Google is officially killing off Android Market support for devices still running Android 2.1 Eclair
It’s been 7 years since Android 2.1 Eclair first arrived on the scene. Officially unveiled on October 26, 2009, Eclair was a pretty huge update from Android 1.6 Donut before it. We saw the introduction of Live Wallpapers, persistent Google Search bar, and a refreshed UI with new icons and launcher.
There aren’t many devices still running Android 2.1, which is probably why Google announced today that they’re officially killing off Android Market support for Eclair devices on June 30th. After that, anyone still using one of these old devices wont be able to access, download, or update their apps in the Android Market. In fact, there wont even be a notification, it will simply stop working.
It’s hard to tell how many Eclair devices are still in use today, but we don’t imagine it’s a very big number considering it dropped off Google’s Platform Distribution chart awhile ago. When it comes to later Android versions like 2.2 — which uses the rebranded Google Play Store — Google says they’ll continue doing their best to support it for as long as they can.