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Personally I think 5 years is a reasonable amount of time for product support but it’s great that Google will do 7. It’s foolish to think anyone would hold onto a smartphone for that long so I’m guessing Google wants to brag about activations a couple of years from now. Ford did ad campaigns many years ago touting 97% of F-150s sold in the previous 10 years were still on the road. Never mind that OEM parts were no longer available for some of those trucks nor did it say anything about the trucks still being with the original owners. Imagine the Pixel 14 being released and Google saying “hey, that Pixel 8 you bought back in ‘23 is still going strong and still supported. Imagine how far this one will take you.”
My 16 years old reserve-reserve laptop is still getting free updates and they are always faultlessly and timely delivered every second Tuesday of every month. Started on Windows Vista, got free upgrades to 7, 8, 8.1, 10. What did I pay for that old Acer laptop? Less than 400 bucks.
Promising 7 years of untimely updates, when it was Google themselves who deliberately sabotaged the built-in self-updating design of Linux, to get rich on planned obsolesce in collusion with global network operators, is bollox.
Fix the automatic software updating feature to give everybody over a decade of free updates instead of this. I'd even argue that Google should be put on trial for ecosystem abuse, by delivering zero updates to competitors while selling their own mediocre trash with these nonsense promises. Google needs to be destroyed as an ecosystem leader. Now that they feel like Android can't grow its usage share compared to iOS, they start sabotaging access for all OEMs in an attempt to take the whole Android cake for themselves.
I seriously doubt that Google are on a trajectory of sabotaging all their Android partners and lose overnight their massive global hegemony. Let's not forget that Android is mainly a vehicle for Google to promote their other services, so they have very little incentive to bring Android under only one brand's umbrella. They're just trying to be more competitive to Apple, because they see that Apple, despite its smaller global market share, commands a huge profit percentage. It's a very fine balancing act. Also, as far as I understand, the other Android OEMs have only themselves to blame for delaying Android updates.
I'm not sure about the OEMs being the sole culprit for delayed Android updates... Remember the Android One program? Google axed it because it was damaging Android's reputation. I'm not sure how things work between Google and smartphone manufacturers, but I wouldn't be surprised if there are review steps OEMs have to pass before they launch their custom UIs over the latest Android version.
Also, great nickname! It's nice to see a fellow Tolkien fan here :)
I seriously doubt that Google are on a trajectory of sabotaging all their Android partners and lose overnight their massive global hegemony. Let's not forget that Android is mainly a vehicle for Google to promote their other services, so they have very little incentive to bring Android under only one brand's umbrella. They're just trying to be more competitive to Apple, because they see that Apple, despite its smaller global market share, commands a huge profit percentage. It's a very fine balancing act. Also, as far as I understand, the other Android OEMs have only themselves to blame for delaying Android updates.
Please do provide me a fact-based elaboration on why it is the OEM's fault that Google delivers seven years of updates on Google-branded devices and zero updates for any OEM. This despite the fact that all the OEM "partners" has to pay a per-device fee to get access to the ecosystem.
Like I said, the planned obsolescence structure of Android was design by Google. Not the OEMs. It was designed in collusion with other corporations, like AT&T, T-Mobile, Vodafone and such. It was designed with the single purpose of forcing customers to buy new devices, as often as possible, from said network operators. Forcing customers to sign up to new contracts as often as possible.
So, to beat your own chest saying, "we offer seven years of arbitrary updates on our devices now", while keeping the operating system exceptionally cumbersome to keep up to date for everybody else is ecosystem abuse. Google needs to be prosecuted for this, not congratulated.
I don't think it's necessarily Google's fault. With custom UIs, companies have to integrate all those custom features before rolling out the update to their users. We don't know when the new and clean Android OS becomes available to those OEMs; chances are pretty soon after the official launch.
I think it would've been the same situation if Apple offered iOS to other manufacturers.
Please do provide me a fact-based elaboration on why it is the OEM's fault that Google delivers seven years of updates on Google-branded devices and zero updates for any OEM. This despite the fact that all the OEM "partners" has to pay a per-device fee to get access to the ecosystem.
Like I said, the planned obsolescence structure of Android was design by Google. Not the OEMs. It was designed in collusion with other corporations, like AT&T, T-Mobile, Vodafone and such. It was designed with the single purpose of forcing customers to buy new devices, as often as possible, from said network operators. Forcing customers to sign up to new contracts as often as possible.
So, to beat your own chest saying, "we offer seven years of arbitrary updates on our devices now", while keeping the operating system exceptionally cumbersome to keep up to date for everybody else is ecosystem abuse. Google needs to be prosecuted for this, not congratulated.
The pay-for-play fee you speak of is paid to Microsoft, not Google. It is a licensing fee for the use of Microsoft’s FAT32 file system, nothing else. Not all OEMs pay it either. By allowing Microsoft to install their Office products on their devices, Samsung doesn’t pay the fee.
This type of cooperation is nothing new, BlackBerry needed curved edge displays for their Priv phones so they bartered with Samsung who needed their systems secured. Voila! BlackBerry gave Samsung “Knox” and the Priv became the first secure BlackBerry Android.
Smartphone users and reviewers has been complaining and pleading for long term software support and now to yield to users pleading and setting an example for as a good software company and smartphone manufacturer who take user experiences seriously they gave us longer software supports than the rests in the industry and yet we are still complaining it overkill and we don't need it, little do we forget these phones will still be used and purchased by millions years after their release. Hypocrisies of Humans
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Personally I think 5 years is a reasonable amount of time for product support but it’s great that Google will do 7. It’s foolish to think anyone would hold onto a smartphone for that long so I’m guessing Google wants to brag about activations a couple of years from now. Ford did ad campaigns many years ago touting 97% of F-150s sold in the previous 10 years were still on the road. Never mind that OEM parts were no longer available for some of those trucks nor did it say anything about the trucks still being with the original owners. Imagine the Pixel 14 being released and Google saying “hey, that Pixel 8 you bought back in ‘23 is still going strong and still supported. Imagine how far this one will take you.”
It's hypocrisy, smoke and mirrors.
My 16 years old reserve-reserve laptop is still getting free updates and they are always faultlessly and timely delivered every second Tuesday of every month. Started on Windows Vista, got free upgrades to 7, 8, 8.1, 10. What did I pay for that old Acer laptop? Less than 400 bucks.
Promising 7 years of untimely updates, when it was Google themselves who deliberately sabotaged the built-in self-updating design of Linux, to get rich on planned obsolesce in collusion with global network operators, is bollox.
Fix the automatic software updating feature to give everybody over a decade of free updates instead of this. I'd even argue that Google should be put on trial for ecosystem abuse, by delivering zero updates to competitors while selling their own mediocre trash with these nonsense promises. Google needs to be destroyed as an ecosystem leader. Now that they feel like Android can't grow its usage share compared to iOS, they start sabotaging access for all OEMs in an attempt to take the whole Android cake for themselves.
I seriously doubt that Google are on a trajectory of sabotaging all their Android partners and lose overnight their massive global hegemony. Let's not forget that Android is mainly a vehicle for Google to promote their other services, so they have very little incentive to bring Android under only one brand's umbrella. They're just trying to be more competitive to Apple, because they see that Apple, despite its smaller global market share, commands a huge profit percentage. It's a very fine balancing act. Also, as far as I understand, the other Android OEMs have only themselves to blame for delaying Android updates.
I'm not sure about the OEMs being the sole culprit for delayed Android updates... Remember the Android One program? Google axed it because it was damaging Android's reputation. I'm not sure how things work between Google and smartphone manufacturers, but I wouldn't be surprised if there are review steps OEMs have to pass before they launch their custom UIs over the latest Android version.
Also, great nickname! It's nice to see a fellow Tolkien fan here :)
I seriously doubt that Google are on a trajectory of sabotaging all their Android partners and lose overnight their massive global hegemony. Let's not forget that Android is mainly a vehicle for Google to promote their other services, so they have very little incentive to bring Android under only one brand's umbrella. They're just trying to be more competitive to Apple, because they see that Apple, despite its smaller global market share, commands a huge profit percentage. It's a very fine balancing act. Also, as far as I understand, the other Android OEMs have only themselves to blame for delaying Android updates.
Please do provide me a fact-based elaboration on why it is the OEM's fault that Google delivers seven years of updates on Google-branded devices and zero updates for any OEM. This despite the fact that all the OEM "partners" has to pay a per-device fee to get access to the ecosystem.
Like I said, the planned obsolescence structure of Android was design by Google. Not the OEMs. It was designed in collusion with other corporations, like AT&T, T-Mobile, Vodafone and such. It was designed with the single purpose of forcing customers to buy new devices, as often as possible, from said network operators. Forcing customers to sign up to new contracts as often as possible.
So, to beat your own chest saying, "we offer seven years of arbitrary updates on our devices now", while keeping the operating system exceptionally cumbersome to keep up to date for everybody else is ecosystem abuse. Google needs to be prosecuted for this, not congratulated.
I don't think it's necessarily Google's fault. With custom UIs, companies have to integrate all those custom features before rolling out the update to their users. We don't know when the new and clean Android OS becomes available to those OEMs; chances are pretty soon after the official launch.
I think it would've been the same situation if Apple offered iOS to other manufacturers.
Please do provide me a fact-based elaboration on why it is the OEM's fault that Google delivers seven years of updates on Google-branded devices and zero updates for any OEM. This despite the fact that all the OEM "partners" has to pay a per-device fee to get access to the ecosystem.
Like I said, the planned obsolescence structure of Android was design by Google. Not the OEMs. It was designed in collusion with other corporations, like AT&T, T-Mobile, Vodafone and such. It was designed with the single purpose of forcing customers to buy new devices, as often as possible, from said network operators. Forcing customers to sign up to new contracts as often as possible.
So, to beat your own chest saying, "we offer seven years of arbitrary updates on our devices now", while keeping the operating system exceptionally cumbersome to keep up to date for everybody else is ecosystem abuse. Google needs to be prosecuted for this, not congratulated.
The pay-for-play fee you speak of is paid to Microsoft, not Google. It is a licensing fee for the use of Microsoft’s FAT32 file system, nothing else. Not all OEMs pay it either. By allowing Microsoft to install their Office products on their devices, Samsung doesn’t pay the fee.
This type of cooperation is nothing new, BlackBerry needed curved edge displays for their Priv phones so they bartered with Samsung who needed their systems secured. Voila! BlackBerry gave Samsung “Knox” and the Priv became the first secure BlackBerry Android.
Smartphone users and reviewers has been complaining and pleading for long term software support and now to yield to users pleading and setting an example for as a good software company and smartphone manufacturer who take user experiences seriously they gave us longer software supports than the rests in the industry and yet we are still complaining it overkill and we don't need it, little do we forget these phones will still be used and purchased by millions years after their release. Hypocrisies of Humans