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Android updates are one of the most frustrating things for Android smartphone users. It’s gotten better over the years, but generally, if you have a Google Pixel or a Samsung flagship model, you can expect to get the latest updates at a reasonable speed. However, if you have a mid-range or budget phone with an older chipset with an Exynos or MediaTek processor, it’s a bit of a different story. In that case, you might get one or two big updates if you’re lucky, but probably not much more than that, except for security updates.
This is undoubtedly a big problem, contributing to fragmentation and making the Android experience less appealing compared to Apple, where you can generally expect the latest updates for seven years, even if they don’t deliver every feature. Fortunately, in a recent interview with Android Authority, Qualcomm executives confirmed that they’re taking steps to make it easier for OEMs to update their devices.
“One of the things we’ve been working on with Google and OEMs over the last few years is changing the structure of our inline code — changing how updates happen,” said Chris Patrick, senior vice president and general manager of Handsets at Qualcomm. The idea behind this is to reduce the bottlenecks OEMs face when rolling out updates to older devices.
“It’s very complicated for the customer, the OEM, to get security updates, Android version updates and get them to all the end users,” Patrick said. “It’s actually very costly and very complicated.”
Qualcomm says the code optimizations have actually been in the works for years, but the company plans to make a public announcement about the changes later this year. It’s unlikely that the optimizations will be a panacea for solving Android software fragmentation entirely, but it’s good to see Qualcomm trying to address the issue, even if it says it’s not the main cause of the problem.
It’s unclear what the timeline for this announcement will be, but Android Authority points out that in 2024, we’ll likely see IFA Berlin in September and the Snapdragon Summit in October. The latter event will coincide with Samsung’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 launch. It would make sense for Qualcomm to announce something on the software side after unveiling the new chipset. We’ll likely know more about the changes as the fall approaches.
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