68 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 45FEATURE
Three years of Android OS updates is a big deal- an iOS level of commitment that no other Android
phone offers. You can spend £800+ on an Android
phone from any other manufacturer and you’re only
really certain to get one major update. Even a near-
stock phone like Essential still hasn’t pushed out
an Oreo update more than a month after its public
release. The Pixel 2 is the first Android phone that
obsoletes obsolescence.
At some point over the next year, Google Lens
will land in the Play Store, and the Pixel 2 launcher
will appear in the Play Store. Maybe Google will even
add portrait mode to the Google Camera. But the
experience still won’t be the same as using a Pixel 2.
Perhaps this will force other manufacturers to stay
closer to stock Android to stay relevant. No amount
of Pixel pressure is ever going to rein in Samsung,
but maybe it will spur them to deliver timelier and
longer updates.
If Google were launching Android today, I have
little doubt that it would be a Pixel-only OS. Google
has slowly been reining in Android’s openness, and in
many ways, the Pixel 2 is the ultimate fork, one that
separates the original from the imitators. If it works,
Android as we know it may never be the same.