Potential problem for Android?

[odd1ne]

Talking to a buddy at work about android and how many people are joining but put a good point a across. Many people like myself with the original desire have been stuck now for literally 18 month on a dead phone which ain't going to be updated...same as my flyer. Now many of these people are coming to the end of contracts and may leave and go windows or ios. It's not Google fault but I wonder how they worry about people having one phone then leaving? Or maybe people never using manufactures like HTC for example.

I'm not I'm sticking around the one x or s3 will be my next phone.

Sent from my HTC Desire using Android Central Forums

 

[kawana72]

I would say the fault isn't entirely on Google here. There needs to be some sort of accountability with the manufacturers and carriers for the slow updates. Google should have been working with these companies to ensure some sort of protocol for update procedures.

Sent from my DROID RAZR MAXX using Android Central Forums

 

[monkeyluis]

How is it not Google's fault? If they had some sort of standards for apps & updates then maybe the experience could be consistent.

 

[Ry]

What core apps or essential games are you missing out on?

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Android Central Forums

 

[KSmithInNY]

Any updates are 100% OEM responsibility unless it's a nexus device. It's not googles fault, which I'll explain in more detail in a sec, it's the manufacturers and if were being adults, the consumers. Unless the phone was advertised with guaranteed updates as a selling point like a nexus, and even though i personally dislike the current practices, the consumer is partly to blame for expecting something they werent promised. I believe the morally correct thing for OEMs is to provide at least 1 update for a major revision.

That said, if all OEMs used the exact same chip as a nexus device, they'd be updated quicker. The way Android source works is each revision is designed completely around a specific chip, whatever is being features on the nexus device. The OEMs are responsible for then backporting the software update to their chip. Google does the exact same thing for older nexus devices. Once source launches they back port to the previous years chip, then again, etc etc. It's unrealistic to expect google to backport for the 100's of cpu/gpu configs that OEMs selected knowing they would be responsible for backporting. Doing anything to the source code such as limiting access goes against open source principals.

Despite Google not being at fault, they are guilty of not aggressively trying to fix the situation. Why not create a program for OEMs which if they agree that all software functions and features created by an OEM are open source to be merged into AOSP (reduces need to port, adds feature for ALL users not just one device). UI's should be independent of extreme framework modification (reducing their complexity to upgrade). And in turn Google works directly with those OEMs to ensure a timely turnaround of backporting for their chips.

Maybe no OEM would be on board, maybe all. But it's time to think outside of the box to fix it, without compromising OEMs interest in the OS.