AT&T CEO Plays the Blame Game with Google

May 8, 2012 in News

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During a Q&A session during Milken Institute’s Global Conference, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson, blamed Google for being the cause of smartphones being slow to receive updates to new versions of Android. 聽When asked by an audience member about the slow update process, Stephenson placed the blame squarely on Google saying,聽鈥淕oogle determines what platform gets the newest releases and when. A lot of times, that鈥檚 a negotiated arrangement and that鈥檚 something we work at hard. We know that鈥檚 important to our customers. That鈥檚 kind of an ambiguous聽answer聽because I can鈥檛 give you a direct聽answer聽in this setting.鈥 聽Google took issue with being blamed for the slow update process, and responded to Stephenson’s comment in a statement by a Google spokesperson reading,聽鈥淢r. Stephenson鈥檚 carefully worded quote caught our attention and frankly we don鈥檛 understand what he is referring to. Google does not have any agreements in place that require a negotiation before a handset launches. 聽Google has always made the latest release of Android available as open source at聽source.android.com聽as soon as the first device based on it has launched. This way, we know the software runs error-free on hardware that has been accepted and approved by manufacturers, operators and regulatory agencies such as the FCC. We then release it to the world.鈥 聽

For those that may be wondering, the update process is as follows: 聽Google releases the latest version of Android after the first device based on it is released. 聽From there, manufacturers get the newest Android version working on their devices and add their customizations (ex: overlays). 聽Next, the cell carriers certify the ROM and add their bloatware to the mix. 聽Once that is done, the new update is pushed out to your device.

 

Source: 聽9to5 Google

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