When a new Android version is announced all Android users get excited about it and if you are not using google nexus devices, the wait starts. How much time your beloved phone manufacturer like Sony, Samsung, HTC etc will gonna take to fill the new Android with their custom UI (and bloatware crap) and release it to your device. (if your device make it to update list at all). I had a seen a fare share of Android phones and their update ritual.
My first Android device was Samsung Galaxy SL - It came with 2.1 Eclair, and then 2.3 Gingerbread is announced for it. I waited for gingerbread like crazy, I used to check Samsung site, google about it every day and then it finally came to me.
It was a new UI, but mostly a disappointment, because the only improvement I saw in the device was that it finally supported the Hindi font, and at that time google just begin experimenting with Google input tool, so no one was really sending out Hindi messages except me (when I got the 2.3 Gingerbread) and they use to appear like "[] [] [] [] []" on other people devices because most of them were not upgraded.
Then came the Android 3.0 Honeycomb, which was designed for tablets devices and no one got it, except for few Samsung tabs, nobody wanted it and nobody cared.
When 4.0 Jelly bean is announced, it has some major UI overhauls, but the apps remains the same, even if you compare your phone by usability the the 4.0 give very little advantage over Gingerbread 2.3 at time of its release.
By that time I was still using Samsung Galaxy SL with Gingerbread and frustrated because of missing out all the fun people were having Android Jelly bean! So I decided to upgrade my handset and researched little bit. I found that after Google Nexus, Sony has a reputation to support software of its Xperia Z series for long time. So I got the whatever best comes in Sony that time, Sony Xperia Z, with Android 4.3 Jelly been, by that time google just announced its "Latest and Greatest Android platform" 4.4 Kitkat and it came in real time on Nexus devices and Motorola (at that time google just bought it) Moto X advertisement came out with active voice controls with Kitkat 4.4 and I thought this feature will come to every phone with just software update (they never advertise that Moto X has a extra chip to enable this feature)
My device made on the cut off list and the day of reckoning come when Sony pushed its Custom bloatware filled version of Kitkat 4.4 for Sony Xperia Z.
I must have been one of the first people to install it on my phone. It also had a extra feature of google camera, which only works with Android 4.4. The UI has no major improvements on Sony, but it feels nice to be on google's "lastest and greatest" mobile OS and then the glitches came. its look booth Google and Sony miss judge hardware (and battery capabilities) of mobiles devices and the battery life (many phones) dropped from 18 hours to mere 6 hours, with no usage! After a month Sony acknowledge that it is in fact a bug in google play service and user should disable mobile data! to increase battery life (wow!). I also discovered that google has put restriction on SD card access and apps can only write/update/delete on a app only folders (except the bloatware your manufacture packed in) suddenly my beloved file explorer and sync services stopped working. The only solution was to root the phone. Google and Sony eventually fixed the Battery draining issue but they took long full 3 months.
After that I learnt my lesson and stopped rushing for new devices updates but Sony pushed the Lollipop 5.1 anyway and I installed it when my phone showed the update available notification. The useful update in Lollipop was none (except the make it painful to see notification and reboot your device) except that it included a new app permission intent which developer can use, so it can ask user that on which folder user want to give access at the time of installation, but again none of the application used it, even the Google "F**k**g" Photos don't use it.
Now they say that they will fix that in Marshmallow 6.0 and give more access permission on device, Well My new latest phone Sony Xperia Z1 didn't make the cutoff list and I really don't care.
The reason being that app makers does not embrace the new development API until it is wide spread, and has a maximum reach. Any use of new functionality can break their unified functionality across the devices (and maintaining two version is extra cost) and they tend to wait one or two more releases before the pick up the new Android API, which is already old by then.
So if you are not security fanatic like me, root your devices, it will solve the 90% of the access and bloatware problem on your device, or install a custom ROM like Cyanogenmod which migh give you new functionality on the same platform.
My first Android device was Samsung Galaxy SL - It came with 2.1 Eclair, and then 2.3 Gingerbread is announced for it. I waited for gingerbread like crazy, I used to check Samsung site, google about it every day and then it finally came to me.
It was a new UI, but mostly a disappointment, because the only improvement I saw in the device was that it finally supported the Hindi font, and at that time google just begin experimenting with Google input tool, so no one was really sending out Hindi messages except me (when I got the 2.3 Gingerbread) and they use to appear like "[] [] [] [] []" on other people devices because most of them were not upgraded.
Then came the Android 3.0 Honeycomb, which was designed for tablets devices and no one got it, except for few Samsung tabs, nobody wanted it and nobody cared.
When 4.0 Jelly bean is announced, it has some major UI overhauls, but the apps remains the same, even if you compare your phone by usability the the 4.0 give very little advantage over Gingerbread 2.3 at time of its release.
By that time I was still using Samsung Galaxy SL with Gingerbread and frustrated because of missing out all the fun people were having Android Jelly bean! So I decided to upgrade my handset and researched little bit. I found that after Google Nexus, Sony has a reputation to support software of its Xperia Z series for long time. So I got the whatever best comes in Sony that time, Sony Xperia Z, with Android 4.3 Jelly been, by that time google just announced its "Latest and Greatest Android platform" 4.4 Kitkat and it came in real time on Nexus devices and Motorola (at that time google just bought it) Moto X advertisement came out with active voice controls with Kitkat 4.4 and I thought this feature will come to every phone with just software update (they never advertise that Moto X has a extra chip to enable this feature)
My device made on the cut off list and the day of reckoning come when Sony pushed its Custom bloatware filled version of Kitkat 4.4 for Sony Xperia Z.
I must have been one of the first people to install it on my phone. It also had a extra feature of google camera, which only works with Android 4.4. The UI has no major improvements on Sony, but it feels nice to be on google's "lastest and greatest" mobile OS and then the glitches came. its look booth Google and Sony miss judge hardware (and battery capabilities) of mobiles devices and the battery life (many phones) dropped from 18 hours to mere 6 hours, with no usage! After a month Sony acknowledge that it is in fact a bug in google play service and user should disable mobile data! to increase battery life (wow!). I also discovered that google has put restriction on SD card access and apps can only write/update/delete on a app only folders (except the bloatware your manufacture packed in) suddenly my beloved file explorer and sync services stopped working. The only solution was to root the phone. Google and Sony eventually fixed the Battery draining issue but they took long full 3 months.
After that I learnt my lesson and stopped rushing for new devices updates but Sony pushed the Lollipop 5.1 anyway and I installed it when my phone showed the update available notification. The useful update in Lollipop was none (except the make it painful to see notification and reboot your device) except that it included a new app permission intent which developer can use, so it can ask user that on which folder user want to give access at the time of installation, but again none of the application used it, even the Google "F**k**g" Photos don't use it.
Now they say that they will fix that in Marshmallow 6.0 and give more access permission on device, Well My new latest phone Sony Xperia Z1 didn't make the cutoff list and I really don't care.
The reason being that app makers does not embrace the new development API until it is wide spread, and has a maximum reach. Any use of new functionality can break their unified functionality across the devices (and maintaining two version is extra cost) and they tend to wait one or two more releases before the pick up the new Android API, which is already old by then.
So if you are not security fanatic like me, root your devices, it will solve the 90% of the access and bloatware problem on your device, or install a custom ROM like Cyanogenmod which migh give you new functionality on the same platform.
