If other there was another provider of high-quality smartphone equipment that didn't have a business plan of rampant market fragmentation and crapware. Made the switch from a Moto Droid 3 months ago and couldn't be happier, personally.
You can always root it and install something else. Not an option for many users, but since you're on HN likely an option for you.
There is also a certain other vendor that has, so far, had a good track record of issuing updates for at least 2 years from release... and sometimes longer.
But of course, according to some parts of the internet, if you buy anything from this vendor you're shallow, materialistic, vain, attention-seeking, and just plain dumb.
I have an iPhone but I went with the Galaxy Tab 7 inch tablet because my kids play a good deal of Flash games and I figured that would be a big part of the usage in my house. It was and for that it was a good purchase, but I must say, I don't think I would switch phones, I say that even though a feature I use on my phone a good deal (navigation), is far superior on the Android phones. It's one of the primary features I use but after dealing with dead end upgrade cycles I just can not bring myself to switch. My wife has the Atrix, which has been a good phone for her, and we use it as our navigation device so I don't really feel the pain of needing that feature.
Google really needs to try to align the market and figure out a path to make it profitable for vendors to upgrade these devices, even if it requires purchasing the upgrade. I would pay a fee or purchase a service agreement, if they offered a path to update these systems. In fact I think their may be a business model there, for a pure software company to build out a common version of Android for these devices, provide support, and a time period of upgrade coverage no matter who's device you buy, obviously the hardware would have to support the updates, but I believe that there would be value in it. Hell I would buy it, just to get newer video codecs. I am noticing more and more videos are not working as my Tab is starting to age.
It's a pattern of behavior from Samsung, those of us that bought the original Galaxy Tab 7 inch are still waiting for an update that will never come. Abandonment of the platform to sell hardware is a huge issue in the Android market since most of the vendors are pure play hardware vendors, they have no incentive to add features to sold products. I believe that Google saw this problem in part of their move for Motorola.
Samsung is well-known for not supporting their devices. It will be interesting to see if google forces a change with the Nexus.
It will be especially interesting to watch and compare the upgrade-schedule for the near-identical Nexus and Galaxy S2.
Oh, and we're also getting used to the next android finally being The Good Version of Android. I played around with a Nexus and it was still quite laggy. But I'm sure the next android version will finally fix that...
Well known for not supporting their devices but yet got on stage with Google at Google I/O and pledged a turnaround, and has completely failed to do as promised.
At this point I wouldn't trust Google, Samsung, HTC, Moto, or anyone else when it comes to "Android will be better tomorrow" promises. Un til it's running hardware in my hands I will not give one iota of trust to any of these companies to deliver what they promise.
I run ICS on my Galaxy S. Right now the only feature not functioning is video recording. Definitely worth the side-grade from my Droid X (which locked the boot-loader). $100 for the S, sold the Droid X for $90.
It looks like TouchWiz deserves most of the blame here — according to Samsung Tomorrow, neither device has enough RAM or ROM to accomodate TouchWiz and all of its Samsung-designed accoutrements without affecting the quality of use.
Ah, the vendor screws up vanilla ICS and blames the device for not having the memory to run these "improvements".
I'm very annoyed there is no ICS. Maybe I have to try this out cyanogen stuff.
I was at a tech meeting in Singapore where a Samsung rep introduced their android tablet last year. Someone asked him when Samsung would stop putting touch wiz on the phone just give us the vanilla os. He said that would never happen because phone companies want to 'differentiate' themselves.
Its plain weird to me that these companies can't accept that these horrible customizations are not giving them an advantage. Their differentiation is going to be on price and hardware. I guess they can't let go of the old business model?
Yes. I completely forgot about that. And that is a problem too. If its part of a train you expect it to be applicable to all hardware. Apple would never do that.
17 comments
[ 3.1 ms ] story [ 47.1 ms ] threadThere is also a certain other vendor that has, so far, had a good track record of issuing updates for at least 2 years from release... and sometimes longer.
But of course, according to some parts of the internet, if you buy anything from this vendor you're shallow, materialistic, vain, attention-seeking, and just plain dumb.
But what do I know, I just use this phone.
Ironic that I went Android out of fear and irritation toward that other vendor, and in fact I've been having other vendor envy.
Google really needs to try to align the market and figure out a path to make it profitable for vendors to upgrade these devices, even if it requires purchasing the upgrade. I would pay a fee or purchase a service agreement, if they offered a path to update these systems. In fact I think their may be a business model there, for a pure software company to build out a common version of Android for these devices, provide support, and a time period of upgrade coverage no matter who's device you buy, obviously the hardware would have to support the updates, but I believe that there would be value in it. Hell I would buy it, just to get newer video codecs. I am noticing more and more videos are not working as my Tab is starting to age.
Samsung is well-known for not supporting their devices. It will be interesting to see if google forces a change with the Nexus.
It will be especially interesting to watch and compare the upgrade-schedule for the near-identical Nexus and Galaxy S2.
Oh, and we're also getting used to the next android finally being The Good Version of Android. I played around with a Nexus and it was still quite laggy. But I'm sure the next android version will finally fix that...
At this point I wouldn't trust Google, Samsung, HTC, Moto, or anyone else when it comes to "Android will be better tomorrow" promises. Un til it's running hardware in my hands I will not give one iota of trust to any of these companies to deliver what they promise.
It looks like TouchWiz deserves most of the blame here — according to Samsung Tomorrow, neither device has enough RAM or ROM to accomodate TouchWiz and all of its Samsung-designed accoutrements without affecting the quality of use.
Ah, the vendor screws up vanilla ICS and blames the device for not having the memory to run these "improvements".
I was at a tech meeting in Singapore where a Samsung rep introduced their android tablet last year. Someone asked him when Samsung would stop putting touch wiz on the phone just give us the vanilla os. He said that would never happen because phone companies want to 'differentiate' themselves.
Its plain weird to me that these companies can't accept that these horrible customizations are not giving them an advantage. Their differentiation is going to be on price and hardware. I guess they can't let go of the old business model?
http://daringfireball.net/linked/2011/12/23/samsung-ics