They should rather put an information there stating what they have already said a month ago:
I understand your frustration about the lack of official communications for FP1(U)-owners. There hasn’t been another newsletter about the release of Android 4.4.4 Kitkat for FP1 and if I wouldn’t be a moderator / beta tester I probably wouldn’t know myself about the difficulties. A friend keeps asking me when the update will be ready, as he never goes to this forum.
I’ve been running the alpha version of the Kitkat update and the third iteration (“pre3”, released on 23.11.2016), still has the same bugs as outlined above:
If you need Android Kitkat badly for your apps / gadgets to work, you should consider joining the test group:
A Marshmallow version for the Fairphone 2 is already in the works and announced.
There is another reason: They want to make sure that the upgrade is actually stable. It doesn’t make much sense to release an upgrade which makes problems at the users.
I think Fairphone should make available the upgrade optionally - at the user’s risk and with a list of known and unfixed issues. Some users maybe want to use their new gadgets and apps, even if they encounter some other little problems.
@mcr, @jodahe I don’t think you are being fair (no pun intended). The issues you mention are real and we all feel that the android ecosystem is failing on the OS update department. However, Fairphone is actually trying to do something about it! Being critical is of course allowed, but it is important this remains fair, constructive, and is based on facts. Can you name me one other manufacturer that is actively supporting a phone that has its last unit ordered almost two a years ago (February 2015)? You should also realize that Fairphone is just but the last link in the very long and interdependent chain of sub-suppliers. With much smaller production runs than other manufactures, Fairphone’s leverage with those sub-suppliers is limited. Note that drivers for the smart phone chipsets are anything but open source, and chip manufacturers don’t care at all at supporting their older platforms with the necessary driver updates. The fact that Fairphone is being able to still support the FP1 is already an anomaly within the Android market. However, it is doing that alone (without the support of the chipset manufacturers and those who wrote the drivers in the first place), and you can simply not expect of Fairphone to single handed fix all the Android OS update problems for just a few devices in the blink of an eye. These things take time and as a Fairphone owning family (we have the FP1U and FP2) I fully understand and respect the time it takes for Fairphone developers to release stable, well tested, and solid OS updates.
Regarding transparency, sure, maybe Fairphone could improve its communication. However, nothing here comes as a surprise to me. All I see is a brave and principled manufacturer who is actually trying to improve the smartphone business single handed and one step at the time. Considering the following resources you simply can not claim that crucial information is missing because it simply isn’t:
And of course this forum thread is the living proof that Fairphone is aware of the understandable frustrations of its customers due to the slow update process.
You are missing an important point; one that has swayed me to buy another phone: Security. A phone is not just a gadget, it is an important and powerful tool for most peoples private and professional lives. In this context, it is important to remember that the power must be handled responsibly. While I’ll agree that most of the updates we see to computers’ (including phones) operating systems are a vessel for the “March Of The Gadgets”, they do regularly include security updates decreasing the likelyhood of hacking. Also, there is no shortage of media coverage of actual hacking taking place, including many incidents which could have been prevented if users had updated their software. As such, the longer you wait to update your apps and o/s, the greater risk you expose yourself to. Until you actually discover that you have been hacked, it will be a matter of gut feeling: My gut has told me that the time has come, and I “need” those security updates.
It looks like fairphone is nothing better than Samsung and equal companies. Strategy is: to sell every 2 years a new telephone. Fair means for them only a sales feature but not reality. We have to buy it all 2 years new so no resources are saved. The got the big Prices for the fairphone 2 but in two years we have to buy fairphone 3 because the OS isn´t compatible to the actual Apps. But be sure there is nobody in Company fairphone who reads the post, they are only interested in publicity for fairphone 2. THAT IS NOT FAIR!
While I agree that neither the FP1 nor the FP2 are a phone that I would consider fair, the FP1 was the most fair phone available in the at the time I bought it (which was more than three years ago). And the FP2 is a big leap forward with its modular design.
I have too admit that I felt a bit betrayed, too, when they announced the FP2 only a year later. And it wasn’t really a help that this forum went crazy after the release. I still haven’t read most of the posts from this time.
But from the distance of another two (?) years, I begin to understand what they are doing and why. At least, I hope so.
While I would certainly say that Fairphone failed in comparison to my (too high?) hopes and expectations, they did great things - more than I have learned about any other manufacturer. This is a start - and I hope they can do better.
(@anon90052001 if you are reading this:
Hire more people to work on the software!)
In the end, I’m glad to own one of the first Fairphones ever made. But at the current price (and specifications - that phone is almost two years old!) I wouldn’t buy a FP2. (And my FP1 is still working.)
Is there a place where we can follow the progression of update to 4.4, please ?
it’s not to play PokemonGo (I really don’t care…) but to use a bank app (N26)…
Thank you very much for keeping us informed as soon as you can
Thanks for the video ! Very interesting
They fixed issues anyway, and seems to be open and thankful to get advice concerning security.
N26 is “young” but we need to help these kind of initiative to progress
First of all: thank you Fairphone team. I am using my fairphone happily since minute one and it is still running fine.
The information policy regarding this issue is a bit unfortunate. If there is a date set which cannot be hold, the consequence should not be to fall silent. Regular status updates are important in such a scenario so people know where the train is going.
In general I am looking forward to the 4.4 upgrade.
Before posting in a thread called “FAQ” you should really read the answers to those frequently asked questions.
Ok the FAQ has not been updated recently, I give you that, but that’s simply because there is no big new update to announce and the Fairphone team is too small to be able to give someone the task to provide you with regular updates if there aren’t any.
But that’s why the FP1 Beta Section will soon be opened to read, so you’ll be able to see the bleeding edge news.
Before posting in a thread called “FAQ” you should really read the answers to those frequently asked questions.
Umm, I failed to state that I meant the situation in September, October, November, where the set release date had passed and no communication took place whatsoever and in the huge forum thread under the announcement people collected snippets of info from various facebook posts and all.
I read the FAQ … But well, the text you posted can be interpreted as “we passed the deadline, so now we will not say anything anymore” … so basically what I said.
Again, it’s totally fine with me that an upgrade takes longer than expected (I work for a small software company as well, so I know the pain) but announcing first and then falling silent for such a long time is bad. If you (as a company) fail to acknowledge that, you refuse to learn from made mistakes.
And another answer here sheds another light on communication. The email announced the upgrade but no email was sent since. Not everyone follows on Twitter, Facebook, Forums, Blog and email.
Well, what’s done is done. I am still looking forward to the upgrade and still like my Fairphone.
The first post has been updated with the latest news we have at the moment.
There is no change regarding a release date: we still can’t make any promises when a final version is ready to be released… We are working to get a better and lengthier explanation about this to inform all FP1 owners.
Still people, who are only following Fairphone via the newsletter haven’t gotten a message about [quote=“douwe, post:49, topic:23037”]
won’t make any promises when a final version is ready to be released.
[/quote]
The latest they heard was the release date of September 2016.
