Google has announced that Galaxy Nexus owners won’t be getting to taste the latest Android 4.4 KitKat as the phone falls outside the “18-month update window”. Galaxy Nexus, which was manufactured in partnership with Samsung, was unveiled almost two years back, on 19th October 2011. As expected, many Galaxy Nexus owners are outraging on the social media after hearing the news.
This comes as a shock to some people, who were blindly assuming that Google will provide free and fast updates to most of their Nexus devices. Google has clarified that Android 4.4 KitKat will be coming to Nexus 4, Nexus 7 (2012 and 2013 models), Nexus 10, and GPE models of Samsung Galaxy S4 and HTC One, but not to the Galaxy Nexus. On their FAQ page for Android 4.4 release, Google clearly mentions the reason for not updating Galaxy Nexus.
Last year, when Android 4.2 Jelly Bean was announced, Google had removed the Nexus S from the list of devices getting the 4.2 update. The reason mentioned back then was that the hardware of Nexus S doesn’t meet the minimum requirements. But this time around, the reason given is that the Galaxy Nexus falls outside the 18-month update window, which is rather strange as there are no hardware constraints as such. In fact, Google talks about Android 4.4 KitKat being designed to solve Google’s fragmentation problems, and hopes to see it on lower-end models as well.
The 18-month update window reasoning should come as an alert for existing and wannabe Nexus 4 users as well. In 6 months from now, Nexus 4 will be breaching that 18-month shelf life, and there is every possibility that Google will stop supporting the device with latest Android updates.
For now, the Nexus 5 is a great update for Galaxy Nexus users, as it comes with an awesome 4.95-inch Full HD display, the latest Snapdragon 800 processor, a decent 8-megapixel camera with OIS and other top-of-the-line specs (except for the battery). Are you a Galaxy Nexus user? If so, do let us know your opinion about the topic.