Android lead sees iPhone-like update schedule

Android will soon slow down to just one update a year, Google VP Andy Rubin promsied on Tuesday. It has lately been updating twice a year but should scale back to once a year once the OS is "settling down." The current pace is sometimes hurting the platform as apps often have only a short timeframe to use features before the OS becomes obsolete.

"A platform that’s moving -- it’s hard for developers to keep up," Rubin explained to TechCrunch. "I want developers to basically leverage the innovation. I don’t want developers to have to predict the innovation."

He wouldn't provide a clue as to when the changeover would take place but effectively gave Android an iPhone-style upgrade schedule. Since unveiling the iPhone in 2007, it has always shipped major iPhone OS revisions in June or July with only minor fixes and feature updates arriving out of schedule.

The statements recognize the mounting problem of Android OS fragmentation that has seen many devices not only shipping with old versions of Android but in some cases being unable to upgrade as phone producers either can't or are unwilling to update to newer versions. Samsung has been cited as one of the prominent examples as it won't upgrade the Behold II past Android 1.6 even though it was only released late last year and has the hardware to support 2.1 or later.

By Electronista Staff