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0 pointsizacus8y ago0 comments

Just like you have to buy an Apple phone to get Apple updates immediately, you need to buy a Google phone to get Google updates immediately. Pixel and Nexus rollout is starting nowish (and beta participants are already getting the OTAs).

This is really not a secret at this time anymore and should be taken into account when you succumb to Samsung marketing.

Everybody else will be probably 4-6 months late.

0 comments

But Apple supports iPhones for 4-5 years. Google has said they will only support their flagship Nexus and Pixel phones for no more than 2 years. For a $700 device this is unacceptable.

That's not entirely true:

Pixel phones get security updates for at least 3 years from when the device first became available on the Google Store, or at least 18 months from when the Google Store last sold the device, whichever is longer.

https://support.google.com/nexus/answer/4457705

victorhooi8y ago

Apart from what Ironlink said below, there's also the fact that Google and Apple support mean different things.

For Apple, updates often mean some subset of the full operating system updates, or a crippled version.

Whereas Google updates tend to be all of nothing - meaning if your phone does get the update, it gets all of the features of that particular version.

This seems to have changed somewhat with moving a lot of the stuff to Play Service (and now obviously with Project Treble), so you get the best of both world (in theory)...

merb8y ago

> For Apple, updates often mean some subset of the full operating system updates, or a crippled version. Whereas Google updates tend to be all of nothing - meaning if your phone does get the update, it gets all of the features of that particular version.

Eh? Aren't you swapping something here? On Apple you get OS updates with nearly all features for at least 5 years, of course they can't create a NFC device into a phone that doesn't ship with one... I would love to see _any_ Android phone with support for 5 years, that does not come from google directly. it would be a no brainer if something exists in the 200-300€ range. because I don't care which phone I have, it just needs to be long liveable and have a price below 400€. currently I use used iPhones, which I get relativly cheap.

rothbardrand8y ago

No, Apple updates include the full operating system update. The only time features are disabled is when they require hardware that doesn't exist (e.g. you have no finger print reader so you can't use your finger print reader) or they are too intensive for the phones CPU/GPU. That's it. Apple's propensity for hardware accelerators may make this seem like it's crippling (Eg: there is a voice recognition hardware accelerator on Apple CPUs, IIRC) and people may not know why, but Apple does not use crippling software as a strategy to force upgrades-- as you seem to be implying.

selectodude8y ago

I’m fine with receiving years and years of security updates. I paid for the features I got. Anything new is a bonus. But an up to date secure OS is non-negotiable.

r00fus8y ago

> For Apple, updates often mean some subset of the full operating system updates, or a crippled version.

A bit harsh, no? If new software requires hardware, why should that be considered "crippled"?

I find amazing that my 2013 iPhone5 can play games (Hearthstone) that some 2015/2016 Androids can't.

taeric8y ago

Yeah... I didn't realize how annoyed I'd be on this when I bought my Nexus 6.

Not getting the latest just seems lazy and makes me want a flip phone that has good audible support. All of the crap that is getting added is just obnoxious and does little to help me use my phone.

Bonus points if anyone can tell me why enabling bluetooth will make it so my phone can't charge to 100% anymore.

mavhc8y ago

What can it charge to instead?

It's 3 years from the device's release. You get the next two major OS updates (which occur at ~1 and ~2 years after release), and then another full year of security updates, up to but not including the third major OS version.

The catch is that you can buy an Apple phone everywhere, but for instance Google decided simply to not offer the Pixel in my country.

Also, they stopped updating my Nexus 4 long time ago, something that Apple does not with their devices.

Hence, I am not "succumbing to Google marketing" again. I have now updated to a Moto, which used to be a Google company. Let's see how long it takes to update...

izacusOP8y ago

Yes, the limited availability of Google Store and Google hardware in general is a huge failing of the company.

I really don't understand why they so commonly fail to bring best Android devices to markets with most Android penetration - they're practically giving the market share away to Apple's aggressive price cuts lately.

rothbardrand8y ago

The reason is they simply cannot do it. It's very different shipping a high end phone in units of 100 million vs shipping a high end phone in units of 500,000.

This is why most android high end devices are really tiny market share.

They can't compete with Apple-- AT VOLUME. Apple's supply chain is where they are hugely competitive. This goes for Samsung etc.

So on android, genuinely high end phones are prestige items to make android look good, but the mass of android phones are low end cheap phones that can easily be mass produced.

Apple has been known to buy 10,000 prototype modeling machines and put them into production because they were the only ones on the market that could do a particularly manufacturing step that was needed for that model... google is never going to do that.

In fact, I don't think google has ever made any phones (excluding Motorola) themselves-- all the Pixels are rebrands of other makers devices.

on_and_off8y ago

My understanding is that it is not enough to ship the device to a country, you also need an very large ad push and deals with local operators in order to actually sell it.

However, it should be mentioned that the pixel was sold in even less countries than the previous generation ..

Google really need to step up its game.

on_and_off8y ago

I would really like to see Google take Oreo as an opportunity to set an example and push the pixel 2 with something like 10 years of support.

I am not holding my breath though

sumeno8y ago

That's a pretty unreasonable desire. Technology changes so much in 10 years that it wouldn't be feasible to support a generation of phones for that long.

10 years ago was the original iPhone. How much of a money sink would it have been for Apple to support the original iPhone until now?

or atleast ~4 years like iOS devices get.

cmurf8y ago

My Moto G3 (2015) came with Android 5.1.1, and got an Android 6.0 upgrade. That's it. It has had two or three security updates since then, but it's still Android 6.0.

Despite that, it's been overwhelmingly the best phone I've had: cheap even unlocked, stable, no bloatware, waterproof.

kevin_thibedeau8y ago

My Moto G1.5 came with KitKat and was starting to suck on Lollipop after an update caused incurable excessive battery drain and constant app crashes. LineageOS Nougat restored the old hardware to its former glory. You would do well to do the same. Lollipop/Marshmallow is a liability.

Reflect for a moment; what was the 'new' price of the Nexus 4 vs the 'new' price of the iPhone at the time?

A Nexus 4 was a 2012 phone with 2GB ram, and 8GB storage (entry model) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nexus_4

An iPhone 5 is the comparable year device. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhone_5 It had entry specs of only 1GB of RAM, but 16GB of storage. The apps would also be native binaries instead of 'java' apps, meaning less storage was needed.

IMO what killed support on the older Nexus phones was /mostly/ the insufficient entry level storage.

microtonal8y ago

IMO what killed support on the older Nexus phones was /mostly/ the insufficient entry level storage.

This is provably false. The Nexus 6 plenty of storage space (32GB or 64GB) and does not get Oreo. Google's Nexus policy is to provide security updates for 3 years (or 18 months after the device stops selling, whichever is longer):

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/05/01/google_eol_for_nexu...

Also, the average Android app size is smaller:

https://sweetpricing.com/blog/2017/02/average-app-file-size/

I'm sure 1GB for iOS is comparable to 2GB of RAM for Android.

Nition8y ago

The iPhone 5C with 8GB storage is still supported by Apple. Although not for much longer as it won't support iOS 11, and the OS takes up almost half the space on the phone.

khc8y ago

not to diminish the rest of your argument, but my understanding is that java apps should be smaller than native apps (not significantly, since a huge part of apps' storage requirement is for assets, not code)

nsriv8y ago

This round of updates for Moto will be interesting, as it has a light skin. Completely dependent on Lenovo ownership, and they haven't been making the best choices lately.

tapoxi8y ago

My Moto X Pure (2015) has no carrier relationship and a very lightweight Android skin. It's still running Android 6.0.

I can't imagine them putting in development resources when they could just sell you a new phone.

semi-extrinsic8y ago

FWIW, I still get security bugfix system updates on my 2015 Moto 3G, as recently as two months ago. Here's hoping they keep up this level of support.

Supposedly Lenovo has mentioned that future devices will drop even that skin.

To be fair, Samsung phones do sometimes get software features years before the Google and Apple phones (e.g. split screen multitasking).

romanovcode8y ago

> Everybody else will be probably 4-6 months late.

I am on OnePlus2 and still using version 6 because maintainers do not give a crap about 2 year old phone and it will never get updated at this point.

Flagship my ass.

__abc8y ago

I don't have to buy a new Apple Phone for immediate updates to the OS .... my 6, 6+, SE, and 7 will all be able to update on day one.

Am I missing something about your comment?

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