[NotOscarWilde]

I completely agree. The point is even worse for "the next five billion" because they are the people that buy the previous generation phones. No matter what Android One costs, previous generation Android One will cost less and be almost equally useful.

I really feel the right, responsible thing to make the next five billion secure is to support previous generation phones as long as the phones are still the same functionally.

Continuing with my Galaxy Nexus comparison: GN is a 2011 phone and it seems nothing is on the horizon for 2015 that's going to make it obsolete -- the new phones look and feel the same as it does.

(I know it's anecdotal, but being Central European, I am the only one in my family with a phone that runs Android 4.0 or higher (no iPhones either) -- they all have either Android 2.0 or pre-OS phones. I say this to stress that people here really do stick with their phones as long as they work.)

[microtonal]

The Galaxy Nexus is a special case, because its SoC producer (TI) stepped out of the smartphone market and apparently the drivers were closed source. The Nexus 4 and 5 will probably fare better.

Although in contrast to e.g. Safari on Android, Chrome does get continuous updates, even on older phones. But, of course, the general point is still true - most Android phones are updated for a miserably short period. Cyanogenmod deserves a lot of credit of lengthening the lifespan of devices.