Upgrade path to Android 2.0 uncertain

IDG News Service - With this week's release of Verizon Wireless' Droid phone comes the first real test of the potential for fragmentation with Android.

The Droid will be the first phone to run Android 2.0. After it goes on sale Friday, there will be Android phones on the market running three different versions of the operating system.

But operators and hardware manufacturers selling Android phones are coy about whether their devices will be upgraded to the new OS. If some phones continue to run old versions, issues could arise with application compatibility across the different OS versions.

Motorola, whose Cliq runs Android version 1.5, would not specifically say if users of that phone would be offered the 2.0 upgrade. "Cliq with Motoblur can be upgraded over-the-air and will evolve to support how people's needs change. However, Motorola hasn't announced any updates at this time," a representative with Motorola's public relations firm said.

Google gave an equally vague answer to questions about which phones might be upgraded and if any of them had hardware limitations that might prevent an upgrade. "Because Android is open source, all software updates we release are available for carriers and handset makers to take and update their current or future Android-powered devices," Katie Watson, a Google spokeswoman said via e-mail. She also pointed out that the updated OS hasn't been released so no devices can be updated yet.

T-Mobile said it is coordinating with Google to deliver Android 2.0, but it did not address specific questions about which Android phones it plans to update.

Samsung declined to comment about whether its Moment smartphone will be upgraded to Android 2.0. Most Android phones, except the Cliq, run version 1.6.

Hardware limitations could decide which phones get the update, said Carl Howe, an analyst with Yankee Group. "As systems get upgraded, they tend to want more memory," he said.

The HTC G1, the first Android phone on the market, has 192MB of RAM and 256MB of Flash ROM. Most of the other phones, including the MyTouch, Cliq and Droid, have 512MB of Flash ROM, Howe said. Most, except for the MyTouch 3G, have 256MB or 288MB of RAM, he said.

Howe believes that the G1 will be upgradeable to Android 2.0 and pointed to an online report showing a developer who has ported the OS -- based only on the SDK (software developer's kit), not an official release -- to the G1.

"It will boot and run apps, the only question is, will you be happy with it," Howe said.

He suspects that the G1 will get the update as long as the user experience is good. "If I were [T-Mobile], I'd be testing it and seeing what the experience is like," he said.