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Do phones really /need/ to be updated to new OS versions? I recently upgraded to a Galaxy Nexus, and while ICS is pretty nice, I honestly think I could have liv

Do phones really /need/ to be updated to new OS versions? I recently upgraded to a Galaxy Nexus, and while ICS is pretty nice, I honestly think I could have lived with Froyo or Gingerbread for another couple years. (as an aside, as of last month, a good 45% of desktop web users were on Windows XP, an OS version that hasn't received any major updates since 2008: http://www.netmarketshare.com/operating-system-market-share.aspx?qprid=11&qpcustomb=0 http://www.netmarketshare.com/operating-system-market-share.... )

LVB 15y ago
Of course they don't need to be updated, but when I'm paying $50+/month for essentially a luxury (I could live with a prepaid dumb phone), my expectations go up. I'm paying a lot for fun/interesting technology and I want to partake now in the new whizzy things that people are raving about, not 9 months from now.
- CrazedGeek 15y ago
  What "new whizzy things" are people raving about? I haven't seen anyone get even close to excited over a new OS feature since iOS 4's multitasking -- from the people I know, the response to iCloud, FaceTime, iMessages, Notification Center, ICS's Face Unlock, etc. has been a collective "meh". The only thing I've heard anyone seriously happy about recently was Windows Phone 7.5's ringtone manager.
  - LVB 15y ago
    Doesn't have to be a new OS feature directly. I'd like to run the new Chrome browser but can't. In any case, I'd like to decide "meh" or not for myself. You're right that most changes have very little impact, so this is largely psychological. It hits in two ways for me: 1) the delay between the product's "release" and when I can get it, 2) the uncertainty of whether an upgrade will even come at all for my phone.
zmmmmm 15y ago
Yes, it's interesting to me how (as with so many things), Apple frames the debate in which other things are judged. iOS screen resolution way lower than other phones? Doesn't matter. Retina display arrives -> screen resolution is everything, major selling point! iOS has no built in voice recognition? Doesn't matter. Siri - major selling point, when is Google going to respond?! And the same with the OS updates; if Apple wasn't delivering updates so well, would we even have this question at all? I have a feeling it is primarily a geek obsession and for all the ranting of geeks it isn't going to make much difference. Android will always have the latest and greatest and simultaneously the oldest and cruftiest stuff going around, and by and large consumers won't care because all of them play Angry Birds.

LVB 15y ago

Of course they don't need to be updated, but when I'm paying $50+/month for essentially a luxury (I could live with a prepaid dumb phone), my expectations go up. I'm paying a lot for fun/interesting technology and I want to partake now in the new whizzy things that people are raving about, not 9 months from now.

CrazedGeek 15y ago
What "new whizzy things" are people raving about? I haven't seen anyone get even close to excited over a new OS feature since iOS 4's multitasking -- from the people I know, the response to iCloud, FaceTime, iMessages, Notification Center, ICS's Face Unlock, etc. has been a collective "meh". The only thing I've heard anyone seriously happy about recently was Windows Phone 7.5's ringtone manager.
- LVB 15y ago
  Doesn't have to be a new OS feature directly. I'd like to run the new Chrome browser but can't. In any case, I'd like to decide "meh" or not for myself. You're right that most changes have very little impact, so this is largely psychological. It hits in two ways for me: 1) the delay between the product's "release" and when I can get it, 2) the uncertainty of whether an upgrade will even come at all for my phone.

zmmmmm 15y ago

Yes, it's interesting to me how (as with so many things), Apple frames the debate in which other things are judged. iOS screen resolution way lower than other phones? Doesn't matter. Retina display arrives -> screen resolution is everything, major selling point! iOS has no built in voice recognition? Doesn't matter. Siri - major selling point, when is Google going to respond?! And the same with the OS updates; if Apple wasn't delivering updates so well, would we even have this question at all? I have a feeling it is primarily a geek obsession and for all the ranting of geeks it isn't going to make much difference. Android will always have the latest and greatest and simultaneously the oldest and cruftiest stuff going around, and by and large consumers won't care because all of them play Angry Birds.