Verizon Galaxy Nexus, other CDMA devices removed from Google developer support pages

Editorial Director of News and Content

| February 3, 2012

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Verizon Galaxy Nexus

It's been discovered that the Verizon Galaxy Nexus (known by the codename "toro") has been removed from Google's developer support page, along with the Verizon Motorola XOOM (aka "stingray") and Sprint Nexus S 4G (aka "crespo4G"). Another support page houses the stock factory images that can be used to load Android onto a device, but navigating to the LTE Galaxy Nexus list shows that the ROM images are "archived, for reference only." Additionally, there's a sentence up at the top of Google's developer page that says that "No CDMA devices are supported" with the current release of the Android Open Source Project.

So what's going on? Originally it was thought that this whole situation had to do with Verizon and Google Wallet. With the removal of the Nexus S 4G and LTE XOOM, though, it'd be kind of strange for this move to be centered around the Verizon/Google Wallet brouhaha. The folks at The Verge reached out for Google for clarification on the situation and were told that CDMA devices were removed from some developer support pages because not all of the features of pure AOSP builds (like making phone calls) are fully supported on CDMA devices. Google added that it will continue to support the Verizon Galaxy Nexus through official firmware updates. So fret not, Verizon Galaxy Nexus owners, because your device is still a Nexus and will still be supported by the folks at Google. You can find a statement from Google's own Dan Morril explaining the situation below.

"Hello! This is a quick clarification about support for CDMA devices.

For various technical reasons, recent CDMA Android devices implement core telephony functionality in .apk files provided in binary form by the carriers. To function correctly, these .apk files must be signed by the so-called "platform" key. However, when an individual creates a custom build from the AOSP source code, they don't use the same signing key as these CDMA flies were signed with.

The result is that these files don't work properly, and pure AOSP builds running on these devices can't place calls, access mobile data, and so on. Because we aim to make sure that we are as clear as possible about the degree of support that devices have, we updated the docs over at source.android.com to reflect this reality.

We will still make available as many as possible of the closed-source binaries for these devices, and Nexus devices will continue to have unlockable bootloaders. And, of course, GSM/HSPA+ devices are still supported, as are any other devices we're able to support. We've simply updated the documentation to be clearer about the current extent of CDMA support.

We are of course always working to improve support, and we'll keep everyone updated as we make improvements. Thanks as always for your interest in AOSP!

- Dan"

Via The Verge, Droid-Life, AOSP, Google Code, Android Contributers