

Ask HN: Why don't carriers upgrade your Android version?  - suyash

Are the carriers not upgrading the Android OS on your phone because it doesn't serve their direct interest. Since they have already sold you the phone? I've had LG Optimus with TMobile for a while and I'm still waiting to get onto Gingerbread (2.3) from Froyo (2.2). I'm thinking about CyanogenMod | or Rooting and installing it manually? Please advice and share your experience.
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byoung2
The carrier takes the latest version of Android, and they put all of their
proprietary code on it. For example, Sprint makes sure their NASCAR, NFL,
Sprint Zone, and Sprint TV works on it, as well as disabling tethering without
the plan addition. This is in addition to whatever modifications the handset
maker needs to make (e.g. HTC Sense UI, Facebook for HTC Sense, HTC
Friendstream, HTC Footprints, etc.). Given all that is required to upgrade to
the latest version of Android, sometimes it makes more sense to work on a new
phone.

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kls
I personally think this is the biggest issue with the Android market, phones
get stuck in time. Once bought, there is no way except for a very technical
process to modernize the OS image.

Contrasted with IOS; phones from several generations back are able to upgrade
through a fairly simple process to the latest OS. This helps insure that most
relevant hardware is within a few versions of the current shipping OS, thus
reducing compatibility issues.

I wrote off Samsung devices for this very reason. I bought one of the first
pads and to this day there has been no upgrades to the OS on the pad. There is
no reason other than forcing users into an upgrade path, that the tab could
not receive a honeycomb upgrade bringing the pad up to an OS that was designed
with tablets in mind.

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angryasian
Just root it, rooting has basically become an unbrickable process. Your phone
will feel like a new phone running CM .

Yes carriers would rather have you buy a new phone, but for a lot of consumers
it doesn't matter. I mean seriously if it was that big of an issue you
probably would of rooted your phone by now. A recent study came out that 50%
of iphone users haven't plugged in their iphone after initial purchase, so
basically theres a large amount of people out there that just don't care or
know. The benefit of Android is that its customizable. On the other hand if
people really didn't want to worry about root but wanted upgrades they should
only get the Nexus phones.

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b0o
having people buy new phones/contracts actually makes the carrier some money,
whereas giving free upgrades doesn't. Note: I use t-mobile, which uses sim
cards, which is just easier to deal with when changing phones.

Last year, I tried upgrading my phone, but they said it would cost me
$200-$300 to get a decent android upgrade, so I went on craiglist and bought a
G2 and a Mytouch 3g slide as my backup/music/video player for a total of $225,
they had scuffs on the side, but overall were in fine conditions. I also had a
G1 that i used to learn about rooting, so after i got the G2 i rooted that in
20 minutes by downloading the 1-step root app, downloading cyanogenmod 7, and
flashing it to cm7.

If you want help buying a phone via craiglist, pm me.

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brudgers
Android has no long term roadmap, no standardized hardware spec, and little
meaningful vendor support. As others have pointed out, the carriers are on
their own (as are the handset manufacturers).

To paraphrase Kissenger, you can't get Android on the phone. Google just
releases what they release (or in the case of Honeycomb, doesn't) and it's up
to the rest of the world to figure out what to do with it and how to do it.

iOS and WP7 in contrast have a coherent hardware spec and roadmap.

