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0 pointsfpgeek14y ago0 comments

> Google still has a lot of explaining to do as to why the N1 doesn't get Android 4

No, they really don't. Google has been clear that, in their opinion, the Nexus One hardware doesn't support ICS. And while we all know someone will shoehorn a version of ICS on there somehow (after all, someone did it for the G1), there's plenty of evidence that Google's opinion is reasonable:

- the limited internal storage (512 MB) [ICS distributions are substantially bigger than Gingerbread ones and there were plenty of Nexus One users pinched for space on Gingerbread]

- the relatively weak GPU [less ability to support and probably less benefit from the new rendering architecture]

- no front-facing camera [i.e. no Face Unlock]

- no NFC [i.e. no Android Beam]

- ...

Feel free to complain that Google and HTC made bad choices when designing the Nexus One, if you want. In retrospect, they clearly did. But it isn't at all hard to explain why the Nexus One isn't getting ICS.

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javajosh14y ago· 2 in thread

>No, they really don't.

Actually, they do. You've done a lot of explaining for them, but the fact that you did so implies that the need. What you say may be true (and it certainly sounds reasonable) but I personally haven't seen this kind of messaging from Google, and I bought my N1 directly from them.

Indeed, I'm rather curious to know what the primary source is for your information. Perhaps there is an Android or a Nexus One blog I should be subscribed to.

fpgeekOP14y ago

That's the thing. Not that I don't read plenty of Android blogs (Phandroid and Android Police are my current favorites), but there's no magic here: My primary sources were the Nexus One specifications and the Android 4.0 Platform Highlights. Beyond confirming expectations on storage space, the only detail I really added was knowing that the Nexus One GPU is relatively weak.

More generally, I wouldn't expect any company to do a point-by-point deconstruction of a product (past or present) the way I did. It is unreasonable to expect a company to trash something that plenty of employees worked on and plenty of customers were happy with. But I expect these sorts of issues were the subtext of Google/HTC saying that the Nexus One was "too old" for ICS.

jahmed14y ago

The N1 is over two years old and what two maybe three hardware generations behind. I don't think its unreasonable that it isn't supported by the latest OS or that Google has stopped communicating about it. I love my Nexus One (its birthday is the 5th) and I've really stopped paying close attention to the latest and greatest Android device. Few people care or know that they are running 2.3.6 vs. 2.2.4. Yeah it's disappointing to not be the most favored phone after walking in the light for so long but it was bound to happen sooner or later which for tech, especially phones is sooner.

When I EOL my N1 I'll again start paying attention religiously to phandroid, androidandme, and bgr to find Google's next golden child.

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