29
Jul
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Meet Andy: Android’s History In A Nutshell

Posted by in Android OS, Carriers, Cupcake 1.5, Devices By Manufacturer, Donut 1.6, Eclair 2.1, Editorials, Froyo 2.2, Gingerbread 2.3, News
Last Updated: November 5th, 2010

Before Apple's iPhone and Google’s Android OS burst onto the mobile device scene in 2007, there were few significant advances in mobile technology. Frankly, "smartphones" (if we could even call them that at the time) were boring: they did little more than email, general messaging, picture taking, some basic apps and games, rudimentary internet browsing, and enterprise integration.

The biggest players at the time were Microsoft Windows Mobile, RIM's Blackberry, Palm, Symbian, and Linux. They all had their respective place in the mobile world (see chart below).

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The Status Of Mobile Operating Systems In Late 2006

EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa) was clearly led by Symbian.

01
Jun
andyrubin

Android Updates Will Slow To Once A Year, According To Andy Rubin

Posted by in Android OS, Cupcake 1.5, Donut 1.6, Froyo 2.2, Gingerbread 2.3, News

We’re all aware that Android has been taking some flack for ‘fragmentation’ problems, and one of the more prominent contributing factors has been the breakneck pace of the update release cycle.

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According to Android chief Andy Rubin, we can expect this cycle to slow down a bit to an Apple style release schedule of one update per year. I’m sure this comes as a huge relief to device manufacturers, especially those who have custom skinned versions of Android, as they’ll now have more time to prep updates before the next one hits. For example, HTC and Sprint just released the official 2.1 update for the Sprint Hero as Android 2.2 is very much around the corner.

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