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| Android needs the power of consumers (that's you!) |
Speaking of Android upgrades, there basically are two problems: Manufacturers and carriers. The former often refuse to deliver upgrades for their phones, and the latter sometimes refuse to deliver the upgrade - even if it is available from the manufacturers. A recent example is Motorola: As you can see on their Android Software Upgrade News, there are many phones which stay on a very old version of Android. We even speak of version 1.5 here. This is reflected by the official platform version statistics.
The basic answer to this problem is simple: Vote with your wallet. But that often is easier said than done. Nobody knows how many upgrades a manufacturer delivered in the past and how fresh the phones are kept. In the end, potential customers are left in an uncertain situation, and often have to try to dig themselves through. But my suggestion is: Let's quantify this information to help people in finding out which are the "good" manufacturers, and blame manufacturers which think they can get away by not providing upgrades. Consequently, the project is called BlameDroid. And I need your help in order to create it!
The idea behind BlameDroid
It's plain simple: It is a website where all purchasable Android phones are listed, sorted by manufacturers and with information about their first Android version and the current Android version available through upgrades. For every phone a certain ranking is calculated based on a public available formula that has yet to be defined. The overall manufacturer ranking is then simply computed as the average over all of his phones rankings. Some of my other thoughts on it:- The rankings can finally be used to create a top 3 and flop 3 of manufacturers as well as a top/flop list of mobile phones. The visitors then can instantly see which manufacturers to avoid and which phones to buy.
- A phone can have additional notes with positive/negative points which can influence the rating. For example, a phone which gets the newest Android version only in one country, but is not upgradable in many other parts of the world gets a lower rating.
Your feedback
Why am I posting this in advance? I want to know from you what you think about this project! Would you use BlameDroid in order to find out which manufacturers to avoid? Or what should be done that you would enjoy it? How would you rate the phones, or the manufacturers?I hope that you like the idea. And if you want to participate, please do not hesitate to contact me! :-D
Regards
Marc
PS: I already registered the domain blamedroid.org for this purpose, which means that we can publish the website as soon as it is ready!
Sounds promising! Keep it up! :-)
ReplyDeleteSebastian
I like the idea!
ReplyDeleteI am still waiting myself for an upgrade for my phone :-)
As I already told you in person, I believe it's a little piece of information I really would like to know about manufacturers. :-)
+1
ReplyDeleteI'm currently stuck with 1.5...
Buy Apple and be happy.
ReplyDeleteSorry to all Android users but my old 1st Version iphone run up to the last version before ios 4. This phone got updates and works over 3 years or longer. The best is that Apple integrates the important things so you can do and play most of all actual content especially all what comes from itunes with music and video. I will not say that apple is the best but they are better because they are trying to make people lucky. If there is a hardware reason they say you can not update. E.g. Ios 4 needs to much performance so the decision not to update old iphones 2G is good and correct. But If I would buy a phone and after half a year they would say that I get no more updates puhh I would throw them the product back and would buy an other one.
I have a ZTE Blade that came with Android 2.1. There is no official update to 2.2 but a very active modding community around it. Currently I'm running 2.2 (Jellyfish RLS7) on it and it works just marvellous. 2.3 is said to come.
ReplyDelete@Anonymous ("Apple"):
ReplyDeleteOf course Apple users do not have the problem. And the reason for this is very simple: Apple has less hardware combinations out there and does control all updates.
That is why this project is not about Apple, but to improve the situation with Android. Customers can still decide which way to go anyway.
@Venty:
I have seen the ZTE Blade in the wild here in Germany, and I have to admit that it is quite a good phone for this amount of money. Anyway: Even if there might be an active modding community, this is a no-option for normal consumers. Those normally wait for official updates. Yet I find the idea interesting: I think special phones might get an additional "custom ROMs by active community" flag. That flag should not be included in the rating, but it would be a bonus for people who care about this - like me. ;-)
do it !!!
ReplyDeleteLove the idea ...
Do it!!! Love the idea too. What is needed then is also negative points for closed bootloaders.
ReplyDeletehowever what about carrier prevented upgrades? will there be a differentiation between phones by carrier (branded?/nonbranded?)
@Anonymous:
ReplyDeleteI think a negative point for a closed bootloader would be a good idea! The question about carriers is yet open - the combinations manufacturers/carriers is just too complicated. Right now my idea was to just rate mobile phones of manufacturers and see if at least the manufacturer delivers upgrades. After all, a carrier usually can't upgrade when the manufacturer does not support it. If you have a good idea of how to solve this, please let me know. :-)
Suggestion for formula:
ReplyDeleteCalculate time between avaibalbility of a new Android release (from Google) versus availability of this version of Android for the phone from the manufacturer.
Put in a factor for the difference in version between google and phone.
If same version (e. g. google has 2.3, phone has 2.3) the factor is 0, so the score does not go up.
If one version difference (e. g. google 2.3, phone 2.2) the factor is 1.
If two versions difference (e.g. google 2.3, phone 2.1) factor is 2.
That way the "blame score" rises much faster for manufacturers who lack behind more than one version while the inevitably necessary time to create the upgrade after google has released a new version does not increase the score too much.
It would be good to have a score per phone and a score per manufacturer (which should just be the average of the phone scores of that manufacturer).
Go for it! This is a website that should have been there before I purchased my Motorola Milestone!
ReplyDelete+1
ReplyDeleteGo ahead!
ReplyDeleteI like it.
ReplyDeleteHave a Motorola Defy and I'd give Motorola a 2 out of 5 for still only having a 2.1 in Germany/Europe...
Love the phone, dislike their stupid update politics. Especially the super slow/ugly motoblur soft (which I dont use - lucky me).
And their locked bootloader. Why chain the droid down? Unleash it! :D
Very good idea indeed!
ReplyDelete+1:
ReplyDelete- add penalty for closed bootloaders
- score should increase with version gap
- score should stop increasing after a few years after the release of a phone (i.e. it might not be relevant to blame a manufacturer for not maintaining the version of a 3 year old phone). For instance, for a phone released in 2008, take into account the latest Android version as of 2011 (even if we are in 2013 for instance).
Maybe a good start for data?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.cultofmac.com/126505/this-incredible-chart-shows-how-screwed-android-is-and-how-ios-gets-it-right/
Btw, I like the idea. The iPhone is imho a better consumer product but the Android system is a lot more fun.