The Droid Turbo smartphone on Verizon will not be updating to Android 5.0 Lollipop and instead will go straight to Android 5.1 Lollipop, according to Motorola engineer Luciano Carvalho.
With Droid Turbo skipping all the versions before Android 5.1 Lollipop, the smartphone's owners will not be subjected to the many flaws that plagued the earliest iterations of Google's new mobile operating system. While Android 5.0 Lollipop is one of the biggest updates to the operating system, it is also one of the buggiest.
Motorola did not have much trouble dealing with the Android 5.0 Lollipop. The company was able to roll out the operating system to Verizon Moto X 2014 devices in November of last year. Verizon, however, usually takes a long time to approve such updates. This is especially true with the Droid Turbo, an exclusive to Verizon that is still stuck with the Android 4.4.4 Kitkat.
While many Android users have not yet received the Android 5.0.2 Lollipop update, Android 5.1 Lollipop was already released. The latest version of the mobile operating system looks to address most of the major flaws in the Android 5.0 Lollipop and introduces several improvements to the user experience, including the addition of support for VoLTE.
For smartphones such as the Droid Turbo, the Android 5.1 Lollipop was exactly what Verizon was waiting for before upgrading the company's premier Android-based device to the newest operating system.
The fact was confirmed by Carvalho in a post on Google+, stating that the Verizon Droid Turbo will be skipping Android 5.0 Lollipop completely and updating straight to Android 5.1 Lollipop. The decision to do so, however, was not exactly to skip the bugs found in the earlier version of Lollipop, but rather due to VoLTE support, a feature that is very important to Verizon.
Native VoLTE support built into Android 5.1 Lollipop would mean that bugs related to the service will be limited, allowing Verizon and Motorola to spend less resources in adapting the feature to the Droid Turbo and fixing any issues that could crop up.
While there has been no definite date mentioned regarding when Droid Turbo users can expect Android 5.1 Lollipop to be rolled out to their smartphones, it is a good thing that customers will not be waiting for the release of Android 5.0 Lollipop to their devices and then wait even further for the update to Android 5.1 Lollipop. Skipping all the frustrations that a bug-filled Android 5.0 Lollipop could cause is a bonus for Verizon Droid Turbo users.
