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AT&T Points The Finger At Google When Asked About Timely Android Updates

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by Axl Logan on
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When AT&T was asked why the carrier took so long to respond to Android updates on their smartphones, CEO Randall Stephenson responded with “Google determines what platform gets the newest releases and when. A lot of times, that’s a negotiated arrangement and that’s something we work at hard.”  This seems to imply that Google had the bigger hand as far as when a current update is pushed to devices.  Naturally, this caused the search giant to be somewhat confused.  And while we could naturally see why an update might take some time to reach carrier devices with different technologies, skins and other variables, we’re thinking AT&T is  just looking to pass the buck here.  With expected confusion, Google’s spokesperson responded with the following:

“frankly we don’t understand what he is referring to”

So, it doesn’t appear that the answer was ultimately answered here but rather deflected and passed on to Google’s court.  We’ll see if someone from AT&T’s camp can clear the matter up for us and get the ball rolling on some of these devices still running Froyo.

source: Pocket Now

 

» See more articles by Axl Logan


Categorized as Android Carriers

  • bozzykid

    Google doesn’t even do updates on any devices except for the Nexus devices and we know AT&T/other carriers cause those to be delayed.  Frankly, I don’t think anyone believes anything AT&T says about this.

    • RTWright

       Same thing can be said about Sprint, the Evo4G was out for almost a year and only got a minor update. It was only a minor change to GB and their Sense was on 2.0 already and not much later 3.0, but still nothing was updated for the Evo at all.  HTC claimed the new UI could not work on the phone when I contacted them directly.  Then told me that Sprint has to approve the updates on the phones.

      Where this leads me is that I’m through with waiting on all of the politics involved, which is why my Evo got Rooted.  I was tired of not seeing any updates at all hardly.  Google makes the OS available to all developers the instance it’s ready, so Google is not the one delaying things here.  It’s the Hardware Manufactures and Carriers.  Both of those two equally delay things.

      Again as I’ve said several times over, I would be much happier that the manufactures just made the hardware and let us get our OS updates from Google directly.  Because it’s obvious it could be done.  But that would mean it would be more like Windows, where you can put it on any hardware configuration as long as you have access to the drivers to support the device. Then you get your updates when they’re available.

      I’d love to see the HWM’s and Carriers removed from the picture of updates once you have your device activated.  They’ve got what they wanted at this point, your money!

  • chilimac02

    I believe AT&T as much as I believe politicians.

  • Diordna11

    Wow…here is that jack a$$ Stephenson again. Wasn’t it just earlier this week that he was lying about something else? Is there anyone who has an ounce of respect left for this moron and ATT?

  • [email protected]

    I have been waiting for AT&T to update my Galaxy Tab for almost a year. Everyone else got it. Stupid AT&T!

  • http://twitter.com/ImSteevin ImSteevin

    “A lot of times, that’s a negotiated arrangement and that’s something we work at hard to totally fuck up”

  • Curt

    The CEO is really showing how stupid and out of touch he can be.

    1. Blame the Federal Government about layoffs because they could not buy TMobile
    2. Blame the Federal Government about a hike in data prices because they could not buy TMobile.
    3. Blame Google for updates not happening on the Android phones, because ‘Google delays the updates to us’.

    This guy is showing how much of a loser he is. He knows that their would have been layoffs if they were able to complete the purchase of TMobile. There is no question on that. Simply put, there would have been duplication and not to reduce that duplication would be a stupid business move. You do not need a business degree to understand that concept.

    The price hike is because their costs are up (more data being consumed) and their revenues are not keeping pace (people using more of their data allowance without paying more money). It has been proven by experts that they are not close to consuming all their allotted radio spectrum. So the price hike is to increase revenue’s to offset the increased costs.

    To blame Google for their phones not to get updates, everyone knows that the handset manufacturer’s control the updates (except for Nexus phones). AT&T is not putting up money to entice the handset manufacturer’s to update the phones on their network. Of course it would be good the for manufacturer to update the phones without getting money from the carrier to try to continue brand loyalty, but to see other phones on other carriers get updated, but not AT&T’s phones, the carrier must be playing a role in updates. Of course the carrier’s have the final say on what updates are put out there on their networks, but the updated OS comes from the manufacturer.

    Someone needs to clue this idiot in on how the ecosystem of smartphones works, otherwise, AT&T will lose subscribers and get further behind the other carriers.