[techiez]

Android KitKat | Android Developers

Android 4.4 is designed to run fast, smooth, and responsively on a much broader range of devices than ever before — including on millions of entry-level devices around the world that have as little as 512MB RAM.

Lumia low end devices rules the low segment and helped WP market share to grow but now Google is looking to reclaim the territory. I think there is definitely some reason to worry for MS.

[montsa007]

Does that low end stabilization make the OS polished/organized?
The answer is a two letter word, ending with an 'O', and to answer the question, "Should MS worry about it", I've already answered it, Hint - Two letter word starting with 'N'

[gsquared]

I wouldn't be worried if I were in their shoes. MSFT / Nokia has a big head start in this area. Running the OS w/ 512 RAM is n't that hard to achieve. Its the app developers that will struggle.

[montsa007]

I wouldn't be worried if I were in their shoes. MSFT / Nokia has a big head start in this area. Running the OS w/ 512 RAM is n't that hard to achieve. Its the app developers that will struggle.

Congrats you won yourself
montsa007's "Shot in the head without leaving any bloodstains award"

You won yourself a complementary like on your post :).

[techiez]

Does that low end stabilization make the OS polished/organized?
The answer is a two letter word, ending with an 'O', and to answer the question, "Should MS worry about it", I've already answered it, Hint - Two letter word starting with 'N'

No doubt android is laggy and all that, but then this indicates that google recognizes the issue and can work towards resolving it. I'm not supporting android, I'll continue to own Nokia devices but I see the market share at risk down the line.
Why MS should worry about it is because it is still much behind android and was able to catch up somewhat due to breathing space it got in low end space, and the risk is real and not to acknowledge it would be foolishness

[techiez]

Its the app developers that will struggle.

Well the page mentions that google has released new APIs for developers as well, my point is simple, despite all its drawback that we WP users specially highlight, android is ruling the mobile OS space and if with steps like this if it is able to increase the gap further then it would definitely hurt the WP ecosystem.

[inteller]

I read their various ways they plan to do this and like all POSIX based systems once again it is a clusterf smorgasbord of memory management techniques that the average developer isn't going to slog through. WP app development is soooo much easier for targeting different phones.... that's the part Google will never figure out.

Microsoft created te premium low end segment. Android existed in the low end segment by taking 4 yo phones that were once premium specs and just dropping the price and support for them

[tgp]

I never saw any numbers based on the low end devices, but I would imagine WP's total sales still pale in comparison to Android's even there. I'm not talking about performance or user experience, just total sales.

[montsa007]

No doubt android is laggy and all that, but then this indicates that google recognizes the issue and can work towards resolving it. I'm not supporting android, I'll continue to own Nokia devices but I see the market share at risk down the line.
Why MS should worry about it is because it is still much behind android and was able to catch up somewhat due to breathing space it got in low end space, and the risk is real and not to acknowledge it would be foolishness

No matter what, that OS will never be smooth, unless it becomes closed source.
Since its open source, any developer can upload a buggy popular app that'll destroy the usage experience.

[ohgood]

I never saw any numbers based on the low end devices, but I would imagine WP's total sales still pale in comparison to Android's even there. I'm not talking about performance or user experience, just total sales.

I've seen a few posts now about how wp is doing "very well in low end devices" too, but again, no sales numbers.

If you find a credible source, please post it up aight ?

[Chregu]

I've seen a few posts now about how wp is doing "very well in low end devices" too, but again, no sales numbers.

If you find a credible source, please post it up aight ?

The Lumia 520 is by far the best selling phone. That means market share is based on the 520 to a high extent.

I can't look for any sources though, it's too early and I am on the WPC app.

Concerning the topic in general, at least analysts believe this is a really big thing for Android. It's in an article of the Verge of you want to look it up.

[tgp]

I've seen a few posts now about how wp is doing "very well in low end devices" too, but again, no sales numbers.

If you find a credible source, please post it up aight ?

I certainly will! I wish I could find sales numbers for low end WPs.

The Lumia 520 is by far the best selling phone. That means market share is based on the 520 to a high extent.

Agreed. My assumption that the 520/521 sales are still much lower than Android's low end is based on the fact that the sales numbers just released for Q3 2013 reported WP sales at 10.2 million, and Android at 204.4 million. This means that Android outsold WP 20 to 1. Let's say that of the Android sales, 10% were low end (I'm sure it's a lot higher than that, but I don't know what the ratio is). That's 20.4 million phones, or double WP's total sales, high and low end. That's why I believe that even though WP is doing relatively well in the low end market, it's likely nowhere close to Android's sales in the same market.

KitKat should help the performance of the low end phones, which will be a plus. In my experience though, Froyo & Gingerbread performed reasonably well on cheap Android prepaid phones as long as you didn't try to run anything too heavy.

[psudotechzealot]

Nope.

[ohgood]

Does that low end stabilization make the OS polished/organized?
The answer is a two letter word, ending with an 'O', and to answer the question, "Should MS worry about it", I've already answered it, Hint - Two letter word starting with 'N'

it almost sounds like your bias-colored-glasses need a cleaning. why ?

because with wp's current marketshare, everything should be considered a threat, and promptly reacted to. should ms -not- worry about certain updates and upticks in market share, they could loose that 1-1.5% that currently holds them in 4th postion, barely ahead of a company with 'doa' stamped on every device shipped, and still very far from the podium.

[rockstarzzz]

No. Threats come to someone who has something to lose. MS has gained next to nothing in the market for it to worry of losing it!! 4% marketshare is nothing. If BB gets anything ground breaking it needs to worry. Android is not and will not be MS's competition for years to come. Even if MS makes phones for $50 running Windows Phone 8.1 - it will not break Android's nearly 80% marketshare in an instance.

So again No, MS should not worry about what Android does at the moment. Their realistic threat is only BB and a distant one is iPhone. Android will be a threat when WP gains 15-20% + marketshare. Not happening until 2016-2017.

[z33dev33l]

Android can't even run smoothly on dual quad core processors. You really think they can optimize it for the low end?

[ag1986]

No matter what, that OS will never be smooth, unless it becomes closed source.
Since its open source, any developer can upload a buggy popular app that'll destroy the usage experience.

Please explain how any app developed for closed-source is inherently smoother than an app developed for open-source platforms, or retract your argument.

As an example of how apps can be bad on closed-source, I present to you: Microsoft Windows.

[ohgood]

Android can't even run smoothly on dual quad core processors. You really think they can optimize it for the low end?

I think that's the op's question... Should it run on very low end phones like butter, is that a threat to wp sales ?

[hopmedic]

No. Time for MS to worry started three years ago when they launched a new ecosystem against two giants, and hasn't come close to stopping yet. The platform is catching on, but the time to relax is a long way off.

[ninjaap]

Android KitKat | Android Developers



Lumia low end devices rules the low segment and helped WP market share to grow but now Google is looking to reclaim the territory. I think there is definitely some reason to worry for MS.

Every version is promised to run "fast and smooth". Its always a lie.

[dkediger]

As the Android OS itself, with minimal Google services (no Google Now - just GMail and traditional Search) - AND no carrier add ons - it might, might run smoothly.

I don't know how Google squares their approach at device/OS control - the "shell" of ALL of their services - with a low end device.

[neo158]

Please explain how any app developed for closed-source is inherently smoother than an app developed for open-source platforms, or retract your argument.

As an example of how apps can be bad on closed-source, I present to you: Microsoft Windows.

Let me get this straight, you were asking how an app developed for a closed source platform is going to run smoother than one for an open source platform, then you use Microsoft Windows as an example of an app.

You need to read up on what an application is and what an OS is!!

[ag1986]

Let me get this straight, you were asking how an app developed for a closed source platform is going to run smoother than one for an open source platform, then you use Microsoft Windows as an example of an app.

You need to read up on what an application is and what an OS is!!

I am using MS Windows as an example of a closed-source OS on which apps, due to bad programming, can be horrible.

[ag1986]

As the Android OS itself, with minimal Google services (no Google Now - just GMail and traditional Search) - AND no carrier add ons - it might, might run smoothly.

I don't know how Google squares their approach at device/OS control - the "shell" of ALL of their services - with a low end device.

It runs smooth enough on decent hardware (i.e. my Nexus 4. The trick is the enough part - any WP, even an L520 is likely going to be smoother by a small margin, which is not worth giving up functionality for.

[ricbon]

Listen, i would've been impressed if they were going to upgrade the Galaxy Nexus to KitKat and showed the world how streamlined the OS got, but they didnt they ended support so yeah no. To have a first class expirence of Android you need a top tier phone, skinned lightly or get a Nexus.