01-11-2013, 12:51 PM
macphanatic wrote:
What does CR say about the difficulty in upgrading most Android phones? The user is dependant on the mfg modifying each Android release for each device. Then the carrier takes this and modifies it again. I've got a company issued 1 yr old Android device that I can't update because Samsung hasn't issued an update for it. Its stuck at 2.x.
And the thing is, Gingerbread is still decently usable and most apps still work. Contrast to iOS where many apps require iOS 5 or at the very least 4.3. Even Froyo phones still support a bunch of apps. Sure, I'd rather have Ice Cream Sandwich or Jelly Bean on my devices (the newer OSes are better), but if you only care about apps, most 2.3 devices are still supported.
Reminds me of WIndows versus Mac. People managed to use Windows XP for so long because apps still targeted XP users, but on the Mac, many apps would require the most recent or two version of OS X. Different dynamics, one of them is good for forcing upgrades against your own possible preferences.