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Ask HN: Why don't carriers upgrade your Android version?
Are the carriers not upgrading the Android OS on your phone because it doesn't serve their direct interest. Since they have already sold you the phone? I've had LG Optimus with TMobile for a while and I'm still waiting to get onto Gingerbread (2.3) from Froyo (2.2). I'm thinking about CyanogenMod | or Rooting and installing it manually? Please advice and share your experience.
- b0o 15y agohaving people buy new phones/contracts actually makes the carrier some money, whereas giving free upgrades doesn't. Note: I use t-mobile, which uses sim cards, which is just easier to deal with when changing phones. Last year, I tried upgrading my phone, but they said it would cost me $200-$300 to get a decent android upgrade, so I went on craiglist and bought a G2 and a Mytouch 3g slide as my backup/music/video player for a total of $225, they had scuffs on the side, but overall were in fine conditions. I also had a G1 that i used to learn about rooting, so after i got the G2 i rooted that in 20 minutes by downloading the 1-step root app, downloading cyanogenmod 7, and flashing it to cm7. If you want help buying a phone via craiglist, pm me.
- byoung2 15y agoThe carrier takes the latest version of Android, and they put all of their proprietary code on it. For example, Sprint makes sure their NASCAR, NFL, Sprint Zone, and Sprint TV works on it, as well as disabling tethering without the plan addition. This is in addition to whatever modifications the handset maker needs to make (e.g. HTC Sense UI, Facebook for HTC Sense, HTC Friendstream, HTC Footprints, etc.). Given all that is required to upgrade to the latest version of Android, sometimes it makes more sense to work on a new phone.
- kls 15y agoI personally think this is the biggest issue with the Android market, phones get stuck in time. Once bought, there is no way except for a very technical process to modernize the OS image. Contrasted with IOS; phones from several generations back are able to upgrade through a fairly simple process to the latest OS. This helps insure that most relevant hardware is within a few versions of the current shipping OS, thus reducing compatibility issues. I wrote off Samsung devices for this very reason. I bought one of the first pads and to this day there has been no upgrades to the OS on the pad. There is no reason other than forcing users into an upgrade path, that the tab could not receive a honeycomb upgrade bringing the pad up to an OS that was designed with tablets in mind.
- angryasian 15y agoJust root it, rooting has basically become an unbrickable process. Your phone will feel like a new phone running CM . Yes carriers would rather have you buy a new phone, but for a lot of consumers it doesn't matter. I mean seriously if it was that big of an issue you probably would of rooted your phone by now. A recent study came out that 50% of iphone users haven't plugged in their iphone after initial purchase, so basically theres a large amount of people out there that just don't care or know. The benefit of Android is that its customizable. On the other hand if people really didn't want to worry about root but wanted upgrades they should only get the Nexus phones.
- brudgers 15y agoAndroid has no long term roadmap, no standardized hardware spec, and little meaningful vendor support. As others have pointed out, the carriers are on their own (as are the handset manufacturers). To paraphrase Kissenger, you can't get Android on the phone. Google just releases what they release (or in the case of Honeycomb, doesn't) and it's up to the rest of the world to figure out what to do with it and how to do it. iOS and WP7 in contrast have a coherent hardware spec and roadmap.