Google’s freshly revealed Pixel phones have plenty of good things goin’ for ’em — but don’t let all the shiny surfaces, camera smarts, and AI additions fool ya.
That stuff’s all fine and dandy, sure, and it’s what’ll potentially convince some average phone-buyin’ animals to pick a Pixel over all the other rectangle-shaped choices.
But what makes Google’s latest Pixel phones particularly significant is something you can’t see on the surface. It’s something a typical human strolling into a carrier store probably won’t be in the least bit aware of. And yet, it’s the part of the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro that’s without a doubt the most important — and the most consequential from a platform-wide and even industry-wide perspective.
It’s the fact that these two Google-made phones come with an unprecedented post-sales software support promise. It may not seem like earth-shattering news, especially in the context of all the far more eye-catching, advertising-friendly elements the devices offer.
But make no mistake about it: It’s the most significant change we’ve seen in Android this decade. And it could have a major effect on your phone-buying future — whether you use a Google Pixel device or not.
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Google’s Pixel 8 promise
The news, in case you haven’t heard, is that Google’s guaranteeing a whopping seven years of operating system updates for its new Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro phones — along with seven full years of security updates, feature drops, and overall support, to boot.
For comparison, as it stands now, Pixel phones have been getting three years of OS updates along with five years of security patches. Google has more than doubled the maximum advisable lifespan of its flagship phones, in other words, while continuing to sell ’em for less than the leading competition.
Now, for context: Google’s Pixels were already in a league of their own when it comes to upgrade reliability on Android. My annual Android Upgrade Report Card analyses tell you all you need to know on that front: Year after year, time after time, Google gets every Android operating system update into the hands of its Pixel owners within a matter of days, often even hours, of the software’s release — regardless of whether the device in question is the most recent model, a second-gen version, or even a three-year-old Pixel — while literally every other Android phone-maker flails and fails with delays stretching anywhere from a few months to sometimes well over a year.
Google’s Pixel 8 Pro phone, in its blissful new “Bay” blue color.
So Google’s always been ahead of the game when it comes to software support timeliness. But it’s been stuck on this three-year window for longevity for far too long — a liability that creates a perception of Android phones not holding up to iPhones when it…
2023-10-07 09:48:02
Original from www.computerworld.com rnrn