[ocdtrekkie]

The fact that Google created a huge maintenance burden for themselves shouldn't absolve them of responsibility to provide that maintenance.

Microsoft supports Windows versions for ten years, and I agree that's crazy for Android. However, three years I feel is a bare minimum expectation. Devices tend to remain on the market for about a year, and the standard phone contract is two years. So three years from a version release should cover the vast majority of users for the life of their device, should they choose not to take "system upgrades" which may slow their device or change it in an unwanted manner.

[cwyers]

I agree that DEVICES should be covered for n years, where n is somewhere between 3 and 5 and we can quibble about the specifics later. I don't think that backporting fixes should be the way we gauge this if newer versions are available instead.

[ocdtrekkie]

The problem is that newer and better are not synonymous. And most Android users have probably learned by now that their devices getting slower with each update, not faster.

[eropple]

Mine are getting no slower and often feel snappier. 5.1 was a big improvement over 5.0 on my Z3C.