Image source @ Visual China
Text | Ray Tech leitech
Symbian、megoo、Tizen、webos...... These figures fell one by one, and today, smartphones have only three systems to choose from, namely Apple iOS, Huawei HarmonyOS, and Android, which has the largest number of users. Needless to say, the significance and status of Android, the global user base of more than 2 billion people has said it all.
According to mysmartprice, the google Pixel series of new machines has been certified by the FCC, this time a total of four models, namely GX7AS, GB17L, GB62Z, G1AZG, of which GX7AS is the upcoming Release of Pixel 6a, the other three belong to the Pixel 7 series. Although the Android system is completely open source, we all know that the new version will definitely be launched by Google, and the first Android 13 model will be launched this year, most likely the Pixel 7 series.
This is not to say that the strength of other manufacturers is insufficient, but Samsung, Xiaomi, OPPO, vivo and other large manufacturers, all have to be finely decorated on the Android villa, it takes some time to launch a system that is more in line with the habits of the Chinese people.
Pixel phones were once considered engineers for testing and validating Android systems, but now sell more than 7 figures a year, making them a veritable high-end product in the United States. However, compared with this mobile phone that can preview and debut Google's new system, but there is no sales in China, we must still pay more attention to Android 13.
01 Android 13, privacy security is key
In mid-March, Google Mobile officially announced that it would hold a Google I/O conference from May 11 to 12. According to the practice of previous years, at this conference, Google will release android 13 system, the beta version will be launched in April, it is expected that until August, we can see the official version of Android 13, the specific progress plan can be queried in dewopers. Before the official version of Android 13 goes live, we can learn about some new system upgrades through the developer preview.
When the court and developers slammed iOS for being too closed, Apple responded to protect the privacy and property of iPhone users, and pointed out that the number of malicious apps on the Android platform in the past 4 years was 15 to 47 times that of the iOS platform. In the face of Apple's diss, as well as the phenomenon of frequent privacy problems in recent years, Google has also put the security of the Android system on the agenda.
iPhone users should know that all apps on the iOS platform appear in the form of sandboxes, and the received files and pictures will not be saved directly to the system folder, and the user can only view the received information from the app, and then decide whether to give the App permission to allow it to access the phone files. Now, Android 13 has similar limitations, and even more.
Android 13 launched the photo picker function, which can restrict the app from accessing all local files, and select the photos read. In this way, when we send pictures on social apps and forums, we no longer have to worry about all our files being stolen. This sandbox-like mechanism can isolate apps from the system to prevent personal privacy from being stolen or mobile phones being implanted with viruses.
Not only that, when the App requests to read the notification content, the system will also inform the user, and the user can treat the notification function as an application management. Android 13 also focuses on Wi-Fi privacy protection, and many developers collect information such as users' MAC addresses and device locations for commercial promotion.
So some people will feel strange, they obviously did not search for anything, just chatted with others, they received an advertising push. In fact, it may be that other people under the same network as you have searched for the product, and all users under the same Wi-Fi may receive this advertising push. Now it is different, in Android 13, the app may be more restrictive when the mobile phone information will be more restricted, even if it is connected to other Internet of Things devices, it will no longer be able to obtain location information.
02 The Internet of Everything is the focus of Android 13
After the advent of the 5G era, the Internet of Everything has entered the public vision, but manufacturers and users have found a problem, in the field of smart homes, there is no unified system, and the cost of manufacturers to develop their own systems is too high. Xiao Lei has experienced many smart devices, and some products that require complex interaction logic, such as common smart TVs, run the Android system, but the Android version is even an older version.
Seeing this, Huawei stood up and launched HarmonyOS, a lightweight version of Harmony OS that only needs 128KB of memory to run. Now that Google has also made efforts, Android 13 will adapt to more platforms, it is no longer just a mobile phone system, will add a lot of optimizations for tablets, smart watches, smart cars and other platforms.
Apple executive Jeff Williams has said that the car is the ultimate form of mobile devices, and after the smart automotive industry caught fire, many mobile phone manufacturers are shouting to make car machine systems. Relying on the strength of these manufacturers themselves, it is too difficult to make a completely independent car engine system, and most manufacturers will still choose to add, subtract, delete and modify on the basis of Android. Now that Google itself wants to adapt Android to more platforms, other manufacturers who are ready to make car systems can save some effort.
In addition, in the past two years, more and more manufacturers support cross-platform collaborative office, but they basically only support their own devices to collaborate with the same screen. Another big change in Android 13 is to allow devices such as phones, tablets, and PCs to connect more freely. Mobile phones and tablets have been running android systems for many years, and the interaction logic is relatively mature, and the newly emerged folding screen flagship is different. Because the previous sales were not too high and the time of appearance was too short, Google did not launch targeted optimizations for it.
In 2021, only Samsung's folding screen mobile phone Galaxy Flip/Fold series, sales have exceeded 8 million, OPPO, vivo, millet, etc., have also launched their first folding screen mobile phone, it can be seen that this device is about to become mainstream. For folding screen phones, Android 13 will also launch corresponding optimizations to improve the user experience.
03 The changes are great, but the deficiencies are also many
Android 12 official version has been online for more than half a year now, but how much the market share is known? A few days ago, Spanish software download provider Uptodown gave data, only 2.6%, not even Android 8.1 OREO's high market share. I am afraid that only when the low-end new machine completely abandons the Android 11 and Android 10 systems, the market share of Android 12 can be raised.
Xiao Lei asked his friends around him, non-digital enthusiasts generally do not care about the version of the system, all they need is stability. Take MIUI, once the biggest plus for Xiaomi mobile phones, but from MIUI 12, has become a minus point for mobile phones.
MIUI was often praised by users as humanized, and a variety of self-contained functions did provide great convenience, but not every one of them we can use, and more functions are actually permanently sealed. In the Android system for performance and memory size requirements are getting higher and higher today, many users complained, Xiaomi mobile phone does not have 12GB running memory, will not be able to use normally, because the system needs too much memory, resulting in killing the background is too serious.
Android has the same problem, with more and more features, more and more bloated, and the demand for performance and memory is also getting higher and higher. Most users don't care what new features Android 13 provides, nor what the system version number of the phone is, they just want their phone to be more stable and smooth. Maybe Google needs to consider whether we need some of the features we need and which ones can be removed.
Android 13 is coming, but it is destined that the vast majority of mobile phones can not be upgraded, one is because the mobile phone manufacturers have a wide range of product models, for each device to adapt to the new system, it takes too much energy, the second is because Android 13 has a higher demand for performance, many old devices may appear after the upgrade of the Caton problem, mobile phone manufacturers can only give up.
Fortunately, in recent years, mobile phone manufacturers have made a commitment to provide at least 3 major version updates for flagship mobile phones. If these vendors keep their promises, then the Snapdragon 865 flagship is eligible to upgrade Android 13. As for other low-end models, domestic manufacturers will provide not many large version of the system update, but some of the volume machines can definitely have upgrade qualifications.
Too many added functions will inevitably appear bloated, Android or MIUI, all need to cut a large number of users do not need to function, streamline the system. Of course, the most important point is that the privacy information protection related features must not be deleted.