14 DAY TRIAL // On Tuesday, during the Google I/O developer conference in San Francisco, Mountain View-based Internet giant Google unveiled some of its plans aimed at addressing the fragmentation of its Android platform, which, for some, appears to be an issue.
The company announced that is would be working closely with its manufacturer partners, including HTC, LG, Motorola, Samsung, or Sony Ericsson, to resolve the problem.
Moreover, wireless carriers around the world would also be involved in the action, including US operators like AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon Wireless.
These partnerships are meant to ensure that users would receive new software updates faster than before.
In other words, Google and all of these companies committed to providing users with new versions of the Android platform in the shortest period of time possible, following the initial roll-out of the iteration.
Moreover, they guarantee that any Android device would receive the software updates for at least 18 months after hitting shelves.
Of course, this applies only to those cases where the hardware inside the phone/tablet allows it, since there might be devices packing hardware that won't support newer OS releases.
With the next flavor of Android, Ice Cream Sandwich, meant to bring smartphones and tablet PCs together under the same umbrella, Google would most probably start applying this as soon as that OS version is released.
However, they did say that existing devices are expected to taste ICS too. Considering the hardware specs of some of the latest Android phones out there, or those of tablets, that might not be that hard to achieve, after all.
What was not clarified for the time being was how long it would take for the company's partners to start delivering the said software updates to their users.
There are still a series of details that need to be put in place on this, and more info on the matter should be unveiled in the not too far future.