Originally Posted By: Dignan
Yes, I'm just wishing they'd go faster. A while back I recall that Google said they'd be moving to more of a yearly upgrade cycle for Android. But we're coming up on two years for Android 4.x, which would be a tie for longest time without a full version increase, and the upgrades we're seeing don't seem as significant as the upgrades we saw in the 2.x days. Maybe that's because the OS is maturing and there's less to do, but I still want to give Google a bit of a hard time since I always hassle Apple for minor iterations, and I don't want Google to rest on their laurels.

Ahh, version numbering and the perception the public has from it smile I wouldn't recommend you read too much into Android version numbers. The major and minor numbers seem to change meaning and don't really reflect the changes at hand.

Keep in mind that as a user of either platform, you are only exposed to a very small amount of whats changing in each update. Under the hood, both Android and iOS are moving quickly. Both sides are filling in some gaps, touching up APIs with more features, adding good new features, and playing catchup with each other.

Being in a work place with active iOS and Android development really helps to expose all the under the hood work. Google continues to deal with their fragmentation problems and is doing well. Some of that work is likely delaying actual point releases, but the good news is that the work impacts all Android users on 2.2 or above. Some of the Google I/O releases with Google Play Services has benefitted my team already. Had Google chosen to put the new stuff into 4.3 exclusively, we'd be waiting at least two years to take advantage of it.