Google Needs to Stop Allowing Manufacturers to Get Away with Murder

June 24, 2012 in Commentary

Android

One of the biggest issues with the Android platform is the problem with devices getting updates. 聽Google gives manufacturers way too much autonomy when it comes to updates being distributed to existing devices. 聽Too many times has it taken several months for a smartphone to be updated to the latest version of Android, if it’s even updated all. 聽What Google needs to do is stop allowing the manufacturers to decide when and if a device receives an upgrade to Android’s latest version. 聽Instead, Google should require devices to be updated within a certain time period, for a certain length of time, as a stipulation of receiving the Google suite of apps. 聽That would mean in order for a manufacturer to have apps such as Google Maps, G Mail, Talk, etc. on their devices, they’d have to agree to keep the device updated for a certain length of time (2 years?), and update that device to the latest Android version within a certain period of time (2 or 3 months?) after that version’s release. 聽This would force manufacturers to keep devices up to date, and support their devices for a longer period of time. 聽It makes no sense that a person has to enter into a 2-year contract, if the device they buy won’t even be supported throughout the length of that contract. 聽Google needs to stop allowing these manufacturers to get away with releasing devices and forgetting about them.

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