Citing the movement of users to newer versions of Android and the increasing complexity to support older devices, Google’s Chrome team announced today they will bring development of updates for the Chrome browser on Ice Cream Sandwich to a halt. The change in status for the browser will take place with Chrome’s 42nd release after which the browser will be put in the virtual deep freeze on Ice Cream Sandwich. Users will be able to continue to use Chrome on their devices, but there will be no more updates.
Google software engineer Aurimas Lutikas noted that since Chrome was first made available on Android 4.0, there have been three new versions of Android released including Jellybean, KitKat and now Lollipop. During that same period of time, there have been 24 new releases of Chrome. As users replace smartphones with newer devices running newer versions of Android or upgrade their devices, the number of users with Ice Cream Sandwich has dropped by thirty percent in just the first year. This shrinking base makes it hard to justify continued development and support for older devices instead of building new features and capabilities used by the majority of users.
source: Chromium Blog
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