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OpenSignal finds the variety of devices has grown by 58% from 2013, and now developers have to content with sensor fragmentation too
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OpenSignal finds the variety of devices has grown by 58% from 2013, and now developers have to content with sensor fragmentation too
Continue reading...Android 4.4, KitKat was released on October 31, 2013, or at least, that's what you can say about one device: the Nexus 5. For the rest of the ecosystem, the date you got KitKat—if you got KitKat—varied wildly depending on your device, OEM, and carrier.
For every Android update, Google's release of code to OEMs starts an industry-wide race to get the new enhancements out to customers. So how did everyone do this year? Who was the first with KitKat, and who was the last? What effect does your carrier have on updates? How has the speed of Android updates changed compared to earlier years?
Given all those variables, we wanted to check in on the specifics of Android in 2014. There are lots of slightly different ways to go about measuring something like this, so first, a word about our methodology. All of these charts measure KitKat's update lag time in months. For our start date, we're picking October 31, 2013, the day KitKat was released on the Nexus 5. For our finish time for each device, we're going with the US release of an update via either OTA or downloadable system image. OTAs are done on a staggered release schedule, so it's hard to tell exactly when they start and finish—we just went with the earliest news of an update.
By Ellis Hamburger and Ben Popper
There’s something special about the mall. The smell. The squeaky-clean floors. The blinding light and ethereal music that seems to emanate from the air itself. The suburban mall has always been an essential communal watering hole, a place to see and be seen, and a place to window shop. But — the golden age of the mall is over, it seems. During the 2013 holiday season, US stores got half the foot traffic they did three years ago, says The Wall Street Journal.
Instead, we’re shopping online and shifting our attention towards new watering holes — apps like Instagram, Pinterest, and Wanelo — places to show off our new designer jeans and designer vacations. It is estimated that by the end of 2014, nearly a...