Android updates are one of the vital inconsistent issues about being an Android phone consumer. It’s gotten higher over time, and customarily, in the event you’re a Google Pixel or Samsung flagship proprietor, you may normally rely on getting the most recent updates at affordable velocity. The story is just a little completely different in the event you personal a telephone within the midrange or funds lineup with an older chipset, not to mention one which’s operating on an Exynos or MediaTek processor. In that case, you would possibly rely on getting one or two huge updates in the event you’re fortunate, and possibly not something past that besides perhaps safety updates.
It’s positively an enormous drawback that contributes to fragmentation and makes the Android expertise much less interesting in comparison with Apple, the place you may usually depend on your telephone getting the most recent replace for seven years, even when it could not get all of the options. Thankfully, in a recent interview with Android Authority, a Qualcomm govt confirmed that it’s taking steps to make sure OEMs have a neater time updating their gadgets.
“One of many issues we’ve been engaged on for the previous a number of years with Google and with the OEMs is to alter the construction of inline code — to sort of change the equipment for a way we do these updates,” stated Chris Patrick, senior vice chairman and normal supervisor of handsets at Qualcomm. The thought behind that is to cut back the bottlenecks OEMs face making an attempt to roll updates out to older gadgets.
“It is vitally difficult for a buyer — an OEM — to get safety updates, to get Android model updates, after which get it to each finish consumer,” Patrick stated. “It’s really very costly and really difficult.”
Based on Qualcomm, the code optimization has really been taking place for years, however the firm will make an official announcement concerning the adjustments later this yr. It’s unlikely this optimization can be a golden bullet that solves Android software program fragmentation solely, nevertheless it’s good to see Qualcomm making an attempt to handle the difficulty, even when, because it says, it’s will not be the primary wrongdoer for the difficulty.
It’s unclear what the timeline for this announcement can be, however Android Authority factors out that in 2024, we’ve got IFA Berlin in September and the Snapdragon Summit in October. The latter occasion would line up with Samsung’s launch of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4. It could make excellent sense for Qualcomm to announce one thing on the software program aspect after unveiling a brand new chipset. We’re prone to get extra perception concerning the adjustments as we get nearer to the autumn.
