Nexus One won't get an official ICS update.

[Mopetar]

The sad part is that the Nexus One is one of the better supported phones.

Source: http://theunderstatement.com/post/11982112928/android-orphans-visualizing-a-sad-history-of-support

Google really needs to crack the whip a bit more when it comes to support for existing hardware. They should take a page from Microsoft's book and require the handset manufacturers to support a minimum number of updates for their devices.

 

[quest55720]

Indeed. It doesn't make sense to lower the bar and limit progression because of the relatively small number of people who bought the N1.

Maybe it give people confidence when they buy a new android phone it will actually be supported. That was one of the biggest reasons I skipped android. No guarantee your phone will get any sort of updates. If the flag ship google phone won't get updates what phones will. That and I don't want to root and hack a phone to get rid of the hideous performance sucking skins that the phone makers put on the phone.

 

[Red Storm]

Except it got every major and minor update up until ICS.

If Android had no interface options beyond the age old grid icon layout, I'm sure we'd see older phones be supported for longer. Thankfully, Google didn't clamp down the UI.

 

[YoungGun21]

After about 6 months from now, when most phones will be starting to get ICS updates, how many people will still be running N1s? Not many.

 

[Fefster]

The Nexus S is not far superior compared to the N1,that's just a fact.While it is an improvement at least gpu-wise,it is actually a slight step back cpu-wise(look at every single anandtech benchmark on cpu power) and they also share the same amount of RAM.The only possible technical argument behind this decision could be the internal storage.That's it.This is their first flagship phone.And while this decision makes sense in terms of marketing strategy,it also shows lack of loyalty to their customers.It wasn't exactly easy to purchase a N1 outside the US,i myself had to settle for a Desire.Lots of people had them imported because they all thought that this was going to be google's baby.It turned out it wasn't.
About first gen snapdragon phones from htc(EVO4G,INC,Desire):they won't get ICS.I also suspect that HTC's second gen snapdragon phones won't get it(like the Desire S,INC 2 and the TBolt)while SE already announced it for the whole 2011 xperia line(all use 2nd gen snapdragons).

 

[runawayprisoner]

ICS has hardware acceleration so the gpu argument could be relevant.

Even if they could make the Adreno 200 run ICS why bother? The Nexus 1 was an unpopular phone discontinued a long time ago and the Adreno 200 is obsolete as well.

Problem is... hardware acceleration is only a possibility with ICS. Google said the same damn thing about Honeycomb having GPU acceleration, and it turned out it didn't. I'm actually pretty irritated by that fact.

While the Nexus One might not be popular enough, it's not like it's a major departure from the current generation of processors in terms of processing power, or at least it's still on par with other handsets from competitors in terms of capabilities.

The problem is that as Android grows, it would require more and more processing power, and eventually it will hit a roof. It's not like processing power in mobile device will increase forever.

It would be okay for Google to ignore the N1 if adding support for it causes it to lag or become unstable, but if that's not the case, there's really no excuse to it other than laziness. And going back to the GPU acceleration issue, I only saw laziness in that one. It was bad, and it still is.

 

[poofyhairguy]

After about 6 months from now, when most phones will be starting to get ICS updates, how many people will still be running N1s? Not many.

How many are running N1's today? Android fans (aka people who know what ICS is) seem to switch phones in quicker cycles...

 

[Puddle Jumper]

Problem is... hardware acceleration is only a possibility with ICS. Google said the same damn thing about Honeycomb having GPU acceleration, and it turned out it didn't. I'm actually pretty irritated by that fact.

While the Nexus One might not be popular enough, it's not like it's a major departure from the current generation of processors in terms of processing power, or at least it's still on par with other handsets from competitors in terms of capabilities.

The problem is that as Android grows, it would require more and more processing power, and eventually it will hit a roof. It's not like processing power in mobile device will increase forever.

What makes you think Honeycomb didn't have gpu acceleration?

You are familiar with Moore's law right? Planning on future increases in processor power is hardly a bad bet. Sure there will be a wall eventrually but current ARM cpu's are many years away from hitting it.

 

[NikolaeVarius]

Problem is... hardware acceleration is only a possibility with ICS. Google said the same damn thing about Honeycomb having GPU acceleration, and it turned out it didn't. I'm actually pretty irritated by that fact.

While the Nexus One might not be popular enough, it's not like it's a major departure from the current generation of processors in terms of processing power, or at least it's still on par with other handsets from competitors in terms of capabilities.

The problem is that as Android grows, it would require more and more processing power, and eventually it will hit a roof. It's not like processing power in mobile device will increase forever.

It would be okay for Google to ignore the N1 if adding support for it causes it to lag or become unstable, but if that's not the case, there's really no excuse to it other than laziness. And going back to the GPU acceleration issue, I only saw laziness in that one. It was bad, and it still is.

Honeycomb has GPU acceleration. Get your facts straight.

 

[runawayprisoner]

What makes you think Honeycomb didn't have gpu acceleration?

Personal experience with Honeycomb devices, and of course directly compared to a Froyo/Gingerbread device at the time.

You are familiar with Moore's law right? Planning on future increases in processor power is hardly a bad bet. Sure there will be a wall eventrually but current ARM cpu's are many years away from hitting it.

Moore's law states transistor count, not performance. ARM CPUs are actually pretty close to hitting it right now. Dual-core phones may seem swell, but a single-core is not significantly faster than that of one core. It's the same Core 2 Duo vs Core 2 Solo argument.

Arguably, you can say that with dual-core processors, things can be twice as fast, but there's no such thing as linear scaling in reality, right? And the way I see it, ARM's path is now more about adding more cores than improving performance per watt.

Honeycomb has GPU acceleration. Get your facts straight.

I know it has GPU acceleration because that's what Google says. Is that truly the case, though? Have you actually used a Honeycomb device and felt that interface? To me, it lagged worse than a phone running Froyo, which definitely did not have GPU acceleration.

 

[NikolaeVarius]

Personal experience with Honeycomb devices, and of course directly compared to a Froyo/Gingerbread device at the time.



Moore's law states transistor count, not performance. ARM CPUs are actually pretty close to hitting it right now. Dual-core phones may seem swell, but a single-core is not significantly faster than that of one core. It's the same Core 2 Duo vs Core 2 Solo argument.

Arguably, you can say that with dual-core processors, things can be twice as fast, but there's no such thing as linear scaling in reality, right? And the way I see it, ARM's path is now more about adding more cores than improving performance per watt.



I know it has GPU acceleration because that's what Google says. Is that truly the case, though? Have you actually used a Honeycomb device and felt that interface? To me, it lagged worse than a phone running Froyo, which definitely did not have GPU acceleration.

You're reading like some sort of crazed nut. Yes I have used a Honeycomb device, and you would be crazy to think its not accelerated. Need eyes checked, I think you do.

Holy Crap

http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2011/03/android-30-hardware-acceleration.html

GASP. Is that an article on how to activate 2D GPU acceleration on honeycomb devices? How the hell does this article exist if Honeycomb doesn't support it? It must be a Google conspiracy.

And guess what you need to do in order to use it

android:hardwareAccelerated="true"

Awesome.

 

[runawayprisoner]

You're reading like some sort of crazed nut. Yes I have used a Honeycomb device, and you would be crazy to think its not accelerated. Need eyes checked, I think you do.

Holy Crap

http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2011/03/android-30-hardware-acceleration.html

GASP. Is that an article on how to activate 2D GPU acceleration on honeycomb devices? How the hell does this article exist if Honeycomb doesn't support it? It must be a Google conspiracy.

And guess what you need to do in order to use it

android:hardwareAccelerated="true"

Awesome.

I don't know how many times I'll have to go through this same discussion again and again... but please read that article again. From the top down.

I will show you how to enable the hardware accelerated 2D graphics pipeline in your application

It's only for app developers, and it's not enabled by default, so it's not a system-wide thing.

I don't think I want to go over this right now... but if you would read back, I have posted a ton of information on this already. If Honeycomb is GPU accelerated, then it's partial, not fully.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Indeed. It doesn't make sense to lower the bar and limit progression because of the relatively small number of people who bought the N1.

It doesn't matter. The hardware isn't completely behind the times. I can see the internal storage being a limiting factor, but there are tons of phones that don't have the storage problem that should be able to handle it.

Heck there's mount SD as ext4 hacks that they should learn to implement in the stock OS if thats what it takes.

 

[Red Storm]

It doesn't matter. The hardware isn't completely behind the times. I can see the internal storage being a limiting factor, but there are tons of phones that don't have the storage problem that should be able to handle it.

Heck there's mount SD as ext4 hacks that they should learn to implement in the stock OS if thats what it takes.

Seems to me it's the old GPU in the N1 that holds it back.

 

[ponyo]

I can't believe the excuses people are making for Google. N1 was a developer phone. It should be supported if all possible. If developer phone isn't supported by Google, what kind of message does that send to Android partners and users?

 

[Red Storm]

I can't believe the excuses people are making for Google. N1 was a developer phone. It should be supported if all possible. If developer phone isn't supported by Google, what kind of message does that send to Android partners and users?

That two years of service/updates is what's expected?

N1 is old. It didn't sell well. It doesn't make any sense to hold everyone else back because of it. It's not even the previous dev phone either, that title belongs to the Nexus S once the Galaxy (and ICS) are released.

 

[trmiv]

I wonder if Galaxy Nexus will suffer this same fate 18 months from now? CPU/GPU wise it isn't running on cutting edge stuff.

 

[Red Storm]

I wonder if Galaxy Nexus will suffer this same fate 18 months from now? CPU/GPU wise it isn't running on cutting edge stuff.

I'll be the guinea pig and let you know 18 months from now.

 

[iahk]

I wonder if Galaxy Nexus will suffer this same fate 18 months from now? CPU/GPU wise it isn't running on cutting edge stuff.

this is the real question.

also, if Google makes more significant changes to android down the road, that may also factor in to what you said.

 

[YoungGun21]

I can't believe all the people in this thread acting like this is a big deal.

Who here has a Nexus One? I think I read one post saying that he has one temporarily until the Galaxy Nexus comes out.

Everyone else is just bitching.

 

[Mopetar]

I can't believe all the people in this thread acting like this is a big deal.

Who here has a Nexus One? I think I read one post saying that he has one temporarily until the Galaxy Nexus comes out.

Everyone else is just bitching.

First they discontinued updates the Nexus Ones, and I did not speak out because I did not own a Nexus One.

 

[ponyo]

First they discontinued updates the Nexus Ones, and I did not speak out because I did not own a Nexus One.

:thumbsup:

 

[YoungGun21]

First they discontinued updates the Nexus Ones, and I did not speak out because I did not own a Nexus One.

Can you translate this to english for me?

 

[Dominato3r]

Can you translate this to english for me?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_they_came…

 

[runawayprisoner]

Can you translate this to english for me?

Basically if you leave a fault alone, it'll develop into a bigger fault, and eventually engulf you.

Or with regard to this thread, if Google is left alone, it'll eventually get worse with updates, and the next time that comes around, the only way to update a phone officially, regardless if it's a Nexus or not, may be to buy a new phone.