Android Updates getting too much to handle?

[Ayman250]

As many people know the amount of android phones is growing very quickly, and updates are getting released at different times for different phones. The htc hero does not yet have a 2.1 ota update, yet people are already talking about 2.3. I think that eventually there will be too many phones to update all separately. It will eventually become overwhelming. What do you think they will do. Because stopping ota updates for older phones should not be an option in my opinion.

 

[ABCDawg]

As the owner of a Samsung Galaxy, I'm already feeling this pain. Despite the phone being only a year old, Samsung has already declared it will NOT be updated past 1.6.

So, here's a phone that is STILL available for purchase, but won't get updates. Is there a problem with this equation?

I'm partial to agreeing that Android is moving forward a bit too quickly, but at the same time they must if they expect their OS to compete with the iPhone. Of course, manufacturers aren't obligated to update previous phones to the newer version, but it certainly seems they're more focused on getting new models out rather than taking care of old ones.

A potential solution? They ought to focus on a few models, that have been created with really solid hardware (i.e. that will withstand updates to newer versions without becoming obsolete) and then let that model exist for awhile while continually updating the firmware. This way old customers get their updates, while new customers still feel they're getting the latest and greatest.

Will that ever happen? Nope.

 

[Eggos]

Google has all ready said that in the future, they plan on making updates less frequent. I believe they said once a year, but you would need to search it for sure.

The idea of supporting older phones for all time is ridiculous, and shouldn't be a requirement from any manufacturer. When the phone is still being sold, they should keep it updated up to the limits supported to be stable by the hardware. This is one of the biggest reasons who the G1 and My Touch haven't received an official release for any 2.1 yet, because it's not stable once you put all the extra that carriers throw in there with it.

I do believe that that if the manufacturer chooses not to support the device with updates that will work correctly, they should stop selling the product through direct channels (such as carriers) and limit it to third parties.

I don't really think limiting hardware/phone options would help the case either. That's as foolish as saying Windows should only support and update the operating system on computers sold by Dell and HP; and everybody else to makes their own or buys elsewhere is SOL.

The good thing about Android is that once a manufacturer throws in the towel, you can always take it into your own hands and see what you can do with the phone. Of course, at your own risk.

 

[Ayman250]

The idea of supporting older phones for all time is ridiculous, and shouldn't be a requirement from any manufacturer.

would you like to purchase a phone knowing that in a year before your contract is even over, your phone wills top receiving updates??

 

[Eggos]

would you like to purchase a phone knowing that in a year before your contract is even over, your phone wills top receiving updates??

You get what you buy when it's available, not for what will be available; That's just a bonus. Consider the fact that warranties on phones are only a year from most manufacturer, I'd live with a year of guaranteed updates.

I'm sure if your cable company introduced a new set of HD channels that only work on a box that wasn't available until a year after you bought yours, you wouldn't find that as hard to handle that you need to buy the new box. Same deal with a phone.

 

[Jammy]

You get what you buy when it's available, not for what will be available; That's just a bonus. Consider the fact that warranties on phones are only a year from most manufacturer, I'd live with a year of guaranteed updates.

I'm sure if your cable company introduced a new set of HD channels that only work on a box that wasn't available until a year after you bought yours, you wouldn't find that as hard to handle that you need to buy the new box. Same deal with a phone.

That's true, but you wouldn't expect to buy a new TV box that's software was a few versions out of date(ie, Samsung Galaxy).

I really hope my Desire gets Gingerbread. Anything past that I'll consider a bonus

 

[IOWA]

I remember when there was no such thing as a free update. Be thankful for what you get.

 

[Tangent]

I can completely understand not updating phones for all eternity but some of the phones stuck with 1.5/1.6 are just nowhere near old enough for that to be a valid excuse. If there's no hardware reason behind not releasing an update, the manufacturers are just giving consumers the finger. Just because other manufacturers - most famously Apple - don't give a damn about anything more than 5 minutes old doesn't mean we should just quietly accept it. If you have a device capable of getting updated and it isn't contact them and bitch! The more people that do it the more likely it is that we'll get the support we should be getting.

 

[IOWA]

I can completely understand not updating phones for all eternity but some of the phones stuck with 1.5/1.6 are just nowhere near old enough for that to be a valid excuse. If there's no hardware reason behind not releasing an update, the manufacturers are just giving consumers the finger. Just because other manufacturers - most famously Apple - don't give a damn about anything more than 5 minutes old doesn't mean we should just quietly accept it. If you have a device capable of getting updated and it isn't contact them and bitch! The more people that do it the more likely it is that we'll get the support we should be getting.

You can't be serious. "accept it?" Manufacturers do something nice, something that costs them money, and provide FREE updates to our phones, something that is still only a recent development, something never promised to us at all in most cases, and now suddenly everyone feels entitled to it? Like it's sort of some god-given right since you dropped a couple hundred dollars on a phone? Seriously? As I said before, free updates are a NEW thing, and be thankful to get any update, no matter what the timeline. These companies owe you nothing.

 

[Tangent]

You can't be serious. "accept it?" Manufacturers do something nice, something that costs them money, and provide FREE updates to our phones, something that is still only a recent development, something never promised to us at all in most cases, and now suddenly everyone feels entitled to it? Like it's sort of some god-given right since you dropped a couple hundred dollars on a phone? Seriously? As I said before, free updates are a NEW thing, and be thankful to get any update, no matter what the timeline. These companies owe you nothing.

I hardly consider it a "god-given right"; I just consider it decent customer support. If they wanted to stay with the old model of releasing a phone and then letting their developers forget it exists they should have stayed out of the smart phone market which expects to stay current for more than 2 months. I was suggesting that if we want a company to change their "you already paid for it, so go suck it" mentality, we need to call them up and let them know that we consider that crappy service. Complaining about it on a 3rd party website won't do anything to resolve the situation. Calling up Motorola and telling them that abandoning every phone without "Droid" in it's name to 1.5/1.6 is a great way to get you to buy a HTC/Nokia/whatever else next time might just encourage them to work on that update people want.

Quite frankly, calling up the manufacturer that's letting you down is doing them a favor. They can't fix a behavior they don't know is cheesing people off. The typical company actually wants their customers to be happy so they come back to them for their next purchase.

 

[IOWA]

I hardly consider it a "god-given right"; I just consider it decent customer support. If they wanted to stay with the old model of releasing a phone and then letting their developers forget it exists they should have stayed out of the smart phone market which expects to stay current for more than 2 months. I was suggesting that if we want a company to change their "you already paid for it, so go suck it" mentality, we need to call them up and let them know that we consider that crappy service. Complaining about it on a 3rd party website won't do anything to resolve the situation. Calling up Motorola and telling them that abandoning every phone without "Droid" in it's name to 1.5/1.6 is a great way to get you to buy a HTC/Nokia/whatever else next time might just encourage them to work on that update people want.

Quite frankly, calling up the manufacturer that's letting you down is doing them a favor. They can't fix a behavior they don't know is cheesing people off. The typical company actually wants their customers to be happy so they come back to them for their next purchase.

Funny part is, most people don't care. We're the minority here. I know plenty of people more than happy with a G1, moto cliq, etc.

 

[Tangent]

Funny part is, most people don't care. We're the minority here. I know plenty of people more than happy with a G1, moto cliq, etc.

True enough... I actually made the same point recently in a thread about allowing vanilla updates to branded UIs. I still maintain that if you have a phone not getting an update your best bet is to call the manufacturer to complain, and encourage everyone you know with their phone to do the same.

In some sick way, they might be counting on people actually wanting the latest update but not even knowing that they could have it on their current phone. That way they get a new sale out of them. I do computer tech support and I don't know how many people I've gotten to cancel plans to buy a new computer by simply tuning up their current one. People wanting to buy a new $500+ computer to replace their 1-year-old one so they can have Win7 instead of Vista is amazingly common. Many are genuinely unaware that they can just upgrade their current machine.

 

[IOWA]

True enough... I actually made the same point recently in a thread about allowing vanilla updates to branded UIs. I still maintain that if you have a phone not getting an update your best bet is to call the manufacturer to complain, and encourage everyone you know with their phone to do the same.

In some sick way, they might be counting on people actually wanting the latest update but not even knowing that they could have it on their current phone. That way they get a new sale out of them. I do computer tech support and I don't know how many people I've gotten to cancel plans to buy a new computer by simply tuning up their current one. People wanting to buy a new $500+ computer to replace their 1-year-old one so they can have Win7 instead of Vista is amazingly common. Many are genuinely unaware that they can just upgrade their current machine.

UGH, people like this shouldn't be allowed on a computer.

 

[Vmanisme]

They need to stop this BS HTC Sense crap and MOTOBLUR and let google take care of OS updates and than let companies like HTC and Motorola update their things like normal apps, Google needs to roll out updates by themselves so everybody gets updates. By the looks of how updates are being handled Android will lose reputation and become like windows mobile where there were too many phones to control it and make apps work on all phones, Google should be the only one taking care of OS updates.

 

[LoyalServant]

They need to stop this BS HTC Sense crap and MOTOBLUR and let google take care of OS updates and than let companies like HTC and Motorola update their things like normal apps, Google needs to roll out updates by themselves so everybody gets updates. By the looks of how updates are being handled Android will lose reputation and become like windows mobile where there were too many phones to control it and make apps work on all phones, Google should be the only one taking care of OS updates.

Won't happen.
They don't want their phones to look like all other phones.
They add things to make their phone more unique and to appeal to a certain crowd.

 

[Vmanisme]

Won't happen.
They don't want their phones to look like all other phones.
They add things to make their phone more unique and to appeal to a certain crowd.

Well it should be user-option, if I want the latest stuff and updates I should get that, if I want pretty pictures and shinny phone I should have that option available. Its just wrong what they're doing, Android is following in WinMob footsteps, Android devices are already being forgotten because of how many there is, it will have no future if Google doesn't step up and make some kind of rules.

 

[Tangent]

UGH, people like this shouldn't be allowed on a computer.

Of course the should be allowed on computers! Their ignorance is my livelyhood!

 

[goldenu]

The simple solution is to buy phones that have an active modding community. I love bleeding-edge hardware too, but if you go that route you're gambling that a community is going to form around that machine. In some cases (the Evo for example) that a community is going to form is pretty obvious, but even there, the Droid X that followed may steal the thunder. When I decided to leave WinMo and go Android, I looked around to see what platform had the power and *community* I wanted: Moto Droid all the way.

 

[HustlinDaily]

Of course the should be allowed on computers! Their ignorance is my livelyhood!

Professional poker player?

 

[Tangent]

Professional poker player?

Tech support

 

[HustlinDaily]

Oh my bad, did not realize you were the same person who posted above.

Thought you were talking about idiots using computers in general.

Lol I guess by my statement, I am falling into that category. Damn it.

 

[mttfrog13]

They need to stop this BS HTC Sense crap and MOTOBLUR and let google take care of OS updates and than let companies like HTC and Motorola update their things like normal apps, Google needs to roll out updates by themselves so everybody gets updates. By the looks of how updates are being handled Android will lose reputation and become like windows mobile where there were too many phones to control it and make apps work on all phones, Google should be the only one taking care of OS updates.

I agree. I didn't want to have to root my phone, but after all the rooting kinks are worked out, I will probably root my droid inc just for froyo.

Also, with the reports that google is working on interface improvements for the next android update, things like htc sense will be even more senseless and only be a delay in updates.

 

[IOWA]

Of course the should be allowed on computers! Their ignorance is my livelyhood!

Well, you got a point there. I have made quite a few bucks fixing peoples computers, ram install, etc.

 

[A.Nonymous]

I hardly consider it a "god-given right"; I just consider it decent customer support. If they wanted to stay with the old model of releasing a phone and then letting their developers forget it exists they should have stayed out of the smart phone market which expects to stay current for more than 2 months. I was suggesting that if we want a company to change their "you already paid for it, so go suck it" mentality, we need to call them up and let them know that we consider that crappy service. Complaining about it on a 3rd party website won't do anything to resolve the situation. Calling up Motorola and telling them that abandoning every phone without "Droid" in it's name to 1.5/1.6 is a great way to get you to buy a HTC/Nokia/whatever else next time might just encourage them to work on that update people want.

Quite frankly, calling up the manufacturer that's letting you down is doing them a favor. They can't fix a behavior they don't know is cheesing people off. The typical company actually wants their customers to be happy so they come back to them for their next purchase.

I disagree with you on what you're entitled to with phone support. It's one thing to say that you're entitled fixed/patches for your phone. If your phone is crashing and burning randomly and there's a fix out there then you should be entitled to it and you shouldn't have to pay for it.

It's another thing to say that you are entitled to updates to keep your phone cutting edge. Should Motorola or HTC or Nokia or whoever spend their time to make Froyo or Gingerbread work on a 2 or 3 year old phone? If it has bugs should they spend the time working with users to fix them? Are you entitled to this for free? Personally, I don't think so. If your manufacturer offers this, it's great and it's a plus. It may be a reason to choose that manufacturer over another one, but I don't think you're entitled to it.

 

[Ayman250]

I would like to point out the htc hero, was made with 1.6 installed. And still has 1.6....