Android Silver was shelved for lack of support from manufacturers

We have already spoken here on the site about Google's idea with its Android Silver project. O initial design envisaged the formation of a range of devices provided by each manufacturer without modification in the embedded version of the software.. That way developers would work on applications for fewer versions of Android, as one of the project's main targets was to combat system fragmentation.

android silver nexus
J was the Android Silver project. / ANDROIDPIT

Large fragmentations of system versions tend to hamper application development, harming the entire ecosystem. Currently the most used version in the world is still Jelly Bean (4.1 to 4.3), with about 53.8% of users. By way of comparison, the recent KitKat version holds only 24.5% participation in active devices. Android Lollipop has the task of taking up the slice filled by the two recent versions, including entering the schedule of manufacturers that have not yet passed version 4.4.4 to their users.

Aware of the problem, Google had created the Android Silver project, which would be nothing more than the responsibility of each manufacturer to develop a Nexus device as an alternative to their respective top of the line. Good, but they didn't like the idea at all. The manufacturers claimed it was not feasible to share their identity or associate their brands with other companies by employing a restricted version of Android on their devices. That's because Android built on Silver models would be immune to manufacturers' extra interfaces and features, which they say set them apart from each other on the market.

According to Hiroshi Lockheimer, Google's vice president of engineering, the Nexus line should continue as usual, but changes have been made to contracts between the company and manufacturers to make Android closer. One of the measures includes improvements in Google Play Services, which should periodically distribute minor changes to the software without having to wait for the manufacturer's release. It was also imposed by Big g devices ship at least 20 apps owned by them, as well as entering the phrase powered by Android on the screen boot of the device.

If so, would Android Silver make any difference to you?

. (tagsToTranslate) android silver (t) android (t) update (t) manufacturers (t) fragmentation