Galaxy Nexus is not getting 4.4 KitKat

[hova]

So full disclosure. I consider myself a hardcore Android fan. I'm on Macrumors because i like MAC OSX and Macbooks.

I got my Galaxy Nexus in December of 2011. The iPhone 4 that is on iOS 7 was released a year and a half earlier in summer 2010.
Google just announced that the Galaxy Nexus won't get the new 4.4 update of Android because it's longer than their "18 month" update cycle. I didn't even know that this cycle existed before today.

Android 4.4 is supposed to "run well on low-end devices with as low as 512MB RAM", yet my Galaxy Nexus has double the amount of RAM (1GB). You don't have to be a scientist to see that Google is artificially holding the update back.

You may ask why i'm not just getting the Nexus 5 and be over it. The thing is i was going to get the Nexus 5 until i found out that the Gnex won't get 4.4. I wanted to give the Galaxy Nexus to my Mom who is still on an old Sony Ericsson feature phone.

If any of you have a Nexus 4 that means in 6 Months you won't get an update. Why am i supposed to get a Nexus 5 if i know that it will be less supported than an iPhone 5S that i could get instead?

So you can tell i'm mighty pissed off and i hope the Apple blogs and fans will pound Google for this. I would've never thought that one day i would consider getting an iPhone over a Nexus, i'm quite shocked.

 

[onthecouchagain]

So full disclosure. I consider myself a hardcore Android fan. I'm on Macrumors because i like MAC OSX and Macbooks.

I got my Galaxy Nexus in December of 2011. The iPhone 4 that is on iOS 7 was released a year and a half earlier in summer 2010.
Google just announced that the Galaxy Nexus won't get the new 4.4 update of Android because it's longer than their "18 month" update cycle. I didn't even know that this cycle existed before today.

Android 4.4 is supposed to "run well on low-end devices with as low as 512MB RAM", yet my Galaxy Nexus has double the amount of RAM (1GB). You don't have to be a scientist to see that Google is artificially holding the update back.

You may ask why i'm not just getting the Nexus 5 and be over it. The thing is i was going to get the Nexus 5 until i found out that the Gnex won't get 4.4. I wanted to give the Galaxy Nexus to my Mom who is still on an old Sony Ericsson feature phone.

If any of you have a Nexus 4 that means in 6 Months you won't get an update. Why am i supposed to get a Nexus 5 if i know that it will be less supported than an iPhone 5S that i could get instead?

So you can tell i'm mighty pissed off and i hope the Apple blogs and fans will pound Google for this. I would've never thought that one day i would consider getting an iPhone over a Nexus, i'm quite shocked.

Really? That's pretty lame. I don't like this either. I never heard of an 18 month cycle. And you're 100% right. I thought the whole idea of 4.4 solving fragmentation was that it could run on lower end devices.

Bizarre move by Google. Very Apple-like. Don't like.

 

[matttye]

Really? That's pretty lame. I don't like this either. I never heard of an 18 month cycle. And you're 100% right. I thought the whole idea of 4.4 solving fragmentation was that it could run on lower end devices.

Bizarre move by Google. Very Apple-like. Don't like.

Apple supports its' devices for a lot longer than 2 years usually.

 

[onthecouchagain]

Apple supports its' devices for a lot longer than 2 years usually.

Right. I meant more the general philosophy of holding things back. In other words, for no real reasons at all.

 

[Compile 'em all]

"Galaxy Nexus is not getting 4.4 KitKat"


Typical.

 

[onthecouchagain]

For what it's worth, all my friends with iPhone 4's say iOS 7 has crippled there devices and riddled it with lag and glitches.

Still think it's silly of Google to not update the GN to KitKat. If enough people get angry about it and voice it, I think Google can change their mind -- unless they come up with an actual legitimate reason not to update the GN. I'm not hearing one.

 

[skratch77]

Iv had the galaxy nexus and that phone is a pos with horrible battery life and was castrated by Verizon.Im pretty sure most carriers don't feel like pushing that update to an almost 2 year phone(will be 2 years by the time 4.4 hits the streets)and honestly I don't know anyone that would even want to keep that phone when a nexus 5 can be had unlocked for 350

yes apple updates older phones but takes out new features that are in newer ios 7 so its kinda a mute point when an older iphone gets newer software when most of the new features are not even there.

should be no surprise at this since the rate that hardware has accelerated on android with open gl 3.0 and new features to take advantage of better hardware would not make sense to support sucj old and outdated hardware.

 

[clientsiman]

Apple supports its' devices for a lot longer than 2 years usually.

That not really true. You get the latest OS but almost none of the new features.
I am sure that you will get 4.4 with a custom rom.

And yes it sucks that google didn't update it but you will get your google apps updated to the latest version which is what most mater to me atleast.

 

[matttye]

That not really true. You get the latest OS but almost none of the new features.
I am sure that you will get 4.4 with a custom rom.

And yes it sucks that google didn't update it but you will get your google apps updated to the latest version which is what most mater to me atleast.

Some features are better than none, no? Not sure how you can say that what I said isn't true just because they withhold a couple of features.

 

[hova]

Iv had the galaxy nexus and that phone is a pos with horrible battery life and was castrated by Verizon.Im pretty sure most carriers don't feel like pushing that update to an almost 2 year phone(will be 2 years by the time 4.4 hits the streets)and honestly I don't know anyone that would even want to keep that phone when a nexus 5 can be had unlocked for 350

I don't live in the U.S. I bought the GSM version of the Galaxy Nexus unlocked for 530€ and got the previous updates always directly from Google servers, not the carriers.

 

[ChazUK]

This could have been KitKat's big moment, showing how well optimsed it is for older and less powerful hardware.

Alas, it's not to be (officially). Hopefully the dev community will keep her alive.

I would worry about some drivers as the TI OMAP chipset may well be abandoned at this point.

 

[Stuntman06]

You may ask why i'm not just getting the Nexus 5 and be over it. The thing is i was going to get the Nexus 5 until i found out that the Gnex won't get 4.4. I wanted to give the Galaxy Nexus to my Mom who is still on an old Sony Ericsson feature phone.

If any of you have a Nexus 4 that means in 6 Months you won't get an update. Why am i supposed to get a Nexus 5 if i know that it will be less supported than an iPhone 5S that i could get instead?

You have to ask yourself if you think that a Nexus 5 after Google stops official updates for it is better or worse than the iPhone 5S at that point in time. If you think the N5 with no further updates in 2 years is better than the iP5 with updates from Apple, then get the N5.

Compare the Galaxy Nexus now without KitKat with the iPhone 4S with iOS 7. Which do you think is better?

 

[TJH133]

For what it's worth, all my friends with iPhone 4's say iOS 7 has crippled there devices and riddled it with lag and glitches.

Still think it's silly of Google to not update the GN to KitKat. If enough people get angry about it and voice it, I think Google can change their mind -- unless they come up with an actual legitimate reason not to update the GN. I'm not hearing one.

That is true. But key differences is you know the cyandgen mod team will get it up to 4.4 no problem. It does not have any files that impossible to get make builds.
I do find it sad that they are not updating it.

 

[onthecouchagain]

Googles core apps will continually be updated for some time after. That's at least a given. I love that we get updates to these apps all throughout the year.

 

[The Robot Cow]

And for this reason, I'm very very glad that i just bought an iPhone 5. My Galaxy Nexus is just a pain in the ass. Battery dies way too fast(even with the Oem extended. And no i refuse to buy an even bigger aftermarket battery for this crap. This issue has even been the cause for leaving me stranded a couple times). The lag has been building up over time and it time to retire this. And looks like Google has seen how bad this device has gotten so I don't blame them for abandoning this device.
I would have picked up a Nexus 5 if i wasn't on Verizon but oh well.

 

[rtomyj]

Really? That's pretty lame. I don't like this either. I never heard of an 18 month cycle. And you're 100% right. I thought the whole idea of 4.4 solving fragmentation was that it could run on lower end devices.

Bizarre move by Google. Very Apple-like. Don't like.

It's Apple like to unsupport old hardware? A lot of iPhone 4 users (3 years old) say hi. A lot of Mac users with old hardware on Mavericks say ditto.

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Right. I meant more the general philosophy of holding things back. In other words, for no real reasons at all.

Now this makes no sense. Do you mean selling older hardware (iPad 2)? That makes no sense, yes.

----------

That not really true. You get the latest OS but almost none of the new features.
I am sure that you will get 4.4 with a custom rom.

And yes it sucks that google didn't update it but you will get your google apps updated to the latest version which is what most mater to me atleast.

You don't get about 5 features out of 100's yes.. I don't see how custom ROMS matter here. It should be Googles responsibility to make Android useful not the owner, but k.

Anywho, it's pretty common on Android. No surprise. At least the apps are updated through the store now so whatever.
Also this update is kinda lackluster. I guess phones and tablets are close to being 100% laptop replacements. Cool

 

[aneftp]

I think you are missing the bigger point of Google ending support for the Galaxy Nexus at Android 4.3.

It's fairly obvious. Google has decided to put about a 2 year (or close to 2 years) life span on its Nexus projects.

Nexus One released Jan 2010? Support stopped when Google announced it would not update the Nexus One with Android 4.0 (ice cream sandwich).

Nexus S released Dec 2010. Google announced it would stop support after Android 4.1 when the Nexus 4 was announced in November 2011.

Now the Galaxy Nexus released on GSM carriers on November 2011/Verizon December 2011/Sprint (6 months later). Support ends at Android 4.3.

That's Google Nexus strategy. About 2 generations of support.

I had the Verizon Gnex. I really sucked. I got it the first day it was available (mid Dec 2011). Battery life sucked. LTE radios was flaky. Camera was horrible. I got rid of it 4 months later. The Nexus 4 was much better but battery life still sucked and camera was slightly worst than my old iPhone 4.

I am a phone junkie and I get the gadgets. Hopefully the Nexus 5 is a good solid 2013 phone. I purchased the 32GB Nexus 5 today.

 

[gotluck]

Fortunately cyanogenmod can come to the rescue here but this sucks.

Anyone bringing up iOS 7 on iPhone 4 = lol, better off on ios6. I have a 4 with saved blobs so I can downgrade/upgrade at will.

 

[Jessica Lares]

Some of you don't see the big picture.

They made 4.4 optimized for low end devices so that the manufacturers can push out $100-200 devices that aren't practically crippled like they are now at that price point.

I have a Nokia Lumia 520. The best prepaid device you can get at this point. You know what Nokia is pushing out? More lowend budget Windows Phones. And they're going to eat Android for lunch in the GoPhone and Pay As You Go segment in the long run. Especially when the only options they have are crappy 3.5" devices running Gingerbread.

 

[onthecouchagain]

From Engadget:

Update: There's still no official word on why this is the case, but sources close to the company have pointed the finger at a different hardware issue on the Galaxy Nexus: its Texas Instruments-built chipset. The company is out of the mobile business and as such isn't in a great position to give the support necessary for continuing OS upgrades -- presumably some of those 1,700 employees let go in the shift away from mobile could have helped. Now we'll have to see if the community can pick up where the corporations left off or if this is the end of the road for the Gnex and its other OMAP-based kin like last year's Kindle Fire HD, Nook HD and Droid Bionic.

 

[hova]

But Google is using a Ti OMAP in Google Glass and Amazon is using it in their Kindle line. I'm not buying it. I also don't buy that Google can't support too many devices at once. If that is the case maybe shouldn't point fingers at Samsung and HTC who support dozens of devices every year.
I also remember hearing that Google chose the OMAP specifically because of the good documentation they had on it.

 

[adder7712]

Someone will eventually find a way to load 4.4 KitKat on the GNex. Mark my words.

 

[viskon]

But Google is using a Ti OMAP in Google Glass and Amazon is using it in their Kindle line. I'm not buying it. I also don't buy that Google can't support too many devices at once. If that is the case maybe shouldn't point fingers at Samsung and HTC who support dozens of devices every year.
I also remember hearing that Google chose the OMAP specifically because of the good documentation they had on it.

My old Nook Color that has a TI chipset is an officially supported CM device running Jellybean 4.3. The CM team has been very appreciative of the help they have got from TI on making 4.3 possible on the Nook Color . So it surprises me that TI would not extend similar support to Google.

 

[TacticalDesire]

I've known about the 18 month cycle since the Nexus S.

 

[sviato]

You have to ask yourself if you think that a Nexus 5 after Google stops official updates for it is better or worse than the iPhone 5S at that point in time. If you think the N5 with no further updates in 2 years is better than the iP5 with updates from Apple, then get the N5.

Compare the Galaxy Nexus now without KitKat with the iPhone 4S with iOS 7. Which do you think is better?

The 4s runs great with iOS 7