you made a mistake Joe, the second last paragraph, they didnt roll out JB a few months ago in the UK, they only started this week. I got a One X and received JB on Wednesday, and it's over rated, only minor changes and Google Now is a useless gimmick. If you got an ICS Droid and your waiting for Android 4.1, the wait is not worth it, your not missing anything.
anonymous 23 December, 2012 17:03
Can't compare the likes of HTC and Samsung etc. to Apple though. If iOS was being used by third party manufacturers that modified the OS, or indeed if carriers were allowed to modify or control the release of updates then the story would be different.
People criticising Google and praising Apple over this are missing the point of the android project and why it is open source. Unfortunately the people that really need to understand the point, the OEMs and the carriers are missing the point and taking the easy route rather than right and effective route.
Amazon get it at least.
anonymous 23 December, 2012 17:46
Google should force everyone to use "vanilla" android but have their skin as launcher you download.
One massive improvement over ICS, Jellybean menus are much smoother when scrolling
anonymous 23 December, 2012 18:49
I have HTC One X and although it did get annoying at times, I now have Android 4.1 and looking at other manufactures and phones, I'd say HTC have done well. But you are right in saying that Nexus are the best Android devices for updates.
anonymous 23 December, 2012 21:19
The only serious problem with slow updates is that it holds back the entire sports ecosystem. Google has done a good job of making it easy to provide tablet app features that degrade gracefully when run on phones. But you need to code for ICS to use them. Google really should've put out a 2.4 release that supported ICS coding - even if the features were crippled on gingerbread. Then again, hasn't stopped android's ascendency
anonymous 23 December, 2012 23:03
You cannot compare IOS updates against Googles, it is simply a different scenario. In a world where there are no other droid manufactures and only Nexus devices it would be a similar story to IOS (Galaxy Nexus, Nexus 4 vs Iphone 4s, Iphone 5).
And CaptainPicard, I guess that is your own opinion of GoogleNow, but to me it is mightily impressive and used on a daily basis :)
anonymous 23 December, 2012 23:50
Has Project Butter made a difference in Sense 4+?
CaptainPicard 23 December, 2012 23:54
Yh I agree you can't compare the 2 OS's. And I should have stated it's really down to who you are on whether you'll find Google Now useful or useless. I Iive near my work place, don't watch a lot of sports and everything I need from shops to cinemas is a short walk away. So it's useless to me, but if you travel a lot and have a very busy and interesting life, unlike me, you''ll love Google Now ;)
But I also thought that it will open websites and apps that I use every day when I normally use them e.g. every morning I check the news so I thought it open the BBC News website when I wake up. Maybe with Android 5.0 :)
anonymous 24 December, 2012 06:24
Am still waiting for the promised Jelly Bean update for my Samsung Galaxy Ace 2...if ever I'm really gonna get it!