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Google Fires Back At AT&T CEO’s Claim That Google Holds Back Android Updates, Plays Favorites.
Yesterday AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson made a pretty bold (and idiotic) claim that it is Google holding back Android updates on pretty much every AT&T device more often than not, specifically saying:
“Google determines what platform gets the newest releases and when. A lot of times, that’s a negotiated arrangement and that’s something we work at hard. We know that’s important to our customers. That’s kind of an ambiguous answer because I can’t give you a direct answer in this setting.”
Today, Google responded saying that not only were they caught off guard by Stephenson’s comments but also that he’s pretty much wrong and his statements, simply inaccurate. (Shocker)
Google’s Response:
“Mr. Stephenson’s carefully worded quote caught our attention and frankly we don’t understand what he is referring to. Google does not have any agreements in place that require a negotiation before a handset launches. Google has always made the latest release of Android available as open source at source.android.com as soon as the first device based on it has launched. This way, we know the software runs error-free on hardware that has been accepted and approved by manufacturers, operators and regulatory agencies such as the FCC. We then release it to the world.”
Sadly, Stephenson is simply engaging in he blame game, trying to grab everyone else’s fingers and point them back in the other direction, away from him and his company. What this little back-and-forth conversation shows, however, is that Stephenson is your typical CEO — unaware and oblivious to how his company and it’s partners actually work. You see, Google picks one flagship device to showcase a new, major Android release. On that front, yes, they do pick a specific partner to work with, but only initially. As soon as the flagship device is released, Google releases the open source code for the latest version of Android to all carriers and manufacturers.
In actuality, the entity Stephenson should really blame is that of mobile hardware manufacturers. They are the ones that often take many weeks (and often months) to bastardize the core Android experience. Their delays then in turn materialize into even longer wait times as AT&T has their own testing (and bastardization) process.
Moral of the story: Stephenson is an idiot. Then again, Stephenson’s questionable knowledge about his company (and consumer electronics/technology in general) isn’t new.
Via: 9to5Google
Image Source: DailyTech
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