Motorola DROID RAZR HD XT926 "Vanquish" Pre-Release Thread

**TC_Mits** · 07-01-2012, 08:20 AM

Two months remain now for a late "August" drop. If "two or three months" is feasible, might as well go for it.
Or did you mean 2 or 3 mos. after the HD drops? That's 3 to 5 months after JB is out.

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**FAUguy** · 07-01-2012, 08:57 AM

Originally Posted by TC_Mits

Two months remain now for a late "August" drop. If "two or three months" is feasible, might as well go for it.
Or did you mean 2 or 3 mos. after the HD drops? That's 3 to 5 months after JB is out.

Perspective instantiates reality.
[From DX by HoFo app.]

If the HD is out in 2-4 months, I'm thinking it will have ICS, then will be updated to JB. My hope is the JB update only takes 2-3 months after the HD is released, not 6 months like it took for the RAZR.

**Steveanderson13** · 07-01-2012, 09:42 AM

Originally Posted by FAUguy

If the HD is out in 2-4 months, I'm thinking it will have ICS, then will be updated to JB. My hope is the JB update only takes 2-3 months after the HD is released, not 6 months like it took for the RAZR.

Here, this will shed some light:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...931421118.html

June 29, 2012, 2:23 PM

Google Exec Explains Android Shift, Online Sales Effort

Article By Amir Efrati

Google is moving to provide a more level playing field for hardware manufacturers that build smartphones and tablets using Google’s Android software by giving all of them earlier access to software updates.

The move–elements of which had been anticipated–is a shift from Google’s practice of making most manufacturers wait until after the latest version is publicly released–often at the same time that Google launches a “lead device” to showcase the software’s latest features.

Manufacturers that didn’t get to produce a lead device–which is done in close collaboration with Google and often branded as a “Nexus” product–previously have complained privately that this practice requires them to play months of catch-up after a lead device is unveiled, Google said.

Google gave early access to a few manufacturers for Jelly Bean, the latest Android version it unveiled to developers this week and which powers its new Nexus 7 tablet. The company added that starting with its next release of Android, likely next year, it would give what it calls the Android Platform Development kit—which includes source code for the operating system–to all device makers that want it two to three months before the it is published publicly.

The move will enable device makers to “innovate in parallel” with the lead device and get new Android devices to the consumer market faster, said John Lagerling, who leads Android’s global partnerships with manufacturers, in an interview.

The decision also means Google can give the same early access of the code to its recently-acquired Motorola division without appearing to favor Motorola over other device makers, analysts have said.

Lagerling added that some of Google’s partners believed Google wanted to expand its line of Nexus devices so that there would be several of them, rather than one, available each time the company finishes developing an update to Android.

But Lagerling said Google currently had no plans to do so.

“With the Nexus program, we want to keep engineers focused on one user experience,” he said.

Lagerling said the newest lead device–the Nexus 7, which is priced at $199 tablet and sports a seven-inch display–was a “high-performance, low-cost multi-use” device, meaning it lets people easily browse the Web, play complex video games as well as consume digital media like movies and music. He implied that Amazon’s identically priced and sized tablet, called the Kindle Fire, was “just the latter.”

Spokespeople for Amazon didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

“I expect people to have several in one family,” Lagerling said of the Nexus 7, which is manufactured by Asustek Computer and sold to consumers directly on Google’s website.

Google this year decided to open an online store for devices because “it allows us to really curate a crisp message to the consumers buying the device” while also allowing Google to “be aggressive on pricing and control the cost factors.”

The effort, which began in April, can work because in today’s market, “consumers are mature and even if you haven’t had it in your hand, you have a good sense of what you’re going to get.” He cited China as one market in which a lot of people are buying smartphones through online stores.

But Lagerling said Google will make the device available in retail stores. On Friday video-game retail chain GameStop said it would begin taking preorders for the Nexus 7.

**jroc74** · 07-01-2012, 10:04 AM

^^Nice!!

Hopefully that means quicker OS updates for ALL of Android.

**TC_Mits** · 07-01-2012, 10:20 AM

Originally Posted by FAUguy

If the HD is out in 2-4 months, I'm thinking it will have ICS, then will be updated to JB. My hope is the JB update only takes 2-3 months after the HD is released, not 6 months like it took for the RAZR.

The thing is, the RAZR dropped within days of the ICS source code so no head start was possible for the update. This is a different situation entirely because the HD development effort will have "2-4 months" to integrate the JB update OTA into the handset's software environment even before it drops. If they haven't already begun setting up that parallel software project, then there's little concern for JB on the HD and it may well be Q2 before it happens -- if at all, since, by that time, desserts will be shipped in from Key West. The same ole, same ole.

Reflecting, for the RAZR HD, the real question should be:
Will it finally get a piece of the pie -- or not?

Perspective instantiates reality.
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**Steveanderson13** · 07-01-2012, 12:22 PM

Everything is in the article.

**TC_Mits** · 07-01-2012, 01:09 PM

Well, it looks to me like an acknowledgment by Google that, indeed, "it's broke" and a real, tangible effort to fix it. Overall, I'm pleased.

But what of the "5 Nexus devices" to commemorate Android's 5th anniversary in November? If the N7 isn't part of that, then do we expect KLP in Q4 just 5 months from now and just before the last Xmas? From a marketing pov that would be strategic timing...

Perspective instantiates reality.
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**Susurro** · 07-02-2012, 03:29 PM

No one seems to have caught it so I'll point it out.

Google isn't saying that updates will come faster, actually they will still come in the exact same amount of time. Basically they are going to announce it later, so the public doesn't see all the delay. There is the same amount of porting time, testing time, approval time, etc. Just now it will begin before the OS is publicly announced.
On one hand it is a little less hacker/open model friendly. One the other, it is a sign of Android maturing and wanting a better PR front.

**TC_Mits** · 07-02-2012, 05:02 PM

Yes, starting a month or two earlier should help the Android partners speed the process.
I hope, though, that the initial SDK and source will essentially be pre-release alpha versions that Google is still testing and putting on the finishing touches -- a little like working with nightly builds. That way the overlap is real and there actually would be a limited but not insignificant speedup to the end user.

The procedural change doesn't offend my sense of open model standards as long as the Nexus released software is published in a timely manner.

So, any chance of some Key Lime Pie this year? I'd be willing to forgo a butter-scotch Jelly Bean in my trick-or-treat bag for some yuletide Key Lime Pie.

Perspective instantiates reality.
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**Steveanderson13** · 07-02-2012, 07:59 PM

Originally Posted by Susurro

No one seems to have caught it so I'll point it out.

Google isn't saying that updates will come faster, actually they will still come in the exact same amount of time. Basically they are going to announce it later, so the public doesn't see all the delay. There is the same amount of porting time, testing time, approval time, etc. Just now it will begin before the OS is publicly announced.
On one hand it is a little less hacker/open model friendly. One the other, it is a sign of Android maturing and wanting a better PR front.

It does say non-Nexus partners will have access sooner than they did before. Google can hardly announce it later after a device is released.

**TC_Mits** · 07-02-2012, 08:14 PM

Surely, it wouldn't hold back a Nexus device for two months after it was finished and ready to drop, just to give the Android partners a headstart.

Perspective instantiates reality.
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**ronaldheld** · 07-04-2012, 09:36 AM

At tbe rate OTAs occur, you could buy a new phone to get a more up to date OS.

**TC_Mits** · 07-04-2012, 10:30 AM

Only if it's a Nexus.

I just bought the SGSIII as the first new vzw tier 1 release to come with ICS ootb. But before I can get it "ootb", a new Nexus drops with JB. Now, I have no good reason to expect a JB OTA from Sammy before a Nexus drops with Key Lime Pie on board.

So, I give up on provider phones. If Google can't build a Nexus slide with SD support this year, I may very well get an x86 WP8 and a Surface Pro on Sprint and be done with it.

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**ronaldheld** · 07-04-2012, 11:15 AM

Why jump to Sprint ?

**TC_Mits** · 07-04-2012, 11:39 AM

Too much uncertainty about vzw unlimited data. Sprint is public and upfront: unlimited means unlimited -- no throttling.

But a vzw Moto Nexus slide with KLP, *SD support* and current specs would hold me to vzw and Android. Gotta hang around some anyway to work down this ETF.

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