Android 2.2 Update fiasco: Open letter to CEO Mr. Ivan G. Seidenberg

[droidinc_user]

Hello Mr. Seidenber. I hope you are aware of frustration going on among Droid Incredible users. How can you call yourself no 1 provider when you can even push a 90 Megs file to a couple of millions incredible users. If your network can’t even handle (with 500 kbps speed )180 Seconds per phone  to download, why are you even advertising and selling so many smart phones.

If your Verizon data network is so poor you should have approaches this update in so many easier ways,

• Update though Wi Fi
• Download and update thorough the Desktop (for IT professionals using apk or exe files)

I hope you can understand the frustration for Droid Incredible users and talk with VP of software deployment team and hope next time it will be planned better.

[g0dhand]

I don't know how technically inclined you are, but outside of the realm of popular media files (music, movies, video games, etc), 90 MB is on the VERY LARGE side of the scale in terms of sending data.

Also, that rate of 500 Kbps you're speaking of;  500 Kbps is the MAX rate of throughput in regard to bandwidth.  In the history transferring data across the internet, no WIRED (as in NOT WIRELESS) modem has EVER come close to their maximum throughput threshold.  Period.  In fact, it's highly improbable.  Thus, your assumption that everyone should receive 90 MB files at 500 Kbps while Verizon issues the Android OS 2.2 update is highly falsified; Nevermind all at once.

Do not forget that Gigabytes upon Gigabytes of data are transferred via the network on a day-to-day basis;  Nevermind just for the update.

Are gigabit ethernet modems/cables (CAT-6e, etc) faster than 10/100-based equivalent equipment?  Absolutely, and noticeably as well.  But will you ever see a Gigabyte/second on gigabit equipment?  Never.  And this is on an ENTIRELY WIRED NETWORK.  Wireless networks experience less actual throughput when compared to their potential throughput, becuase the data is broadcasted, not sent through actual hardware.

Now in regard to your frowning about why not everyone could receive the update all at once. Let's have a scenario, shall we:

Let's say you're correct that there are 1,000,000 Droid Incredible users; all whom do not yet have the FroYo 2.2 Update.  At 90 MB/file for each 1,000,000 users, you have:

90MB X 1,000,000 = 90,000,000 MB in total to transfer evenly among all Droid Incredible users.  Divide this by 1024 (the number of MB in 1 (one) Gigabye (GB).  That's roughly 87,890 gigabytes.  Divide this number again by 1024 to get the total number of Terabytes (TB) of data sent all at once (1 TB = 1024 GB).  That's roughly NINETY (90) terabytes of information to stream WIRELESSLY across the entirety of Verizon's network.

Calm down and be patient.  The update will come to everyone within this week, and if not, it'll most likely be here for ALL within the next two weeks.

After reading your complaint to the CEO (whom of which will most likely never read), it's obvious that you lack this knowledge.

[TheObviousChild]

Also to consider, when rolling out any type of software updates, it's often prudent to do it in batches.  That helps monitor and triage bug reports coming in.  If everyone was updated at once and a bug was found, you now have 100% of your population that has broken code and you have to stress the network all over again by releasing a patch or updated image to 100% of the population.

All that said, I have been eagerly awaiting my Froyo update for days now.... 

[g0dhand]

^^^

Agreed on this as well.  Great to add, something I hadn't thought about off-hand (bad-form on my part as a developer =P)

Bottom line is that good things come to those who wait, or find out ways to get good things by themselves.

[dadsterflip]

Go to android central. Update manual. Theres another post here somewhere about warranty. It will not void it. Sorry cant link. On my phone typing this

[s_brethauer]

I agree with godhand, and also, Seidenberg isn't even the CEO of VZW. He's CEO of Verizon Communications so what do you expect him to do about your impatient wireless needs????

[mavi]

Yup, i agree, it is a failure of verizon wireless, its been 5 days now, still no sign of updates, what will happen when they have to update 10 millions product like iphone,might have to wait for years.

[FramCire]

Verizon sent out less than 10,000 test updates until today.  They plan on rolling out the rest by end of day Friday.  If this frustrates you, you need to take some medicine.  We were told Froyo would be available by end of 3Q/4Q.... they will have it done by end of 3Q.

They send them out randomly across the country to avoid over taxing individual towers.  If They tried to send them all out, you would be here whining about not being able to use your phone.

I need the fixes in this update and I have no complaints.

BTW, HTC set it up to update EVO with a download file online and it caused a ton of failures that took them at least a week to fix.   Would you rather screw your phone up for a week or have it done right?

[hisfrogness]

I'm not defending the original poster, however, Verizon tends to FUBAR their updates. They're doing the same thing right now that they did with the BB Storm; remaining completely silent for weeks while other network customers are all saying"Weee...this update rocks"

1.) If you know that it's going to take weeks to distribute an update perhaps it isn't the wisest thing to announce on Twitter that the updates are rolling out without also including some timeline as to how long it will take. If all Verizon says is "Updates Today" then a reasonable person is going to assume that they're going to get an update today.

2.) OTA should be optional. Verizon should have a link in my account overview to d/l a zip file to my computer and do the update via USB. I agree that 90 megs is a hefty push for cell phones. So much so that it strikes me as odd that they didn't try to aleviate some of that massive OTA transfer by making it available online.

3.) Verizon doesn't seem to be interested in communicating with their customers. If they don't know about the massive rumor mill that these updates foster, then they should. If they're not aware of the tremendous enthusiasm that people have about getting the latest greatest OS then they should make themselves aware of it.

As soon as one blog about some other Android getting 2.2 gets posted there are thousands of Verizon customers wondering "will my Android get an update?". I dunno cause Verizon seems silent when it comes to this stuff. Maybe we'll learn weeks down the road from CNET.

I can accept that it takes Verizon three times longer than everyone else to release updates.....but COMMUNICATE! Tell us what's happening.

[FramCire]

1.  EVO customers were saying "This update is buggy... I need it fixed".  Droid customers were saying the SAME THING.

2.  Reasonable people understand that when you say "Updates START today" it doesn't mean they will be COMPLETE today.

3.  The actual OTA is not done by Verizon.  They do the final testing and tweaks, but  they do not actually do the updating.    With the problem EVO had with manual updates, people should be happy it is done OTA. (doing it by RUU requires a hard reset of the phone)

4.  Verizon only controls the very last part of the process.  Even if they wanted to release dates, they would be foolish to speak up when it is out of their hands.  Once it is in final testing, they dont even know until it has passed.  Speaking about dates any more would give competition more info and possibly tick off customers when OTHER companies dont meet their dates.

5.  HTC/VERIZON did say the update would be out late 3rd quarter or 4th quarter.  It is not late 3rd quarter.  Sounds like they gave good intel, right?

6.  Sprint beat Verizon with their update by 2-3 weeks BUT it was buggy and screwed up peoples phones for over a week.  So, which would you rather .... earlier update and a screwed up phone for a week.... or wait on enhancement and get it right?