HTC and Verizon tops in speedy Android upgrades
updated 09:50 pm EST, Thu January 13, 2011
Comparison shows lack of effort by phone makers
As the Android OS has continued to receive updates from the team at Google, many manufacturers and carriers have been less than timely in their efforts to push the latest versions to various handsets. In a comparison of handset manufacturers and carriers, compiled by Computerworld, HTC and Verizon take top honors in the recent switch to Android 2.2 Froyo.
HTC reportedly pushed Froyo updates to half of its eligible handsets in 2010, while Motorola only managed to update 15.4 percent of its devices. Samsung fell in third place with 11.1 percent of eligible devices, as Dell, LG and Sony did not push Froyo to any of their Android handsets.
When comparing the average wait for Froyo updates to begin, Motorola and HTC showed comparable timing with 54.5 and 56 days, respectively. Samsung took over five months between Froyo's release and the update sent out to phones.
Approaching the data from a carrier perspective, Verizon took the top spot by updating a third of its eligible devices to Froyo before the end of 2010. Sprint was not far behind, with 28.6 percent of devices, while T-Mobile managed to update one in eight potential handsets. AT&T, however, did not push Froyo updates to any handsets last year.
Verizon also was the fastest to update handsets, leaving customers to wait an average of 58 days, while Sprint and T-Mobile pushed past three months.
It remains unclear if the trends will continue into 2011, as many handsets now await the Android 2.3 Gingerbread release. The comparison provides a look into the 'fragmentation' that has been the subject of criticism over Google's mobile OS, as the market is now filled with devices running several different versions and customized variants of the stock OS.
