After three years, Chrome is finally on Android – but there’s a caveat. Most will have to wait for their Android device to run the OS’s latest operating system Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0, ICS) or purchase a more modern device that has ICS already on it to enable this app. Once again, the Android faithful will have to wait for manufacturer’s to push out the latest flavor of Android – something users have grown accustomed to.
The reason for the harsh segregation of Chrome Beta on Android, is that Chrome uses ICS’s hardware acceleration that’s built into it. To most, hardware acceleration may sound like a good thing, but to others who have grown accustomed to waiting on Android updates, it can seem like waiting in line for a rollercoaster that only ends up breakdown when you’re next in line – just a little bitterness from a guy who waited nine months on Gingerbread (Android 2.3).
Another issue revolving around this is that only 1 percent of Android devices run the latest OS. That means only individuals with rooted devices or the Galaxy Nexus, Nexus S, Nexus S 4G, Xoom, and Asus’ Transformer Prime will be able to acquire the app. Yikes.
Chrome on Android is great, but Google has once again isolated the majority of its audience. Many would love to be using ICS and Chrome, but can’t because of Google’s current update model. Aside from the centrally managed “pure Google” phones Galaxy Nexus, Nexus S, and Nexus S 4G, the rest have to wait for our manufacturers to push out updates. Most of these folks (manufacturers), being more preoccupied with moving you from phone-to-phone as opposed to pushing out the latest and greatest OS – which they usually manipulate to differentiate anyways. All of this leaves us with a less secure Android OS and prevents progress. We did a report on the “Orphan Android” problem, highlighting these risks and security vulnerabilities back in November.
Another issue: No Flash… ever. This may make some cringe, but Adobe nixed Flash for mobile back in November. It only makes sense Flash would be an afterthought, and probably helps from a security perspective, but several competing mobile browsers offer Flash built-in – including the stock browser that Android currently ships with. This means using the stock browser – not Chrome – to surf Flash-enabled sites.
Call me bitter or a realist, but isn’t it time Google figured out how to get newer Android products to its customers? ICS and Chrome being two of them? Google’s Android open-source project has been a success in large part because of its open source concept, but doesn’t that mean Google owes us something more? Not everyone can or does want a Nexus model phone, so what happens to the rest of us who fall in this bucket? Do we look elsewhere or do we pray and hope? ICS where are you?
