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Aside from the strong note of Android OEM apologist emanating from this piece, the fact that this idea isn't /entirely/ preposterous speaks volumes about the sa

Aside from the strong note of Android OEM apologist emanating from this piece, the fact that this idea isn't /entirely/ preposterous speaks volumes about the sad state of the platform. What Google releases and what most buyers eventually experience are as different as day and night. As a long time devotee and early-adopting "evangelist" (especially Maps, Gmail/Apps, Picasa, and eventually Android) it seems we are witnessing Google's decent into terminal failure to grasp the concept, and value, of "customer"...

bunderbunder 15y ago
I think that Android OEMs deserve some apology, if anything so that folks can better understand the realities of the situation. People want updates like Apple provides with iPhones, but given how vastly different the business structures are in the Androidverse, that may not be realistic. Apple provides updates to old phones because it has a strong financial incentive to do so: They don't just sell phones, they also operate an app marketplace for those phones, and they get a cut of the sale price of every app sold through that marketplace. So they want to keep all their users buying apps, even the ones with old phones. Part of doing that is giving existing users a reason to stay checked-in - and pushing new features to users of old phones through OS updates allows them to do that. They also want to have as much "awesomeness" in the app store as they can get, and one way they can facilitate that is by minimizing the hurdles that might prevent developers from using all the latest and greatest features in their APIs. On that front, the biggest hurdle imaginable would be if only a minority of the platform's users had the ability to run apps that depend on the latest API. So Apple really, really wants to keep old iPhones up to date as long as they can, not out of some sense of corporate altruism, but because doing this maximizes app store profits for them. On Android, on the other hand, there is absolutely none of that. The only time Android OEMs see any money is when you buy a new phone. They don't care if you can run ICS+-only apps, because they don't see money from the app store. They don't care if you keep buying new apps, because they don't see any money from the app store. They don't even particularly care if you prematurely decide your phone is janky and outdated and you need a new one on account of no OS updates, because. . . oh wait, they do care there. They want that to happen, because the only time they see money is when your current phone gets tossed in the dustbin. Meanwhile, as the article points out, providing updates to old phones is quite an expensive process. Especially if you're doing anything beyond pushing patches. So. . . given that the incentive structure built into the Androidverse serves to heavily disincentivize OEMs from providing iPhone-style support, the question remains: Why on earth, then, should they?
- yardie 15y ago
  I believe the only reason 3GS owners got iOS 5 was because of iCloud. Normally, Apple is quite happy to leave the oldest hardware editions in the dust with nary a care. So they issue iOS 5 to every supported device and, lo and behold, iCloud has 80 million users overnight. It doesn't matter that most people think iCloud is useless, what matters is they frictionlessly transitioned 80 million people onto their servers. Now that they have those users they can figure what to do with it. I don't believe Apple is doing this out of altruism for users or developers. I think they are honestly going after Google, Microsoft, Dropbox, et al. at the same time. And the most effective way to do that is to have...80 million users on day one.
  - bunderbunder 15y ago
    Well, that and the 3GS is still being sold. Previously, Apple would retire the phone that came out 2 years previously when they brought out the new model.
  - ceejayoz 15y ago
    > I believe the only reason 3GS owners got iOS 5 was because of iCloud. I think it's more because they're still actively selling the 3GS, as their $0 entry-level iPhone.
  - projct 15y ago
    It's important to note that unlike older phones and Macs, Apple is still currently selling the 3GS. The original iphone and the iphone 3G stopped receiving updates 3 years after release[1]. It's important to note, though, that in both cases the update cycle continued for a significant amount of time after the devices were no longer available in stores. The original iPhone received its last update 1 year and 6 months after the device was discontinued: iOS 3.1.3 was released February 2, 2010 while the original iPhone was discontinued July 11, 2008.[2][3] The iPhone 3G received its last update 5 months and 18 days after being discontinued. In this case, given that it had the same specs as the original iPhone except for the 3G modem, I think that iOS was rapidly becoming too resource intensive to continue updating for this device, considering that by 2010 the majority of the hardware was already 3 years old. That said, iOS 4.2.1 was released November 22, 2010, and the 3G was discontinued as of June 4, 2010.[2][3] Contrast this to Android where some flagship phones don't even receive security updates after even a year (the chart in my references only includes notable Android devices, and ignores cheaper ones that go after the free w/ contract market etc.) Paying for updates is not the solution. Unfortunately, unless Google or consumers grab the vendors by the balls, the only thing that I honestly think will do anything at all about this situation is a rather nasty worm that manages to do some serious damage to devices that haven't gotten timely updates. I don't want to see that happen, it would really hurt Android's reputation in the eyes of those who won't understand that the HW vendor is to blame for the problem, not Android the OS. [1] Chart of device updates published some time ago: http://theunderstatement.com/post/11982112928/android-orphans-visualizing-a-sad-history-of-support http://theunderstatement.com/post/11982112928/android-orphan... [2] iPhone discontinuation dates and final iOS version: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_iOS_devices#iPhone http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_iOS_devices#iPhone [3] Release dates of iOS versions: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IOS_version_history http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IOS_version_history

bunderbunder 15y ago

I think that Android OEMs deserve some apology, if anything so that folks can better understand the realities of the situation. People want updates like Apple provides with iPhones, but given how vastly different the business structures are in the Androidverse, that may not be realistic. Apple provides updates to old phones because it has a strong financial incentive to do so: They don't just sell phones, they also operate an app marketplace for those phones, and they get a cut of the sale price of every app sold through that marketplace. So they want to keep all their users buying apps, even the ones with old phones. Part of doing that is giving existing users a reason to stay checked-in - and pushing new features to users of old phones through OS updates allows them to do that. They also want to have as much "awesomeness" in the app store as they can get, and one way they can facilitate that is by minimizing the hurdles that might prevent developers from using all the latest and greatest features in their APIs. On that front, the biggest hurdle imaginable would be if only a minority of the platform's users had the ability to run apps that depend on the latest API. So Apple really, really wants to keep old iPhones up to date as long as they can, not out of some sense of corporate altruism, but because doing this maximizes app store profits for them. On Android, on the other hand, there is absolutely none of that. The only time Android OEMs see any money is when you buy a new phone. They don't care if you can run ICS+-only apps, because they don't see money from the app store. They don't care if you keep buying new apps, because they don't see any money from the app store. They don't even particularly care if you prematurely decide your phone is janky and outdated and you need a new one on account of no OS updates, because. . . oh wait, they do care there. They want that to happen, because the only time they see money is when your current phone gets tossed in the dustbin. Meanwhile, as the article points out, providing updates to old phones is quite an expensive process. Especially if you're doing anything beyond pushing patches. So. . . given that the incentive structure built into the Androidverse serves to heavily disincentivize OEMs from providing iPhone-style support, the question remains: Why on earth, then, should they?

yardie 15y ago
I believe the only reason 3GS owners got iOS 5 was because of iCloud. Normally, Apple is quite happy to leave the oldest hardware editions in the dust with nary a care. So they issue iOS 5 to every supported device and, lo and behold, iCloud has 80 million users overnight. It doesn't matter that most people think iCloud is useless, what matters is they frictionlessly transitioned 80 million people onto their servers. Now that they have those users they can figure what to do with it. I don't believe Apple is doing this out of altruism for users or developers. I think they are honestly going after Google, Microsoft, Dropbox, et al. at the same time. And the most effective way to do that is to have...80 million users on day one.
- bunderbunder 15y ago
  Well, that and the 3GS is still being sold. Previously, Apple would retire the phone that came out 2 years previously when they brought out the new model.
- ceejayoz 15y ago
  > I believe the only reason 3GS owners got iOS 5 was because of iCloud. I think it's more because they're still actively selling the 3GS, as their $0 entry-level iPhone.
- projct 15y ago
  It's important to note that unlike older phones and Macs, Apple is still currently selling the 3GS. The original iphone and the iphone 3G stopped receiving updates 3 years after release[1]. It's important to note, though, that in both cases the update cycle continued for a significant amount of time after the devices were no longer available in stores. The original iPhone received its last update 1 year and 6 months after the device was discontinued: iOS 3.1.3 was released February 2, 2010 while the original iPhone was discontinued July 11, 2008.[2][3] The iPhone 3G received its last update 5 months and 18 days after being discontinued. In this case, given that it had the same specs as the original iPhone except for the 3G modem, I think that iOS was rapidly becoming too resource intensive to continue updating for this device, considering that by 2010 the majority of the hardware was already 3 years old. That said, iOS 4.2.1 was released November 22, 2010, and the 3G was discontinued as of June 4, 2010.[2][3] Contrast this to Android where some flagship phones don't even receive security updates after even a year (the chart in my references only includes notable Android devices, and ignores cheaper ones that go after the free w/ contract market etc.) Paying for updates is not the solution. Unfortunately, unless Google or consumers grab the vendors by the balls, the only thing that I honestly think will do anything at all about this situation is a rather nasty worm that manages to do some serious damage to devices that haven't gotten timely updates. I don't want to see that happen, it would really hurt Android's reputation in the eyes of those who won't understand that the HW vendor is to blame for the problem, not Android the OS. [1] Chart of device updates published some time ago: http://theunderstatement.com/post/11982112928/android-orphans-visualizing-a-sad-history-of-support http://theunderstatement.com/post/11982112928/android-orphan... [2] iPhone discontinuation dates and final iOS version: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_iOS_devices#iPhone http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_iOS_devices#iPhone [3] Release dates of iOS versions: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IOS_version_history http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IOS_version_history