The big story out of this year's Consumer Electronics Show is Google's move to bring Android into your living room -- but when it comes to the company's new Android TV ecosystem, one big question remains:
How will software updates work?
Android TV, in case you've had your ears plugged lately, is Google's latest effort at getting its software into your home entertainment setup. At CES this week, Google announced that Sony, Sharp, and Philips all had Android TV-powered televisions in the works for this spring. A set-top Android TV gaming console is supposed to launch next month, meanwhile, and at least one standalone streaming media player is scheduled to arrive later this year.
But with the software coming preloaded on all of those devices, we need to know: Who will be responsible for future OS upgrades? Will Google itself handle rollouts, as it does with its Nexus products and Android Wear watches, or will it be up to each device manufacturer to process every update and send it out to customers?
The questions of how reliably upgrades will be delivered and for how long your TV will receive them are pivotal
As anyone who's familiar with Android knows, it's a critical question to consider. With phones and tablets -- Google's own Nexus devices being the main exception -- the responsibility of OS upgrades falls on the shoulders of individual manufacturers. It's an inevitable part of Android's open nature: Google's approach to the platform means manufacturers can modify the software in any way they wish, which allows for a level of diversity and innovation a closed ecosystem couldn't provide.
But that also means the software has to be handed off to those manufacturers anytime an update arrives -- and it's then up to the manufacturers to modify it as they will and roll it out to users. And, to put it nicely, some manufacturers are better than others at getting upgrades delivered in a timely fashion.
Irksome as that can be, it's par for the course with phones and tablets -- and it's something we've (more or less) come to expect. The same goes for the typical shelf life of a mobile device: Once a phone's been around for about 18 months to two years, you know it's probably not going to get any more major software upgrades. Love it or hate it, smartphones operate under the principle that you're gonna buy a new one every couple of years.
Televisions, though? If you're anything like me, they're a completely different story. Most people I know (myself included) don't buy new TVs terribly often. I've seen some analyst estimates that put the typical TV replacement cycle in the ballpark of once every four to five years, but even that seems a bit on the high side to me.
If you buy a TV this year, you don't want to find out that it's done getting upgrades two years from now
So with a still-young operating system that's bound to get a fair amount of updates over the months and years ahead, the questions of how reliably those upgrades will be delivered and for how long your TV will receive them are usually pivotal. If Google places out a transformative Google android TV update keep away from, a person don't want to become waiting 6 to 8 months with regard to it to reach your own television.
And if a person buy a TV this particular year, you don't wish to find out that it can done getting upgrades 2, three, even five many years from now. Buying the new phone every few of years in purchase to keep up along with the most recent software is 1 thing. I how to start that will most of us would like to be on that will regular of a alternative cycle with our tvs, too.
Google has stated that all Android TELEVISION devices will have a regular user interface, which provides me wish for a generally streamlined and Google-controlled update system -- but wish isn't exactly the same thing as verification. And even if improvements are guaranteed to be well-timed across the board, the particular question of how lengthy TVs will receive updates once they launch still remains.
Probably an Android TV-based tv would have been a brilliant way in order to experience entertainment. Maybe the "dumb" TV having a a lot more easily replaceable set-top package will be the better option (better to purchase a new $100 package every few years compared to a new $2000 tv, no? ). Or probably sticking with the simpleness of a phone-centric loading solution like Chromecast will certainly end up being the particular most sensible solution for a few of us.
Here's wishing that by the period Android TV products display up on store racks, we'll have enough particular and detailed information in order to make an educated choice.
(I've reached out in order to Google to ask with regard to clarification on this subject matter. I'll update this web page with additional info if/when it becomes available. )
Up-date [1/9/15]
While there's still simply no official Google statement upon the matter, a resource with close knowledge associated with the situation informs me that will it will, in truth, be up to gadget manufacturers to provide OPERATING SYSTEM updates with Android TELEVISION. With that being said, the source information that besides the home launcher, the entire Android TELEVISION system UI is going to be unbundled from the OS plus treated as a stand alone app -- which indicates Google would have the ability to up-date it via the Perform Store independently, without the particular need for any full OPERATING SYSTEM update.
The unbundling associated with the system UI will be a noteworthy change through what we should see with Android phones and tablets, plus it could go a lengthy way in allowing Search engines to control the complete front-facing user environment associated with Android TV without any kind of reliance on manufacturers. Keep in mind, though, that many improvements -- including system-level function additions as well because the additions of recent APIs and frameworks (which on their own allow for new functions and gratification enhancements) -- are usually associated with the core OPERATING SYSTEM and therefore would still need full over-the-air OS up-dates to become applied.
Still not really clear is exactly what standard, in case any, has been established with regard to how long TVs plus other Android TV products will receive full OPERATING SYSTEM upgrades after they release. I'll always update this particular page with new info as it becomes obtainable.