Rumor: Android 5.0 coming in October, key feature to be ability to run on low end hardware

BY Stefan Constantinescu

Published 13 Jun 2013

Let’s not beat around the bush: Android is a bloated operating system. You need some pretty beefy specs to make it sing. The same can’t be said about Windows Phone, which runs flawlessly on devices that cost less than $150. And as for Apple’s iOS, it’s often faster and more responsive on iPhones that have half the horsepower as the latest devices from either Samsung or HTC.

According to VR-Zone, Google knows this, and they’ll do something about it in October with the release of Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie. The site doesn’t go into the key details of the operating system, but they do say it’s supposed to be able to run on devices with just 512 MB of RAM.

Why focus on optimization? Earlier today I wrote about Samsung reducing their orders for GS4 components because the company has realized that there’s more demand for low to midrange devices. Put another way, the segment of the smartphone market that’s growing the fastest is the segment that’s filled with phones that cost less than $300, probably even less than $200.

For Google to concentrate on delivering a great Android experience on those low end devices not only makes sense, but the benefits will trickle up to those of use who end up buying phones in 2014 with 4 GB of RAM and processors with eight cores, each clocked at 2 GHz or more.