New Droid phones may be required to come with Kit-Kat

Android phones are a double-edged sword: you have a wide variety to choose from, but that variety comes at a price: late software updates.

A leaked memo from Google, however, may change all of that as it stipulates that all new Android smartphones will be required to have Kit-Kat installed on them out of the box.

This doesn’t exclude any handsets; if you want to sell an Android phone, whether it’s a low end, mid-ranger, or a high-end mega device, all of them need to have 4.4 pre-installed.

The report states as follows:

“Starting February 2014, Google will no longer approve GMS distribution on new Android products that ship older platform releases. Each platform release will have a ‘GMS approval window’ that typically closes nine months after the next Android platform release is publicly available.”

This means that if manufacturer’s don’t meet the ‘GMS approval window’ they will miss out on enjoying Google Mobile Services, and, by extension, possibly Google Play Store access. An Android phone without easy access to applications is probably not too appealing to consumers.

If this ends up being the case, then there will be significantly less entry-level Android phones flooding the market. For handsets to run Kit-Kat well, they need to meet certain tech specifications, and manufacturers who produce these phones will certainly shy away from making budget droids if the hardware costs them too much.

The budget smartphone market may just open up, and Windows Phone handsets could come in and claim the share that Android will vacate…

Source | Via