The Nexus 9 has launched and so has the Nexus Player. While the Nexus 6 is still on its way, currently still marked as out of stock, there is no stopping the inertia of Android 5.0‘s debut in the market. And as if on cue, Android Lollipop has also landed in the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) code repository, marking the start of the availability of the source code for the latest Android version and giving developers and OEMs the go signal to start porting their ROMs and versions to Lollipop.
Android 5.0’s arrival on AOSP, even though it doesn’t directly affect end users, is quite significant, since it will greatly affect developers’ efforts in adopting and adapting to the newest version. App developers, of course, have been porting their wares over to Lollipop for quite some time now, but another breed of developers, those dealing with the innards of the Android operating system, have been waiting for things to settle down before they can finally get their engines on full throttle. In particular, those dealing with rooting and “hacks” like the Xposed Framework as well as ROMs will be interested in this.
It also signals the time when OEMs can get the ball rolling for their own Android 5.0 ports. By now, most OEMs have already signified their commitment to Lollipop, some more than others. Sony and Motorola have been the most generous, promising to release Android 5.0 for a good number of their smartphones, all Xperia Z handsets for Sony and all of Motorola’s smartphones. HTC, of course, has stuck to its “HTC Advantage” promise to release Android 5.0, at least for the HTC One, both M7 and M8, within 90 days from the launch of Android Lollipop itself. NVIDIA, being the good Android citizen that it is, promised Android Lollipop for its SHIELD Tablet, though conveniently left out the Portable and the Tegra Note from its announcement. ASUS also committed itself to the cause for all its ZenFones and two of its PadFones. And last, though unlikely the least, Korean buddies and rivals Samsung and LG have also hinted at upcoming releases, though they didn’t exactly commit to a timeline.
So there you have it. Android Lollipop is well on its way and we will be looking forward to the next few months for more development on this front. Of course, the Nexus devices will be the first to receive it and we’ll keep you updated on that front as well. And in case you’re still not familiar with what makes Android 5.0 special, you can get updated with our recap of its features as well as a short trip down Android memory lane.
SOURCE: AOSP
