A couple of months ago I linked to an interesting (from an academic point of view) and depressing (from an Android owner’s point of view) chart that illustrated how the vast majority of Android phones being sold have an out-of-date OS when they leave the store, and can never ever be upgraded by the owner without voiding the warranty. I specifically didn’t mention the shiny “Google Update Alliance” at the time because, quite frankly, nothing at all had been mentioned about it by anyone since the day it was announced.
Now someone is mentioning it. But not in a good way. The gang at PCMag contacted the assorted vendors about offering Ice Cream Sandwich updates to their various handsets and what they got back was a lot of marketing double-talk, dancing around, and general bullshit.
This is, of course, no surprise at all. None of these vendors are in the Android camp because they believe in “open” platforms, high-quality user experiences, or brave new applications of technology. They chose Android because it was a fast and cheap way to get into the smartphone game, and because the “open” nature of Android means that they can cram your phone full of partner-paid crapware and there is pretty nothing you can do about it. They budget neither time nor resources towards keeping your phone up-to-date – once they have your money they would rather force you to buy a new phone than give you the time of day.
Props to Captain Kirk for the link.
