Why release phones with Gingerbread still?

[Guest Frankish]

I kind of understand the G300 as its a "budget" phone. And Im really pleased with the stock B888 rom! But what I don't get is that there are still phones being announced now with Gingerbread... and it doesn't make sense to me!

I suppose I kind of get the Moto Razr bit because of all the customization with MotoBlur. But some phones have minimal edits so why not ICS?

I guess this thread doesn't have much point as I don't think there is a definitive answer. I just hope Huawei make good with the Ice Cream goodness. :)

[Guest tilal6991]

For the lols.

No but seriously I think it'll be because they've been developing this phone for quite some time and also they have other phones with gb so its easy to filch a device tree and make it compile for the g300. Especially since its backward pin compatible with msm7227.

[Guest Frankish]

I guess so. Even if Huawei release kernel source I'd be happy with cm7 :) cm9 in an ideal world!

[Guest tilal6991]

Its not just the kernel since they actually seems to have made an effort and updated the kernel (although we've yet to see the state of it).

Its the whole config. Msm7227a is very similar to msm7227 apart for the architecture of armv6 -> armv7

[Guest toge64]

huawei developers are lazy (or dont get paid enough)

Edited May 23, 2012 by toge64

[Guest Frankish]

huawei developers are lazy (or dont get paid enough)

I don't think that's a fair comment due to the developers probably just do whatever they are asked to deliver. Im sure they would rather be putting out a newer version but are probably already working on something else for another device at request of those in charge!

[Guest jdlk]

Keep in mind that for some people, having the option to use Gingerbread might be important.

For example the Economist app only works on Android v2.x. The Economist app is important to me, so until it's available for ICS, I'm sticking with Gingerbread. If the G300 had been ICS-only, I wouldn't have bought it.

Maybe I'm not fussy, but Gingerbread seems like a perfectly decent phone OS to me...

[Guest Frankish]

It is and like I said Huawei haven't ruined Gingerbread at all its quite nice. I guess I just want to have my cake and eat it too!

[Guest BLaZiNgSPEED]

I think it's for people who want to experience gingerbread first before upgrading to ICS, etc.

Also some android phones are not powerful enough for ICS. So they need to only have Gingerbread.

It's like trying to install Windows Vista/7 on a 10 year old PC. It's going to suffer from performance.

[Guest Frankish]

If it can run Gingerbread it can run ICS apparently. :)

[Guest Simon O]

The networks want budget phones to have older versions of Android so they less desirable compared to more expensive devices. Budget phones don't make much money for networks so it's not in their interest to offer a cheap device running the latest version of Android as it will reduce sales of more expensive handsets.

[Guest Frankish]

Makes sense in networks delaying updates but what about the direct manufacturers? Or do you think its more or less the same? Keep the networks happy?

[Guest FlatPackPete]

I think the idea that its easy to branch a gingerbread port from another device sounds the most likely, they will be looking at the lowest possible costs to get a phone ready and out to market.

Also the buying public and press seem to be happy for now if a manufacturer says that ics will come later. I would say by December most new phones will be ics by default so anyone who releases gingerbread will look very out of date.

Also who's not to say they aren't having device issues with ics? I still see plenty of ics ports for other phones with no working camera or mobile data, but a proper manufacturer can't release that, they'll probably be sued for all they are worth (apart from Sony when they released the arc s beta rom , but they told everyone it was broke).

Edited May 27, 2012 by FlatPackPete