Google could finally promise more years of updates for its own smartphone and its own operating system against Samsung.
The rumors keep coming and the Google Pixel 8 seem to be getting more and more interesting. We learned, for example, in April that Google would have succeeded in making its next smartphones even more compact. Good news, because compact smartphones are rare on the market, especially if Asus really ends its Zenfone range.
With the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro, Google should also tackle another subject where the brand allowed itself an inexplicable delay: support for Android updates.
Surpass the longevity of Samsung smartphones
Android is developed by Google just like iOS is developed by Apple, and yet the Mountain View firm isn’t the best when it comes to tracking updates on its own phones. Thus, the Google Pixel today promise 3 years of major updates and five of security updates.
For its part, Samsung offers four years of major updates on its smartphones, even on the entry level. It seems ridiculous that the very editor of the operating system, also one of the richest companies in the world, is not able to manage updates as well as Samsung. However, it was the reality, until Pixel 8.
Anyway, that’s what I think 9To5Google, which indicates that Google would work to widely extend its update policy from the Pixel 8 and future devices. The idea would be to exceed the four years promised by Samsung and even reach Apple’s records. The latter makes no promises about the number of years of updates offered on the iPhone, but has been known to offer at least six years of updates.
By mastering more components than before, in particular by integrating its own Google Tensor chips instead of a Qualcomm Snapdragon SoC, the Mountain View company must be able to better manage this software support. Apple and Nvidia have set an example in this area. The Nvidia Shield was born under Android 5.0 Lollipop in 2015 and the box now runs on Android 11, an update proposed in 2022.
We expect the presentation of the Google Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro for the month of October. The conference should provide more information on this possible new initiative from Google.
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