Paying for an OS upgrade?

[glidersgalore]

Not sure where to post this. I know everyone wants the newest OS update as soon as it comes out or you hear about it. Then if your phone doesn't get it right away or not at all, people have a tendency to bad mouth who ever. What if say there was an update fee? Lets say for the first year you get all updates free. Even after that you get any minor updates of patches free. But to go from one OS to the next say like now from 4.x to 5.0 there is a charge of lets say $25.00. Microsoft does it on Window, as does many other software programs. What do you think?

 

[SpookDroid]

That would work wonders... if you were paying for the OS. Android, just like Linux, is made available to the Manufacturers for free. Sure, they have to adapt it to their hardware and custom UI modifications and added bells and whistles, but the 'expected' model in mobile is that your device is kept current for at least a year (two years is what most expect, 18 months is what seems to be swiping the mobile nations, but 1 year is still OK).

With Windows you ARE paying a license, and Windows is the same no matter what the computer you run it in. What changes are drivers and special plugins to make each manufacturer's extras to work with Windows, not the other way around.

 

[B. Diddy]

Personally, I think people should just try to be more patient with updates. It always astonishes me when I see the level of anger and distress that arises when people don't get an update as soon as it's released. I got my Lollipop update on my Nexus 5 six days after the start of the rollout, and by then, I was seeing lots of the usual "Shame on Google" posts in various forums and Google+. Six days. Not even a week. Not to mention the consternation about some non-Nexus devices getting the update before them. And I don't really care to hear comparisons with iPhones all getting updated on the same day, because it's a different beast, and it still shouldn't matter--waiting one or two weeks will never cause a major tech disaster for the user.

And of course, the irony is that some people end up hating the update for some reason, and want to go back.

End of editorial.

 

[SpookDroid]

And given the awful, buggy update that was iOS8, the more reason for gradual roll outs. Microsoft is also doing this for Windows now; their latest Windows 8 updates, including the 8.1 one, took almost a month and a half before being available to all computer models and all regions.