In an interview with The San Jose Mercury News, Andy Rubin, Google’s senior director of mobile platforms, confirmed plans to slow the rate at which Google releases Android versions. Google just unveiled Android 2.2 (Froyo) and rumours suggest that the next version, Gingerbread, could be released in Q4 2010. After that, it’s likely that we will start seeing a yearly release cycle:
Our product cycle is now, basically twice a year, and it will probably end up being once a year when things start settling down.
Rubin also explained that the rapid deployment cycles were needed earlier given that Google had to play catch up with other players. He recognizes that the first version of Android was somewhat lacking:
Quite honestly, the product when we launched it, it didn’t really feel like a 1.0, it felt like kind of an 0.8, but it was a window of opportunity and the market needed an entrant at the holiday season.
Since its launch in late 2008, Android has gone through four major updates. While the yearly release cycle will not stop fragmentation, manufacturers and developers should have an easier time ensuring that their products can run on the latest version. Unfortunately, I suspect that we will continue to see older devices get left behind even when the hardware can support the new versions. After all, the manufacturers and carriers would rather sell you a new device.