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by joshes 5513 days ago
It is still a tad vague to me. "As long as the hardware allows" seems like it provides some wiggle room for carriers to squirm out of any responsibilities to honor this.

Additionally, it only says that the devices will receive the latest upgrades for 18 months after the device is first released, which is problematic in many regards. If you get a phone the day it releases and are forced into a two year contract (which you almost certainly will be if you are going with a carrier), then for the final six months, or 25%, of that contract period, the carrier is not required to allow for you to receive Android upgrades. That instantly devalues your device. And what if you get a new device, but not until six months after its release? Well, then your carrier is only required to permit the upgrades for the first year; the last year is back to same old, same old.

And it says nothing about how timely the upgrades are. As it currently reads, all it guarantees is that for a year and a half after the device is released, carriers must eventually allow your device to upgrade to the latest version of Android. It is not a long enough time to cover an entire contract period and it has a little clause that is open to interpretation by all parties involved.

Edit: I'm writing this from the perspective of an American consumer. I do not know anything about the way that carriers and their mobile contracts work elsewhere.

1 comments

Phone makers are slow to release upgrades because it takes resources to test and modify new Android releases (many of them are modifying the UI for a differentiated experience).

I don't see any reason why the likes of Samsung, Motorola, HTC would go through the trouble of releasing an update just for a couple of customers, ignoring the rest.

Its simple when the OEM gets approved by a Mobile Operator at least for the USA ones the MOs are negotiating an update fee that they pay OEMs for that very purpose..

So its probably set up as 3 Major version updates as Google/OHA members want that kept at every 6 months..hence the 18 month time limit..