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> I believe it's this model or a variation of it: http://www.gsmarena.com/huawei_u8150_ideos-3513.php

From the specs:

> Android OS, v2.2 (Froyo)

It just won't die...



Of the Android devices that have access the Google Play store in the last 14 days, Google reports that 10% are running Froyo and another 4% are running a version older than Froyo. However, I imagine the number of Froyo devices is even higher if you include crappy devices that do not use Google's Play store.

https://developer.android.com/about/dashboards/index.html


More telling to me is a browse through the smartphone section in big Tokyo electronics store.

There are probably on the order of 30-40 different models, and I'd say at least half say "OS: Android 2.0"... :(

[Those are typically older models, of course, but with new phone models released constantly, the oldest are not more than about 1 - 1.5 years old. Also, some of the models I saw running 2.0 looked pretty up-to-date hardware-wise. It seems manufacturers are not always so keen to use the newest OS version...]


Argh! So annoying to see a whole new crop of devices launching with 2.x. Is 4.x that much more resource intensive or what?


You need 768MB of RAM for Android 4, and realistically a decent GPU. 256MB and the most basic $0.50 ARM chipset from Qualcomm [1][2] will get you up and running on Android 2.x.

1 - http://pdadb.net/index.php?m=cpu&id=a7225&c=qualcomm... 2 - http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/576095640/MSM7225.html


Yes, it is a bit, but not like iOS6 would run much better on these devices anyway. If the new chips can use some decent GPU's the experience should be significantly better on ICS/JB than on Froyo, though, because the UI wouldn't use so much CPU time anymore, and wouldn't choke as much doing regular operations.


Yes -- at a minimum you need something like 4x RAM, IIRC.


If android 4.4 could run on 256 RAM then Froyo will die instantly


No amount of efficiency in a new version will instantly get all the old devices upgraded. Froyo will live as long as most devices it came preinstalled on.




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