But "Android purists" don't understand that being an open platform that anyone can take Android and create their own vision. The beauty of Android.
Samsung wants you to buy a Samsung phone. Samsung wants your next phone to be a Samsung phone. So all of these OEMs create what their vision is of a mobile experience using Android as the base. They're building their brand identity.
Android allows for this. Android embraces this.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Android Central Forums
I won't dispute that. My beef with OEM android phones is that their business model makes it actually counterproductive for them to keep updating your device for 2 full years because they would rather you bought their next year's phone than keep supporting your older one. The GS2 launched in May 2011. I'll give Samsung due credit that they're currently rolling out Jellybean 4.1.2 for the S2 which is almost 2 full years worth of OS update support. What I'm
not particularly thrilled about is that the S2 will be roughly 2 full years old by the time it's all done, so basically if you switch phones every 2 years you'll only have enjoyed Jellybean for a whopping 4-8 weeks. That sucks. "Here's your update, just in time for you to buy a new phone
anyway. By the way... have you seen the S4? Let's do this all over again!" And although 4.1.2 is pretty good for a 2 year old phone, we're currently on 4.2.2 which has a pretty hefty list of features and improvements over 4.1.2. Nexus 4 has had access to 4.2 for 5 months already and is currently on 4.2.2 Of course 5 months and a more updated OS on top of that may not seem like a big deal, but that's pretty much 1/4 of a 2 year contract of getting to actually not just use those updates, but getting to use the most recent version of them, and for more than just a few weeks before your contract expires.
I realize all of this pertains to the contract subsidized phone model. But not a lot of people either can or want to buy outright and play the buy/sell kijiji game once/year to stay current.
Now, if you're NOT a tech head, then who cares. I know plenty of people who look at me like I grew 3 heads when I ask them what OS version their phone is on. A very small few even continuously dismiss OTA updates just because "it ain't broke and I don't wanna mess with it". But see here's the thing - I AM a tech head. So the above update schedule scenario I described above is extremely frustrating to me. I'm very tempted currently to let my contract expire and not subsidize my next phone so that I can buy/sell my phones and stay ahead of the OEM/Carrier sales and distribution schedule which is geared far more to benefit them than the customer.
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