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Android Software

Is Kitkat Killing Lollipop Uptake? 437

Posted by samzenpus from the if-it-aint-broke dept.
BarbaraHudson writes Remember how Windows XP was "good enough" that people took forever to upgrade? The same might be happening with Kitkat vs Lollipop. "According to Google's latest Google Play Store results for early January 2015, less than 0.1 percent of all Android devices were using Lollipop. By comparison, the last major Android release 4.4, KitKat, reached 1.1 percent of its audience in its first month out. In January 2015, almost two months in for Lollipop, KitKat is still number one with 39.1 percent of the market. It's followed by the various Jelly Bean versions, 4.1.x with 19.2 percent; 4.2.x with 20.3 percent, and 4.3 with 6.5 percent. Trailing them is Ice Cream Sandwich, 4.03-04 with 7.8 percent, followed by antique Froyo, 2.2, with 0.4 percent."
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Is Kitkat Killing Lollipop Uptake? More

Is Kitkat Killing Lollipop Uptake?

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  • recently I saw a microsoft ad that featured a device that always has the most recent OS. Seems google gets some competition. lets hope it aint gonna be MS.

    • Re:Competition (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Monoman ( 8745 ) on Thursday January 08, 2015 @06:58AM (#48763237) Homepage

      Didn't they make the same claim in the past only to leave customers with certain phones behind? Why believe them this time?

      MS can say all they want but their past behavior tells us their mobile OS updates are slow to come and they are still playing catch up on features.

      It would probably be more realistic if vendors and carriers guaranteed all OS updates the first year after a phone is released and after that just security updates until the phone is no longer sold.

      • I think it would need to be over two years, which is generally the amount of time anyone might be expected to hold onto a phone that was sold to them. There really ought to be some more responsibility and/or accountability on the part of the carriers to support devices that know full well people will be more or less forced to carry for the next two years.

        Which isn't to say that every phone within the last two years needs to get 5.0, but they should continue to receive updates and support as problems arise.

    • Re:Competition (Score:5, Insightful)

      by bickerdyke ( 670000 ) on Thursday January 08, 2015 @07:22AM (#48763331)

      The easiest way to guarantee that is NOT to provide any updates after launch and instead of "upgrades" start completly new lines of mobile OS. Remember? Windows CE, Windows Phone, Windows Mobile.... I have a GPS with CE lying in a drawer somewhere. It STILL has the most recent version of WinCE.

  • Why do I want to upgrade? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by 91degrees ( 207121 ) on Thursday January 08, 2015 @06:40AM (#48763143) Journal
    What would using Lollipop do for me that whatever version of Android I'm currently using not? Is there a major benefit?

    • Re:Why do I want to upgrade? (Score:5, Informative)

      by bluegutang ( 2814641 ) on Thursday January 08, 2015 @06:43AM (#48763163)

      It will display your alarm clock in beautiful blue and hot pink [imgur.com], colors not user-changeable, of course. How could you not upgrade?

      • Re:Why do I want to upgrade? (Score:5, Interesting)

        by TheRaven64 ( 641858 ) on Thursday January 08, 2015 @06:49AM (#48763183) Journal
        Does it also come with UI regressions, like the change around 3-4 that turned putting the clock into night mode from a one-tap operation into a 4 tap sequence?

        • Re:Why do I want to upgrade? (Score:5, Insightful)

          by bluegutang ( 2814641 ) on Thursday January 08, 2015 @06:54AM (#48763207)

          Of course! Look at the bottom of the screenshot. Does the circle take you to the home screen? Or the square? Better try both and see!

      • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

        by 91degrees ( 207121 )
        Well, I was sceptical but now I'm sold.

      • Get Timely (for alarms, timers, and stopwatch), which Google purchased (I'm surprised it wasn't integrated into Lollipop).

        Fantastically beautiful and with some awesome features. An example: All alarms fade in, but, when the phone is moved, the alarm quiets considerably so it is not blaring in my face when I go to hit the snooze button.

        Integrates perfectly so I can use OK Google to set alarms and timers (when cooking).

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by johnsnails ( 1715452 )
      Cons:
      Slow (on my nexus 5)
      Chrome crashes frequently

      Pros:
      Multiple accounts on a mobile device (not just tablet).
      Nice transitions (when they work).

      I like it on my nexus 9, I don't really like it on my Nexus 5.

      • Re:Why do I want to upgrade? (Score:5, Informative)

        by Geeky ( 90998 ) on Thursday January 08, 2015 @07:30AM (#48763367)

        It's been fine on my 5. I don't think I've had a crash in Chrome yet and it seems just as quick as Kitkat was. Do you have any background apps that might not be totally compatible? All of my apps seem to work, but I have heard that some are flaky Lollipop (probably down to the switch from Dalvik to Art).

        I was hoping to like the new lock screen notifications, but there's not enough flexibility in how they work. I'd like to see per app settings that hide them from the lock screen but not the notification bar. The options seem to be all or nothing, so I went back to the lock screen notification app I was using under Kitkat anyway.

        • A notification is a notification (they are all basically handled the same way). I just disable apps from sending notifications as needed (I want the lock screen notifications to match the notification bar). I wish I could swipe away the voicemail reminder though, I actually wish I didn't have voicemail...

          Rovio (angry birds) had some apps that failed under ART, I know from experience, but they are fixed now.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by flirno ( 945854 )

        I dislike it on my nexus 7. The new gmail interface is horrible. You are now forced to use gmail app because it unifies the gmail and the integrated email app into one. I am not a big fan of it.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by marsu_k ( 701360 )

          I'd like to dislike in on my Nexus 7 (2013). But the update still hasn't arrived to the LTE version here, at least for me, and to anyone that I know that has one.

          (Really, I don't care that much that it hasn't been updated, KitKat works fine - I just find it odd, Nexus devices were supposed to be the ones running the latest and greatest, right?)

    • Re: Why do I want to upgrade? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by K. S. Kyosuke ( 729550 ) on Thursday January 08, 2015 @06:55AM (#48763215)
      Doesn't it include performance and power management improvements? That's useful on its own. Having said that, most people are probably limited by the vendor-provided update offers anyway.

      • Re: Why do I want to upgrade? (Score:5, Interesting)

        by Chrisq ( 894406 ) on Thursday January 08, 2015 @07:12AM (#48763293)

        Doesn't it include performance and power management improvements?

        I don't know if it was the OS or google play services (I got an update for both at the same time, but in KitKat google play services used 20% of my battery doing not a lot. Searches shown that a number of other people had this issue, but strangely not everyone. With Lolipop its down to a few percent. It also has "battery saver mode", which as far as I can work out disables background everything and dims the display. Useful if you want to ensure that your battery lasts for calls and SMS, but you won't get any facebook, email, or other notifications

        • Re: Why do I want to upgrade? (Score:5, Funny)

          by BlackPignouf ( 1017012 ) on Thursday January 08, 2015 @07:46AM (#48763413)

          syntax error, unexpected end-of-input, expecting ')'

        • This latest update has had some major issues on several devices - particularly the Nexus 7 and Nexus 4 and 5. We have a couple of Nexus 4's and they have been rock solid since they came out. Until now. Battery problems and crashes abound. They are improving though, without any updates from google. So I'll surmise that they are due to issues with 3rd party apps.

          Still, it is disconcerting to have your phone working as a pocket warmer and running out of juice before lunch.

      • Comment removed based on user account deletion

      • Re: Why do I want to upgrade? (Score:5, Informative)

        by ifiwereasculptor ( 1870574 ) on Thursday January 08, 2015 @08:05AM (#48763491)

        It does. Either Anand or Ars, I can't recall, tested 5.0 on a Nexus 5, with encouraging results. So I upgraded, and found out the worst bugs were related to power management. While the number of wakelocks seems to have been reduced - props to Google for that -, my Nexus 4 just refused to sleep while plugged in, which meant longer charging periods when plugged to the wall and heavy discharging when plugged to a 0.5A USB port. As the only way to charge whilst in the car is via USB, I was very dissatisfied. Also, the new battery monitor is a major regression both in the way that it represents drain per app and on bugs. Wifi is listed as being always on, for instance. Add to that the unpleasant extra steps to unlock your device, such as having to swipe up to then enter the unlock pattern. Very annoying when it's an extra step that serves no practical purpose, especially considering how many times we tend to reach into our pockets to use smartphones nowadays. So, while Lollipop is indeed prettier, the major, showstopper charge bug and questionable UI deisgn choices made me revert to KitKat.

    • Re:Why do I want to upgrade? (Score:5, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 08, 2015 @07:31AM (#48763371)

      No benefits so far, only cons, at least on Nexus 5.
      1. The new UI sucks ass, it seems that Google has forgotten that the devices do have more than two color displays. Why don't you allow user to change the color scheme?
      2. Simple things such as (un)muting the ring tone, which previously was easy via power button, is now a long operation with volume button presses, which usually takes multiple retries to succeed. Usually only the phone volume is changed, and eventually some of the presses actually changes the ringtone volume.
      3. The gallery application is also now ruined, as it forces the user to accept G+ account, or he can not access his pictures anymore. Way to go Google, taking pictures as hostages really makes the G+ positively accepted.
      4. When battery gets below 15%, the system starts nagging via notifications, making noises, and bugging the user, even if the device still has hours and hours of standby time left. Why not complain once and let the user connect charger when he prefers?
      5. Since the ART runtime is now the only option available, application development by on device debugging is completely useless, as it is unbearably slow. Even opening application may take a minute.

    • Lollipop is way more aggressive at saving battery life than all Android predecessors. For my tastes, this is a Big Deal. As a result, I'm thinking of keeping my Nexus 4 at least another year before I consider upgrading.

    • I appreciate the notifications on the lock screen (I can delete email from the lock screen, I like that). Battery life seems a bit better.

      While available previously via a manual option (in Kitkat, that's what my phone started with), the ART Ahead-Of-Time compilation does improve application performance, but it also means the OS update took about 2 hours to complete as it had to optimize everything app on the phone.

      http://source.android.com/devi... [android.com]

      On the negative, Hangouts doesn't make it clear when an inco

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by dos1 ( 2950945 )

        This was a problem before, and is probably due to SMS messaging standards (total guess, I've never investigated).

        With SMS, you have no way to find out if the message has been sent to anyone else than you as well. If some messaging app lets you send message to multiple recipients, it actually just sends as many single, separate messages with the same content as there are recipients specified.

    • What would using Lollipop do for me that whatever version of Android I'm currently using not? Is there a major benefit?

      ...this being the exact point of the article...

  • I probably would upgrade if I could, but... (Score:5, Informative)

    by opusman ( 33143 ) on Thursday January 08, 2015 @06:40AM (#48763147) Homepage

    They haven't pushed the OTA upgrade to my Nexus 5 yet.

    • Re:I probably would upgrade if I could, but... (Score:5, Informative)

      by oodaloop ( 1229816 ) on Thursday January 08, 2015 @07:43AM (#48763407)
      I got the update to my Google Nexus 5 and hated it. It was slow and buggy at first (5.0.1 fixed some things within the week), the UI was a little weird, etc. I really didn't like the look at all. I ended up finally rooting my phone and went to Kitkat with Cyanogenmod. I should have done that months ago.

    • Re:I probably would upgrade if I could, but... (Score:5, Informative)

      by Xest ( 935314 ) on Thursday January 08, 2015 @09:02AM (#48763765)

      Yeah they wrote off support for my Galaxy Nexus after only 18 months so it's still on what, 4.3 I think.

      My Nexus 7 still hasn't received 5.0.

      So if people aren't upgrading it may not be because they don't want to but because Google is sloppy on even it's own brand devices at rolling it out.

      People wont go out their way to upgrade, if it doesn't come OTA to them then most just wont bother.

  • Sounds fair (Score:4, Interesting)

    by MrDoh! ( 71235 ) on Thursday January 08, 2015 @06:41AM (#48763151) Homepage Journal
    Usually jump all over new ROM's, new OS updates, all part of the fun. Though... I'm still not sure about this new Material look to everything. Running on a AMOLED, and rarely go outside, I prefer the black background, holo look. So... the 'xp feel' is spot on, I'm in a good place, everything works, and it looks good.

  • Manufacturers (Score:5, Insightful)

    by smallmj ( 69620 ) on Thursday January 08, 2015 @06:44AM (#48763171)

    Or maybe the phone manufacturers are being dog slow at rolling out Lollipop upgrades for their recent phones. We don't all have a Nexus.

    • Re:Manufacturers (Score:5, Informative)

      by redback ( 15527 ) on Thursday January 08, 2015 @06:45AM (#48763175)

      I have a nexus and im still waiting for my update

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Monoman ( 8745 )

        Nexus phones still rely on their carrier to update them. Nexus tablets (WiFi only) do not.

        • I bought my Nexus4 specifically as it is NOT tied to a carrier.

          • Re:Manufacturers (Score:5, Interesting)

            by sr180 ( 700526 ) on Thursday January 08, 2015 @08:51AM (#48763697) Journal

            I bought my Nexus4 specifically as it is NOT tied to a carrier.

            So did many others, and it doesnt matter. As Telstra Australia users have found, if you have their sim in the phone, Telstra restricts the updates - even though the phone wasnt bought through Telstra. Want the update? Simple drop another carrier's sim in the phone (who isnt restricting it - ie any other Australian carrier), and the update is instantly available. Update - return back to your Telstra sim. (I believe Telstra has started rolling out the update recently however.)

  • But it is "good enough" (Score:3)

    by Rik Sweeney ( 471717 ) on Thursday January 08, 2015 @06:44AM (#48763173) Homepage

    My phone (Galaxy S3) doesn't support Lollipop (and it's looking like Cyanogenmod isn't going to support it either).

    To be honest, my phone works "good enough" for me. I'll upgrade when it gives up the ghost.

    I haven't upgraded my laptop in 8 or so years, because it works "good enough". Same goes for my DVR, even though it doesn't support HD. The only reason I got a new TV was because my old one died (that said, being able to watch YouTube and BBC iPlayer directly through the TV is brilliant).

  • My own impressions of 5.0 haven't been too good. The lockscreen doesn't give you the unlock input (eg: PIN) without pushing a button to ask for it, the animations have been stepped up -- the kinds of animations you can't turn off from the Dev menu -- and it generally looks copmletely childish. That's not what I personally want.

    If you're running 4.4 check out all the new Google apps from the store. That's what you're getting from Lollipop, but also with the launcher, etc. No. No no no. I uninstalled the gmai

    • And it includes me. Android is getting bloated more and more with every release. Also, every release is more Google-focused and less user-focused.

    • My own impressions of 5.0 haven't been too good. The lockscreen doesn't give you the unlock input (eg: PIN) without pushing a button to ask for it, [...] This is the trend in tech - things become more colourful, flat and generally dumbed down. I don't mean dumbed down from a user knowledge point of view, I mean "UI designed in MS Paint" down.

      On the other hand: the lock screen is now giving more information about waiting messages/notifications so that you need to do an actual unlock less often. And simple, brightly colored, large buttons aren't a bad thing either when you're in a mobile environment like a train.

      After getting over the first shock, I kinda like the new look. (But might be a slight Google fanboiism, too, as I'm using their other products, too.)

  • That's not quite how I remember it (Score:5, Insightful)

    by wonkey_monkey ( 2592601 ) on Thursday January 08, 2015 @06:47AM (#48763181) Homepage

    Remember how Windows XP was "good enough" that people took forever to upgrade?

    No, but I do remember that Vista was found to be so wanting that many people went back to XP, and those that had waited heard the horror stories and stayed put.

  • No (Score:2, Insightful)

    by mwvdlee ( 775178 )

    Kitkat is killing Lollipop uptake the same way cars are killing rocket-car uptake.

    There is no Lollipop upgrade available for any of my devices yet.

    Apart from Apple fanboys, I don't think anybody is stupid enough to buy a new device just to get a software upgrade.

    • This. I have a Galaxy S3 and it still does WAY more than I need it to! The apps I use most are OsmAnd (unlimited offline maps), e-mail, Chrome, calendar and the camera. Oh yeah, and phone calls :D
      Everything else (and there's a ton installed even on my phone) is a "nice to have" stuff that I use once in a blue moon but don't really "need". The fuck would I need to upgrade my OS, let alone my phone for?

    • Re:No (Score:5, Funny)

      by gsslay ( 807818 ) on Thursday January 08, 2015 @07:21AM (#48763329)

      Yeah people! You've had two whole months to be doing that upgrade! What's taking you so long?

      Anyone would think people had more important things to be doing than spending Christmas attending to their phone. All those poor androids out there running an OS literally 60 days out of date! It's enough to make you weep. I guess some folk just have no shame.

      • Yeah people! You've had two whole months to be doing that upgrade! What's taking you so long?

        Some Nexus devices still haven't gotten an update. That is completely unacceptable. What else is unacceptable is my Moto G 2014 XT1063. It's literally the only model number of Moto G which hasn't got the update yet. All the other models have it now, and Motorola is staying hush-hush as to why it's taking so long and when it will come out, as usual. I keep hearing about soak testing but I don't hear about a release. The problem isn't the delay, it's the quiet. Not giving customers information about something

        • Be thankful you haven't gotten that update. I have several Nexus devices and honestly L made devices I spent too much time on into something I'm loath to use.

    • There is no Lollipop upgrade available for any of my devices yet.

      Well that's an anecdote and it's a fairly valid one, but on the flip side I know a lot of people who just don't give a damn. There is nothing ground breaking in the OS upgrade. Nothing at all. In fact the single biggest change is on the interface itself and users have a tendency to no like major changes. You get minor speed tweaks, and minor power tweaks but there's no killer feature.

      I know several people who haven't upgraded for this reason. I know people who upgraded, hated the new interface because of [i

    • Re:No (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Charliemopps ( 1157495 ) on Thursday January 08, 2015 @08:25AM (#48763583)

      There is no Lollipop upgrade available for any of my devices yet.

      There is... your cellphone company wont let you install it however. That needs to be addressed. Either by Google or Congress.

    • You're just jealous of my awesome rocket-car. It has pretty colors and stickers.

    • Re:No (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 08, 2015 @08:39AM (#48763641)

      Ironically, Apple fanboys don't have to buy a new device just to get a software upgrade.

    • Re:No (Score:5, Insightful)

      by BitZtream ( 692029 ) on Thursday January 08, 2015 @08:55AM (#48763717)

      Apart from Apple fanboys, I don't think anybody is stupid enough to buy a new device just to get a software upgrade.

      Then you are in denial, naive or just plain stupid. I work at a phone company that also happens to sell mobile phones, I assure you, plenty of people say they would buy a new phone just for a new version of the OS.

      The real question is WHY SHOULD I UPGRADE to the next version. Apple spews new features all over in press info and even TV commercials. You don't have to go looking for it, they tell you.

      Android on the other hand uses silly code names so it takes normal (i.e. non-fanboys) a long time before they even know WTF lollipop is, and the real kicker is ... unless you go digging, no one anywhere has given any reason WHY you would want to bother upgrading. The people rushing to upgrade to lollipop are the same ones that run beta OS releases, and thats why it has an non-existent user base. No one else cares.

    • There is no Lollipop update (Score:5, Interesting)

      by pablo_max ( 626328 ) on Thursday January 08, 2015 @09:55AM (#48764075)

      "There is no Lollipop upgrade available for any of my devices yet."

      There is no Lollipop update for almost all devices!. How the hell should anyone update.
      Seriously, do the jack asses that write these articles think that you can just install whatever the heck you want like a PC? I think they have a fundamental misunderstanding of the Android ecosystem.

  • Sigh (Score:2)

    by ledow ( 319597 )

    No. XP was only "good enough" compared to some of its successors. That was the point.

    If you WANT me to upgrade, you have to give me a reason to upgrade. I'm not going to do it for your convenience, or to give you free money, there has to be a tangible benefit to myself.

    As such, updating to Lollipop is really a couple of new bells and whistles which most people really couldn't care less about. KitKat is "good enough", as are some previous versions still. But without an incentive to upgrade, why take the

  • Well maybe people would upgrade if every new version wasn't slower than the previous version and Chrome wouldn't get buggier and buggier.

    Google for goods sake fix all the bugs before pushing out new versions with even more bugs. Do some QA testing for heavens sake, I mean you have the resources. Don't be evil.

  • Waiting for XPosed and others (Score:3)

    by johanw ( 1001493 ) on Thursday January 08, 2015 @06:58AM (#48763227)

    Even when they make the upgrade available for my device (planned in march I heard) I won't upgrade untill the XPosed framework is properly functioning on Android 5. And I want to be sure it's rootable. XPosed (with XPrivacy) is too important for me, and indeed 4.4 is running goog enough. I don't care about the new look.

  • Not a good comparison (Score:5, Informative)

    by Todd Knarr ( 15451 ) on Thursday January 08, 2015 @06:58AM (#48763231) Homepage

    I don't think the comparison holds up well, because in the case of XP users had control of the upgrade while in the case of phones it's usually the handset maker and to a lesser extent the carrier in charge. Adoption of Lollipop is mainly a function of how many handset models ship with it installed and how quickly people are upgrading to newer models of phones. Most of the flagship models are shipping with some flavor of 4.2 or 4.4 on them, and enough people seem to have bought those models in the last year that it'll probably be summer at the earliest before we see the next cycle of upgrades start in earnest. The only way we'll see Lollipop uptake pick up faster than that is if Google manages to convince the handset makers to roll 5.0 out to phones like the Galaxy S4. It'd also help if carriers stopped insisting on different "models" where the difference is strictly in branding and the actual phone hardware is identical.

  • If upgrading Android would take something like apt-get full-upgrade from the device or at worst booting some ISO on my PC with the device connected, I'd do it. But devices are locked, I can't upgrade my phone above 4.1 and drivers that would allow me to install bootleg distros are unavailable in source code form. So yeah, I'm sticking with 4.1 as long as my phone works and its battery still keeps me online for 5-6 days.

    • Device specific problem. Or manufacturer specific problem rather.

      My device just brings up a notification saying an OTA Update is available, click here.

      • I'd be glad to see stats about how many devices in use CAN be upgraded but aren't. Out of 5 Android devices I have, only Nexus II can get the newest OS version.

  • It mentions that people were not upgrading because XP was good enough but with Lollipop the problem is that for so many (almost all) devices it's still not available.
    I would upgrade right away if it would have been available for my phone.

  • I'll update my Nexus 5 to Lollipop once XPrivacy (http://repo.xposed.info/module/biz.bokhorst.xprivacy) becomes available. XPrivacy is waiting for Xposed to add ART support to the framework.

    Alternatively, I would consider installing Cyanogenmod 12 M1 (http://www.cyanogenmod.org/blog/the-l-is-for-lollipop) which has some of the same capabilities of restricting application permissions as XPrivacy (although less fine-grained).


  • Very broken. The dialer isn't even reliable. (https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=81593)
    Not to mention that the interface is more inconsistent than ever.

    OEMs are wise to wait a bit and I now fully realize that as a Nexus owner, I'm a beta tester. I might reconsider my next purchase.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmIAnAi ( 975049 )
      Very much this. My Nexus 7 became virtually unusable after the Lollipop update (seems much more responsive with last night's update though). The UI changes are also a big step backwards. It took me ages to spot how to dismiss all notifications from the lock screen because the tiny white icon hanging outside of the form is lost against my background. Why is just about every UI designer out there at the moment so determined to undo all the good work of recent years?
  • Using Nexus 7 (model 2013) I have upgraded about a month ago, but it turned out to wrong decision. Everything is slower now, I observe more frequent crashes and the Material Design is ridiculous and incomprehensible. I don't understand thinking of Material Design designers, but it seems that while graphics is simplified without respect to intuitive understanding (infamous "triangle, circle, square" comes to mind) , procedures often became more complicated. For example, to access settings, 2 swipes and 1 tou

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by rHBa ( 976986 )

      (infamous "triangle, circle, square" comes to mind)

      Which one was change weapon again?

  • Whoever wrote this piece doesn't have a clue about how Android upgrades actually happen, or thinks everybody buys an unlocked Nexus phone straight from Google. Please go and investigate about how carriers need to certify each upgrade and how also Google has to re-certify them to make sure carriers don't put too much bloatware in them (or at least that's what we've been told). I have a carrier Moto G 2014 and I'm still waiting for the Lollipop rollout. In fact, most of the people lurking in the top Android r
  • No, vendors and carries dragging their feet as usual is what kills Lollipop. Like my good old HTC One S which stopped receiving updates after a year from release.

  • I'd update to Lolipop if they'd let me -- Nexus 2012 3G here. Still waiting on the update to be pushed.

  • Tried it, sort of ... (Score:4, Informative)

    by MacTO ( 1161105 ) on Thursday January 08, 2015 @08:05AM (#48763489)

    People have to wait for their vendor or carrier to release an update, or use an alternative ROM like Cyanogenmod. In the case of the latter, Cyanogenmod only started releasing official nightlies for a limited range of devices 2 days ago. Prior to that, it has been a case of scouring forums to obtain unofficial releases of alternative ROMs.

    Even after the upgrade has been released, people actually need a chance to perform the update. For some people, that may be several months down the road -- e.g. when they know that they'll have a chance to perform the update and get used to the changes. It isn't a matter of being good enough. It is a matter of giving people an opportunity to perform the upgrade.

  • Lollipop = Windows Vista (Score:5, Interesting)

    by bradley13 ( 1118935 ) on Thursday January 08, 2015 @08:36AM (#48763629) Homepage

    Part of the problem is that Lollipop offers little new, but does destroy existing functionality. Google Calendar is much less usable than before. Personal and business email is now handled by the same application, making it much more difficult to keep private and business separate. Etc..

    In return, we now have fancy animations when you touch the screen, gee, golly, wow. Oh, and existing, well-known icons have been redesigned; just as an example, to go to your home screen you no longer press the house icon, now you press a circle. I'm sure some designer is real proud of that, but they must have forgotten the user-testing.

    Lollipop is Google's version of Windows Vista. I'm sure they'll fix it, but in the meantime I wish I could do a rollback to KitKat...

  • I expect Lollipop uptake will be just fine in the end. It's same story as when 2.x went to 4.x - the handset manufacturers spend 6-12 months playing catchup before they're ready to move over. Perhaps there is less impetus to switch over but it'll happen.

    Probably the best reason to use lollipop is that apps start faster, use less battery and the whole thing feels more responsive. This is due to the new ahead of time compiler. The UI experience is fairly take-it-or-leave-it though - it's slick but it's not

    • Probably the best reason to use lollipop is that apps start faster, use less battery and the whole thing feels more responsive.

      That is so far from true it's not funny.

  • Several of my friends and I have Nexus 5s. Lollipop basically made them unusable. I turned off animations, which helped, but apps still crash constantly. It's honestly made me think Google has probably jumped the shark.

    • Yep, there are apps out there that worked in a 5 with KitKat just fine, and are either unstable or do not work at all in Lollipop. I have about 5 apps that ceased to work after upgrade, and I got absolutely nothing of value out of it.

    • Google have a long history of pushing out random, increasingly cryptic and frequently totally pointless changes to all their apss and services.

      Lollipop is looking very like their Win8 moment, a UI that takes away more than the under the hood improvements give. Did they not notice the kickback against both Win8 Metro and Jonny Ives eye blistering IOS flattening? Don't know why I asked, they do whatever they want without checking what users think every damn time and this time it's repeating the same mistakes

  • Lollipop killed my Nexus 7 (Score:4, Interesting)

    by PopeRatzo ( 965947 ) on Thursday January 08, 2015 @09:33AM (#48763941) Journal

    I had a perfectly functional Nexus 7 before Lollipop. After the upgrade, which I performed in a trusting manner, the performance is horrible, with apps taking forever to load and some functions just gone forever. This has been by far the biggest disappointment I've had since owning Android devices.

    Now I've got to figure out how to root the damn thing and either go back to KitKat or find out if I can run some custom ROM on the thing. And I hate dicking around with that kind of stuff. There was just no need for this update.

    Further, the UI is much worse. The three little icons at the bottom are way too tiny for a tablet, the screen you go to in order to kill off apps that are running in the background takes forever to load and instead of a simple swipe, I have to find this little "X" in the upper right corner, like in Windows. I hate it, absolutely.

    There is not one thing about Lollipop I have found that I think is an improvement in any way. Maybe it's something under the hood that's keeping me safer, but I doubt it.

    Now yesterday, there was another update to Lollipop, which made a tiny improvement in the perceived speed, but it's not even close to enough to make my tablet as nice as it was just a few weeks ago. Thanks for nothing.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Quarters ( 18322 )

      You can still swipe away apps to kill them. The new upper-right X is an addition, not a replacement, for that functionality.

  • I have Lollipop on my Nexus tablet, and while some apps are noticeably smoother, presumably because of the new precompiled runtime, the OS as a whole is noticeably slower because some common activities requre multiple touches to open multiple windows where before they were just one.

    Even if the upgrade is available for a device, there's no clear reason to want it. It still lacks the one thing that I actually want in Android: meaningful control over app permissions.

  • Maybe people are waiting for the fad to die (Score:5, Informative)

    by jandrese ( 485 ) <kensama@vt.edu> on Thursday January 08, 2015 @12:02PM (#48765109) Homepage Journal
    Apple is in the same boat, but the new "superflat" UIs that are the current fad are horrible. It's rarely intuitive how anything works or what is or is not an interface element. I get that UI developers think buttons, switches, and sliders are ugly, but if you remove all of them it's really hard to use the device. People still aren't trained to swipe randomly all over the screen to try to figure out what mystery gesture does what, they just think the features are removed. Heaven forbid the UI tell you what gestures are available too, that would be cheating. Phones should be like puzzle boxes apparently.

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