4 ms·

Maybe paid upgrades are the answer? 20 million devices, $30 for the ICS update, 5% take rate = $30 million dollars. Considering random teenagers in web forums

by jsz0 15y ago

Maybe paid upgrades are the answer? 20 million devices, $30 for the ICS update, 5% take rate = $30 million dollars. Considering random teenagers in web forums can produce pretty good functional ports there's no way it will cost Samsung more than a few hundred thousand dollars to do the development work. Maybe they have to give the carriers a cut to cover their support costs/retraining/etc. Still a good financial incentive for Android OEMs not to abandon their older devices as quickly.

Macha 15y ago
I'd imagine that the amount of people who care enough about what version of the OS they are running to pay $30 for an OS upgrade and lack the technical skills to install a custom ROM is a rather small number. And if they care that much, they may even prefer the custom ROM, without TouchWiz.
- jsz0 15y ago
  Even if it's only 1% that's still $6 million bucks. I suspect there are lots of people like me who have the technical ability to flash a custom ROM but just don't want to spend the time and effort on it. Reading through a 200+ page forum thread and dealing with the rough edges of these custom ROMS requires an investment of time. There are also all the business/enterprise IT departments who aren't going to touch a random custom ROM they found on the Internet. They need some official upgrade path. Most companies don't want to buy a new fleet of phones very 2 years.
  - vetinari 15y ago
    Most companies have no problem buying a new fleet of phones every two years. Especially when the price is in the general area of office consumables. Just the battery in the phone will last barely two years and you'll spare yourself a lot of troubles by buying new phones.
  - Kadrith 15y ago
    If it ever came to that I'd probably just switch to a Nexus or an iPhone. If I buy a device with the expectation that it will be supported for a period of time, I don't expect to pay additional for the updates that were originally promised.

by jsz0 15y ago

Macha 15y ago

I'd imagine that the amount of people who care enough about what version of the OS they are running to pay $30 for an OS upgrade and lack the technical skills to install a custom ROM is a rather small number. And if they care that much, they may even prefer the custom ROM, without TouchWiz.

jsz0 15y ago
Even if it's only 1% that's still $6 million bucks. I suspect there are lots of people like me who have the technical ability to flash a custom ROM but just don't want to spend the time and effort on it. Reading through a 200+ page forum thread and dealing with the rough edges of these custom ROMS requires an investment of time. There are also all the business/enterprise IT departments who aren't going to touch a random custom ROM they found on the Internet. They need some official upgrade path. Most companies don't want to buy a new fleet of phones very 2 years.
- vetinari 15y ago
  Most companies have no problem buying a new fleet of phones every two years. Especially when the price is in the general area of office consumables. Just the battery in the phone will last barely two years and you'll spare yourself a lot of troubles by buying new phones.
- Kadrith 15y ago
  If it ever came to that I'd probably just switch to a Nexus or an iPhone. If I buy a device with the expectation that it will be supported for a period of time, I don't expect to pay additional for the updates that were originally promised.