Is there anything Google can do to solve the problem of slow Android updates?

The best they could do, they're already doing. Which is decouple functionality from the core into updatable apps. And develop the backward compatibility libraries for developers. In other OSes you usually have to wait for a whole system update to get small new features. But google is often pushing updates to important apps. iOS users have to wait for the new iOS to get the new maps app. While android users are getting new updates even if they have old 2.x devices. So at the end of the day, how does it matter if the version number on your device is low, if you're getting the latest features? Of course, there's still a lot to improve in this area. More apps to decouple. With ICS they decoupled the browser for the first time by launching Chrome Beta. This is huge for future versions since the browser is the most important app on the phone. And developing websites for android 2.x suck. So they get the idea, hopefully they'll keep improving in that direction.

That said, can't google offer a service for OEMs to update their device drivers using google's own engineers? Say google charges X to have it's engineers drop not only the newest version source code on github at realease. But also your device's updated drivers at your company's repository, by the release of a new android update. Would that work?

> This brings things full circle to the original question of what Google can do to solve the problem of slow Android rollouts, and the answer might be “nothing.”

There is one simple thing Google could do. Disallow hardware vendors to lock the kernel, and provide an Debian/apt-get like infrastructure that allows end users to upgrade their phones themself.

Google should start with Motorola, who is one of the most evil cases, where its impossible to install an own kernel. E.g. all Motorola Defy+ ship with insecure kernels. They are ready for the trashcan at the date of delivery from security standpoint.

The elephant in the room that nobody ever talks about is the linux kernel's lack of a stable ABI. Windows and OS X drivers don't need to be recompiled every time the kernel is updated, whereas in linux it's nearly always required.

If the same drivers would continue to work, Google could just update the software like happens regularly on Windows and OS X.

Oh, and to head it off: Yes, it would be magical if all the device drivers were open source and contributed back to the kernel proper. But that's not happening now, and likely never will. Linux is under no obligation to provide a stable ABI, but Google's choice to use it now has consequences.

>What they reveal are cold, hard facts — such as, just 7.1% of active Android users are currently sinking their teeth into ICS...

s/users/carriers/

Seriously, carriers have zero incentive to upgrade their users, unless they wish to define themselves as "the carrier that upgrades Android devices" (I don't know of any). Every software upgrade is a potential lost sale of a new, very expensive, device + 2 year contract. That is the cause of the extremely-high OS fragmentation, and it won't change until Google starts strong-arming carriers into fixing it.

It would probably help a lot if they would develop Android in the open instead of dumping all changes once they release the OS.

Eventually consumers will figure out what most of this crowd probably knows already. If you want the best android phone experience with the cleanest implementation and the most updates buy the phones produced / branded google.

Although I'm having trouble locating it atm, I remember seeing an article a few weeks ago saying that Google was going to become more active in the selling of phones, so as to circumvent this very problem.

They, too, are frustrated at the big providers not only taking their sweet time, but also that they add in all of the bloatware seeing as both of these practices hurt Android, and ultimately, Google as well.

Honestly, we'll probably find out in an hour or so. I kind of doubt that Google will leave this issue alone at Google I/O. It's a huge one.

Short of making it a requirement in the licensing to the carriers/vendors, I don't see any way for Google to improve the situation. The carriers have no incentive to provide or enable updates.

I don't think most users care about this nearly as much as the tech community thinks. All I care about is that my phone is reliable for the 2 or 3 years I have it.

Sure there is: Google could pay for updates out of store revenues.

Carriers could pay Google a maintenance fee to port Android instead of trying to do it themselves.