Oh, Google. You’re wonderfully large and in charge, and your mobile operating system is beautiful in its most recent iteration on the best mobile hardware.
However, barely ten percent of Android phone users have that OS by which you define your success. Can’t you see that OS fragmentation between all these different handsets is just holding back your image, even if it’s not actually holding back your development cycle?
In all seriousness, Google’s I/O developer conference will reportedly be touting an Android M reveal in one way or another, but the fact that adoption of Android L, or “Lollipop”, is so slow is absolutely unnerving. Hopefully there’s a plan to begin unifying software development across manufacturers and carriers, because this update lag has gotta stop. One person has Android 5.1 while another has 4.4.4. When I visit the official Android page, I want to know that the features listed there are present on my phone.
The above image shows an event (that’s actually been removed now…is Google trolling us?) at the I/O conference that is supposedly using Android M or some approximation to show how the jolly green robot wants to become more of a presence in the workplace.
Does this mean we’re seeing an official, full Android M reveal? Hopefully. Will this signal the beginning of the end of Android OS fragmentation? Likely not, unfortunately. One can hope, though. Stay tuned for more as the event nears, come May 28th.
(via The Verge)
