Why Do New Phones Ship With Older Versions of Android - Android Central PDF

2/18/2017 Why do new phones ship with older versions of Android?
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Why do new phones

ship with older
versions of Android?
BY JERRY HILDENBRAND
 Friday, Feb 17, 2017 at 9:00 am EST
 56 Comments
New phones shipping with outdated

versions of Android isn't too surprising.
The reasons? Release cycles, and
Benjamin Franklin.
Arduino & Raspberry Pi
This summer, you'll see phones sold — expensive phones — Free drag & drop project builder
that have older versions of Android. Brand new phones that streamlines creation & offers
control from your phone.
cost hundreds of dollars and are the best models available.
They will be on shelves beside other brand new phones that
have "old" software on them, too. And not just models that
have been available for a while, but just-released devices that
we have heard about and are waiting to buy. For some, that
can be frustrating. But there is a reason, and it's pretty simple.
http://www.androidcentral.com/whydonewphonesshipolderversionsandroid?utm_medium=superfeature&utm_campaign=navigation&utm_source=ac 1/14
2/18/2017 Why do new phones ship with older versions of Android? | Android Central
It's known as opportunity cost. The idea behind opportunity

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These
resources could be monetary, but they also include things like
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have old software on them, too.
Google only makes

Android for the products
Building an they sell. They allow
operating system companies like Samsung
or LG to build their own
is hard and you operating system based
on Android any time they
can't change the like because of a liberal
platform in the software license. That's
why Android became the
middle of doing it. dominant operating
system so quickly, and it's
also why your phone probably has an older version of
Android, and has ever since you bought it.
It's not cheap to build and test an operating system.

Sometimes it's comparatively easy; think of BlackBerry's
Android phone and how they are patched on time every
month when Google releases a security bulletin. The new
code was designed to be merged into existing code, and all a
company using it needs to do is check the parts they have
changed compared to the download Google provides. Actual
changes to the Android core are another matter, and even a

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bump from 7.0 to 7.1 can prove challenging. And GUIDE REVIEWS
expensive. APPS
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Software cycles versus streamlines creation & offers
hardware cycles control from your phone.

Cayenne
Samsung is likely going to show us a Galaxy S8 in late March.

It may run Android 7.0 or it may run 7.1. The chance that it will
be running 7.1.1 (the latest official version) is very slim because
that particular version wasn't ready when Samsung was
finalizing the software the way it wants it to be on the S8. And
that's not going to be a big deal. It will be running Android
Nougat and have the same application support as Google's
Pixel. Phones that release near the beginning of the year are
usually all like this and will only be a point or two behind.
This becomes more of a

problem for phones that
come later in the year. Those point
Android gets its yearly releases are nice
platform update every
autumn. Recent versions but not critical. 7.1
have had a beta testing
cycle so we get to see
is still just ne.
them a few months
before. But companies can't build their software based on
beta code so any phone in late stages of production before
the Android platform update will be a full platform version
behind. That can have major implications when it comes to
security and app compatibility.
In both cases, the time it would take to stop production and

update the software before selling them would directly affect
the amount of money a company makes from selling them.
Companies that make things like phones exist only to make
money.
Nobody at Samsung or LG or anyone else wants you to have


old software on your phone. But because theyBUYER'S GUIDE
have to do theREVIEWS
updating themselves, it takes time. And time equals money.
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READER COMMENTS 56
Why do new phones ship with older versions of Android? COMMENTS
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Pushcush1983
3rd rule of acquisition: Never spend more for an acquisition than you
have to. Unfortunately Profit over all
 16 hours ago REPLY

 1
frellingfrakker
How is that unfortunate? Without profit you can't pay your

employees, add value for your stockholders, increase spending
on R&D for future products, etc. etc. Unless you work for the
government or a non-profit you probably wouldn't be in a very
good spot if your company didn't make a profit.

 5
Arduino & Raspberry Pi
Free drag & drop project builder streamlines creation & offers control from
your phone. Go to mydevices.com
Pushcush1983
Profit is not unfortunate. I said the concept of profit over

all no matter the consequence is unfortunate.

 0
Erik Johnson3
Greed is good

 0
Pushcush1983
Sadly the sentiments of many!

 0
SBM_from_LA
Profit, conversely, is the infamous bottom line. This is

called net profit, because it is the amount of income that
remains after accounting for all expenses, debts,
additional income streams and operating costs.
 4 min ago REPLY

 0
MobileNick
 Regarding this statement: BUYER'S GUIDE REVIEWS APPS

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"Google only makes Android for the products they sell. They allow
companies like Samsung or LG to build their own operating system
based on Android any time they like because of a liberal software
license."
Does that mean that if a company wants to make an Android phone
but having it run pure Android (along with updates) such as Nexus or
Pixel, Google will not allow them too?
I have always wondered why new players such as OnePlus use up
resources creating their own version of Android instead of just
installing vanilla Android, but from what I read in that sentence,
Google will not allow them to do that?

 0
Didier Ouzaid
yeah, that's what I was wondering about, too. Cause when I read
that the only reason Samsung or LG are behind is because they
have to do the updating themselves, Im thinking it's because they
WANT to do the updating themselves and shove as many
bloatware as possible. Cause I sure as hell didnt ask for anything.
But I might be wrong.

 0
Tom Westrick
The amount of extras doesn't have anything to do with

how fast a phone gets updated. My Moto Z Play is pretty
close to "stock" Android, but it's still on Android 6.0.1.

 0
D13H4RD2L1V3
Motorola fell from grace with updates.

I had to flash the Nougat factory image to my Z
because the official OTA isn't even out for mine yet
and the sideloaded OTA may have somehow
tripped dm-verity or something and caused it to go
into a bootloop.

 0
Jerry Hildenbrand
They want to and they have to.

Windows mobile (example) is a full operating system
designed and built by Microsoft. When Samsung makes a
WM phone, they buy a license for WM and get the
software from Microsoft (specially built for them, but built
by Microsoft with Samsung's assistance). Microsoft is the
company who paid for licensing and distribution rights of
the support files for things like the touchscreen or network
radios.
Android is 5 million or so lines of source code. Samsung
downloads that source code and builds Android. Samsung
is responsible for licensing support files for things like the
touchscreen or network radios, and the operating system
they build is theirs, not Google's. Samsung is allowed to
modify any part of it, but if they want to have Google Play
on the phone it has to be able to do certain things when
they are done building it.
Google doesn't build Android for anyone. Even internally,
the people who "make" Android aren't building it for Pixels
or nexus phones, another division of the company does.
 BUYER'S
I don't know if any company ever GUIDE
asked REVIEWS
for Google
provide a working OS instead of source code. I know
to APPS
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companies can work with Google to build it and Google
can help with some of the changes a company wants to
do, but in the end, the finished product still belongs to the
people making the phone, not google. All Google "owns"
are the closed apps like Gmail and the Play Store.

 2
Tom Westrick
It isn't that they aren't allowed to, it's that Google won't spend
money updating a phone they didn't make.

 0
cowboys2000
I always thought that each manufacturer (samsung, LG,HTC) adds

their own GUI or launcher to "vanilla android" and that is what
holds up the updates. The difference in handsets is the hardware
and software correct?

 0
Davide Alferes
I dont think that's the case, as most small chinese brands run
almost vanilla os with small changes, the problem with updates
are:
1 - the heavy skins and changes manufacturers make to android
code
2- the need to create a necessity in the consumer to have the
latest update = new phone

 0
D13H4RD2L1V3
Nope.
The reason why they make changes to the base Android code for
their own devices is for differentiation. What part of the software
sets your Android phone apart from every other Android phone?

 1
cowboys2000
This is pretty much what I was getting at as well!

 0
MobileNick
Wouldn't the hardware be differentiation enough? You

could have companies making phones of different sizes,
different materials, different hardware features, etc. But all
running stock Android with fast updates.
That would be a fun world to live in :)

 0
D13H4RD2L1V3
Actually, no.
I have never been in favor of every phone running
 stock Android because then it would

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the exact APPS
same experience on different phones. It's kinda  FORUMS
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boring, really.

 2
Warren Chang
I echo this sentiment because there will be

little to no evolution or innovation of the OS
if you all have the same exact form of the
OS. People slam Touchwiz for being bloated
and to some extent that's true but having
had 4 different Galaxy phones and now a
Pixel and a Nexus 10 I can say that if not for
manufacturers like Samsung there probably
wouldn't be certain features on stock
Android as Touchwiz did have some
features through the iterations that stock
did not and which eventually became a part
of stock Android.
If you want to see the result of an OS just
being baselined across the board just look
at iOS and how it lags in terms of features
compared to Android. Sure the ecosystem
is easier to control but the ecosystem also
doesn't evolve very much over a period of
time to the point that iOS is now copying
many of Android's built-in features because
they just have the same developers who
think the same. Android's easy access
allows for multiple developer perspectives
who then add their own spices to the mix
and then Google can pick some of the
better added features and work on making
those native to Android in future builds

 2
RK928
I don't agree, Android can be customized so

many ways that would never happen.
Having owned horrible LG and Asus
phones, I would absolutely love it if every
phone came with pure Android. And double
if the pure Android was updated regularly,
unlike Motorola, who has basically screwed
Moto X Pure Edition owners like me.

 0
D13H4RD2L1V3
We don't mean launchers and icon packs.

We mean features like double window.
Sure, you can use Xposed to get them, but
remember that Google is making Android
much more secure with Verified Boot, dm-
verity and SafetyNet, so rooting your
Android isn't as easy as it was and will also
cause you to lose access to features like
Android Pay.
I would love it if they can keep the base
Android look and feel but add new features
to it to stand out.

 0
 Crosswhite17 BUYER'S GUIDE
My thoughts too. Let the OEMs compete on

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hardware and let us all get updates at the same
time. If you want your phone to look different from
everyone elses, put a different launcher on it. Most
folk aren't bothered about having a different OS
otherwise Samsung wouldn't sell so many phones.

 1
TheWenger
Even if an OEM did want to use vanilla Android, they'd still have
to "customize" at least some part of it to work with whatever
hardware is in the phone. Drivers and stuff like that.

 0
mehofmann
Because of this Apple will always have an advantage. There are

benefits to controlling your own ecosystem. Whether you like it or
not.

 -2
libra89
True, and also Microsoft too.

 0
cybertec69
Windows Mobile is DEAD.

 0
jfs101
Google makes Android for their phones, what everyone else

does is not much their concern. That is way Nexus and Pixel
phones always have up-to date software during their life cycles.

 1
Warren Chang
Complete control is not always a good thing though. If you have

the same heads all the time and then they run out of ideas then
how is the OS going to evolve? Yes there's fragmentation in the
Android world but at the same time having more and different
eyes looking at the same thing brings about constant diversity.
Some idea swill be bad, some will be brilliant but there's always
ongoing change when you have different perspectives. If you
keep having the same exact perspective all the time then there
won't be changes and improvements

 2
DMP89145
Advantage in what sense? Android controls the mobile market..

 0
libra89
Wow, I had no idea that it was like this. Thanks for the article Jerry, it
 was very informative! BUYER'S GUIDE REVIEWS APPS

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 0
texn884
A company has to have profits to produce JOBS, and Profit is not a

dirty word unless your Bernie Sanders or some flaming liberal!
Companies exist for their share holders and to make a profit, and if
they have that then the jobs will be there with good paying positions!
But so many think everything should be FREE, tp those Bernie
Sanders followers, NOTHING IS FREE!!
Do you work for FREE???

 -6
rocket321
That's fine for software updates, but security patches should not
be optional.

 2
D13H4RD2L1V3
Yes. Security patches are often overlooked but are

definitely more important than an OS upgrade in the long
run.

 1
Chris Slavensky
That's a driver when your buying the phone. Do I expect

this company to maintain the OS for my product? With so
many high spec mid-range phones now it's certainly
something worth thinking about.

 0
Jerry Hildenbrand
I read that comment for free.

I want a refund anyway.

 4
ThrottleJohnny
lol

 1
chrishughes1984
I get it, time is indeed money, software is hard and if we want phone
companies to still exist next year to produce a new phone then they
need to make money to fund it.
But what isn't ok is to not publish their intentions from the start I.e if
they will or won't update it, and for every phone manufacturer to
publish at least an approximate date of when they plan on rolling out
the update. And then forcing the carriers to work harder to get it out
quicker once they have done it.
Either way, what i'm saying is, manufacturers lack of transparency is
actually what's annoying and not consumer friendly. I could accept
http://www.androidcentral.com/whydonewphonesshipolderversionsandroid?utm_medium=superfeature&utm_campaign=navigation&utm_source=… 10/14
buying a new phone with Marshmallow on it right now if the company
 stated it'd be getting upgraded to Nougat in 'x' amount

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months APPS
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 1
technomom
I also think that sometimes manufacturers don't appreciate how

Google is starting to lock down the process. The older the version,
the more latitude the OEMs have.

 0
Piggy winks
Somewhere, in a coporate Verizon Wireless office, an upper level

executive is saying the reason for delays is the rigorous testing their
labs conduct to maintain functionality on its network.
Somewhere else, in a Verizon Wireless testing lab, employees are
playing beer pong, while countless phones sit idle on a table.

 0
Kevin Davis9
Good one! LMAO

 0
Jerry Hildenbrand
We used to have a regular contributor to mobile nations who

worked as a Verizon testing engineer of some sort. I don't know
his exact title. He's moved on to a position in another company
that doesn;t allow him to "talk" about tech online. cough Apple.
He walked me through what Verizon does (did, this was in 2013
or 2014) to test a phone. It's pretty thorough, and what we think of
as bloatware doesn;t have much to do with it at all.
Every phone sold by Verizon for Verizon has some substantial
additions in the software (including the iPhone) so that it works
better on their network. The features that depend on these
changes are tested over and over independent of the "regular"
network compatibility and stress testing.
The bloatware is basically just a set of apps installed to the
system. They either just work or need a small update for a new
API just like most other apps in Google Play.

 3
D13H4RD2L1V3
Normally, I would make the argument that a device running a build of

Android that is extremely close to the base AOSP code would be
faster to update. That was the case with the first 2 Moto X devices
and the Moto G before the 2015 variant and the first Moto E plus
some others.
Now? The US-unlocked Moto Z only recently received its Nougat
update. The 2015 Moto G has no Nougat update in sight despite the
similarly-specced G4 Play receiving it. Other phones with similarly
lean software still take a while to get updated.
At this point, I would say the only reason for slow updates is
resources. Or rather, how companies don't seem to bother putting
more resources in keeping their devices updated.
And also, I would like to take this opportunity to say this. Please do
not judge how well an OEM updates their devices solely by how fast
they update their first device. That means a bit, but you should also
look at how they keep their other devices, especially the older
flagships, updated. It doesn't mean much if a current flagship in an
 OEM's lineup gets the update before anyBUYER'S

other phone
GUIDEbutREVIEWS
last year's APPS
flagship only got the update after a bunch of similarly-aged flagships  FORUMS
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
in others' lineups have already received said update.

 2
Arya111
I wish the manufacturers would just all go stock. No one likes your
stupid skins and bloatware.

 0
Synycalwon
Bloatware yes, but skins can add a lot of functionality that doesn't
exist otherwise. A good example of this is Samsung especially
the Note series. Many of these features have then been
incorporated in stock Android. The second point, if everything
was only stock we would have an ecosystem like Apple that has
little room for differentiation or customization, the very antithesis
of the open source nature of Android.

 0
Emmanuel Amuro
Almost all the features that have been added to stock android
over the past 3 years, have come from OEM skins especially
Touchwiz.
Quick toggles, multi-window, the restart menu option etc. were all
copied from android skins to stock android.
Posted via the Android Central App

 0
Jerry Hildenbrand
It's also important to know that Google designed the

framework to do these things (including multi-window as
part of Honeycomb) so the OEM "skins" could include
them. Things like quick toggles work because Android is
ready for someone to draw buttons and put them in place.
This is why quick toggle apps and status bar widgets are
in Google play, too.
Android isn't developed in a bubble. It's not developed in
the open like a true piece of open source software, but
Google works with a bunch of other companies and
individuals during the development. They may all compete
when trying to sell products, but they work together pretty
well to make Android a platform they can use on those
products.

 4
Kevin Davis9
That is an excellent comment. I wish that you

would do a full article expounding upon this.
Thanks.

 0
D13H4RD2L1V3
Also worth noting that the base AOSP code has

also seen its share of commits from the OHA.


 0
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pittsm325
Because when i updated my moto x 2014 from whatever to the

newest and best. The sony play memory's app was not compatible.
Not Googles fault and sony quickly fixed in a couple weeks. But it
was weeks before I could use the app

 0
Kevin Davis9
Pixels or iPhones if you want unfettered updates, otherwise, you get

it when you get it.
4 months, 6 months, a year, never?

 2
joe767
I've own every Nexus device google has ever made, but I keep going
back to Samsung touchwize because stock android is very boring.
Stock Android imo is boring than IOS.

 1
p51d007
Does the phone, when you purchase it, work as advertised?

Does the newest OS REALLY bring anything to the table that you
don't already have?
If the answer to the first question is yes, and the second question is
no, then stop
worrying about it.
it cracks me up how fanboys on droid or iOS banter back and forth
about the version
of OS on their phones.
If it works like it is suppose to, don't fret it.
Heck, my last phone ran 4.3 for over 2 years before the manufacturer
pushed out 5.1
Did I care? Nope. All the apps I use worked, and the OS was rock
solid stable.

 1
Tim1954
And that's the bottom line. If the device works bug free, then i don't
care what version it's running. Ppl wring their hands and have
tantrums cos Nougat is not on their phone yet... My S7 is running fast
and smooth, Nougat will get here when it gets here... I'll probably
have the S8 by then anyway .
Thanks Jerry for making it clear why this is so.

 1
rcredit
I thnk it come down to this. If you make your own OS then you
control the updates to it. If you make your own phone then make
your own OS to run on it. Google and Apple have it right they make
there own OS and control what goes on it. The different cell phone
manufacturers need to make their own operating systems rather than
relying on Google' android for updates and the latest software
versions.

 0
2/18/2017
 Why do new phones ship with older versions of Android? | Android Central
 Vera Mejia
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I just bought a galaxy7 had have problems from day one.

 0
Vera Mejia
When i asked metro semt meto samsumg theu sent me else
 1 hour ago REPLY

 0
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2/18/2017 Why do new phones ship with older versions of Android?

 BUYER'S GUIDE REVIEWS APPS

Why do new phones

New phones shipping with outdated

It's known as opportunity cost. The idea behind opportunity

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Google only makes

It's not cheap to build and test an operating system.

changes to the Android core are another matter, and even a

hardware cycles control from your phone.

Samsung is likely going to show us a Galaxy S8 in late March.

This becomes more of a

In both cases, the time it would take to stop production and

Nobody at Samsung or LG or anyone else wants you to have

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SORT BY DATE SORT BY RATING

 16 hours ago REPLY

How is that unfortunate? Without proﬁt you can't pay your

 16 hours ago REPLY

Proﬁt is not unfortunate. I said the concept of proﬁt over

 15 hours ago REPLY

 14 hours ago REPLY

Sadly the sentiments of many!

 14 hours ago REPLY

Proﬁt, conversely, is the infamous bottom line. This is

 4 min ago REPLY

 Regarding this statement: BUYER'S GUIDE REVIEWS APPS

 16 hours ago REPLY

 16 hours ago REPLY

The amount of extras doesn't have anything to do with

 16 hours ago REPLY

Motorola fell from grace with updates.

 15 hours ago REPLY

They want to and they have to.

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I always thought that each manufacturer (samsung, LG,HTC) adds

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This is pretty much what I was getting at as well!

 15 hours ago REPLY

Wouldn't the hardware be differentiation enough? You

 14 hours ago REPLY

 stock Android because then it would

 13 hours ago REPLY

I echo this sentiment because there will be

 9 hours ago REPLY

I don't agree, Android can be customized so

 8 hours ago REPLY

We don't mean launchers and icon packs.

 5 hours ago REPLY

 Crosswhite17 BUYER'S GUIDE

My thoughts too. Let the OEMs compete on

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