android

Has the future of Android?

The Android operating system seems to be a very successful platform. It feeds 85 percent of the new smartphones that are in circulation and along with iOS has virtually stopped any competition.

But Android is plagued by persistent problems that Google seems unable to solve. First of all, there is the issue of fragmentation.android
What does this mean;
Developers should develop software that works reliably on many hundreds of different from dozens of manufacturers. So developers only focus on devices from the big players.

Then there is the problem of updates. Google has an annual scheduled for Android (unless there's some 0day that forces the company to release a critical update), but update adoption within a year can reach 10 percent. Imagine how long it takes for a universal application of the update.

While Google seems to be fast enough to release its Nexus updates, it may take months for owners of other Android devices (from other manufacturers) to get the update.

In fact, unless you have a Nexus device, the easiest way to get a new version of Android is to buy a new device.

From the above it is clear that Android is facing some extremely serious problems.

Many of the problems the platform faces are because it is open . Android is relatively open, which means that once Google has a new version, OEMs get a job, adding, that you can imagine. This then results in both fragmentation and all the bugs with updates as Google updates can not be installed on Android by OEMs.

Another problem with Android is that it is based on Linux, and Linux is known to be plagued by legal issues.

Legal issues, and in particular intellectual property licensing issues, are a very serious problem for Android manufacturers. Companies like Microsoft are earning billions of dollars from patent licensing fees from Android hardware OEMs.

So a completely new functional, developed from scratch could release OEMs from the cost of patents.

Google, as we mentioned in a previous publication, is reportedly experimenting on new platforms. Take, for example, Project Fuchsia. Sure, it is too early to talk about this, but it is clear that Google is looking for a time beyond the Linux kernel, and the end of the Linux kernel actually means the end of Android.

This operating system could not only be built from scratch to be optimized for today's devices, laptops, smartphones or even small IoT devices - allowing for a truly integrated platform.

Google could license this platform for hardware developers, as opposed to using the open source model.

And licensing from Google means the company will have more control over hardware and devices. No one will be allowed to fill up trash the OS, and updates will come as they are released by the company. Yes a platform for the 21st century.

But do not expect to see it soon as all operating systems need time to grow.

Android has some serious shortcomings that Google is well aware of, and the fact that it has not made any effort to fix these issues is perhaps the strongest proof - along with the company's interest in developing new platforms - that something is being prepared.

ZDNet

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Written by giorgos

George still wonders what he's doing here ...

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