Android Updates to Settle Down to Once a Year, Says Andy Rubin

• Kevin Krause
• 15 years ago

Now that the excitement around Froyo has begun to settle, the lingering question remains: with the Gingerbread update scheduled for a release at the end of the year, how does Google handle making updates that will ease the pain of fragmentation? Google’s VP Andy Rubin addressed the future of Android’s OS updates in an interview with the Silicon Valley Mercury News, stating that the update schedule should settle down into a once-per-year event.

Citing that the first release of Android felt more like a “.8” release as opposed to 1.0, the flurry of updates within the first 18 months of the OS’s existence were merely to catch it up to speed. Now that the platform is coming into its own, twice a year updates are helping to add new features, but to allow developers to “leverage the innovation” a more slow and steady update schedule is likely.

This is good news for those that want to see an end to fragmentation, but there is something to be said about frequent updates (if you are on a handset lucky enough to receive them). It allows Google to constantly provide the best smartphone platform, though OTA update delays have invariably stifled this progress. Once a year updates should allow both Google and OEMs to get new versions of Android up to speed and out to consumers in a much smoother fashion.

[via TechCrunch]