So I am relatively new in the Android community. I started with the LG Ally (hated it) but stuck with Android anyway. I now have the Droid X and am starting to understand the OS upgrades and why they are better than the ones before them. One thing I would like to understand is why Verizon is slow to respond to OS upgrades? I get that companies are less likely to upgrade old phones (I'm running Gingerbread I think) but why does Sprint and AT&T upgrade their phones much quicker? Again, I am new so could have my information wrong...
Unfortunately, Verizon is known for not really supporting their devices with updates. That's just how they are.
VZW also tends to put a lot of bloat ware that they have to ensure it works with the latest OS updates.
Welcome to Android Forums, AlexBPhoto! We are glad you have joined us here. As Rxpert83 and serpa4 have stated, VZW has always taken their time when sending out updates to their phones. Their network is one of the best though, so people just keep signing up in spite of that. I am moving this thread into the VZW forum so that other subscribers can post their comments here.
Pretty much boils down to, why bother supporting a device that no longers makes them money other than from existing customers. Just make it "good enough". However, it does make for a great excuse to learn how to root and flash custom ROMs. Since kind developers make updates for our phones, long after Verizon pulls the plug, who do it pretty much for fun (or learning, who knows). Granted some Moto devices are pretty poor in that department due to their locked bootloaders which prevent that sort of thing.
Yes, Verizon does typically release upgrades after AT&T and Sprint do. But it's not by any means because they don't stand by their devices, or anything like that. And honestly I wouldn't even say that are much slower than the others (is getting an update out 7 months after Google releases the code really that much longer than 6 months?) Verizon takes longer because they are much more strict about testing the upgrades before pushing it out. The other carriers are more likely to push out broken updates, that at worse bork up phones and at best need multiple bug releases to fix. Verizon updates generally work the first time. If you measure how long it takes to get a WORKING os update, Verizon is really about as good if not better than the others.
I'm going to be brutally honest, on my Eris, sometimes updates they release would introduce problems, like the silent call bug.
Yeah, bugs happen. Just because Verizon isn't perfect, doesn't mean they aren't better than both Sprint or AT&T.
I guess that's fair enough. However, it did severely gimp the phone (you had a small chance of sound in phone calls not working until you rebooted the phone). In an emergency situation, that would be unacceptable. Especially since I think it took them 9 months at least to resolve it.
