A lot of the points made here are exactly why I'm going from an android device to an iPhone once my device cycle from Verizon is up later this year.
I'm so tired of hearing about all the new awesome things that are happening with the android operating system and not being able to get them. Even when my device (HTC Incredible) would support such features it's always a question of if HTC/Verizon is going to put in the effort to update the device because they have to update all of the modifications they have made on it. I feel that with android based devices, manufacturers and carriers just focus on the quantity of devices they produce not the quality of the service that is given. This is understandable because they have already made their money and they would rather sell you a new device than put in development time to upgrade your current device.
With an iOS device everyone gets the same updates at the same time as long as the hardware supports the software changes. You know the date you will get the update and you know the feature set you will have. This is because apple focuses on just a few devices and tries to make them really great. I think if HTC/Samsung/Motorola did the same with a stock android OS that got updated as soon as it was available from google they might have some of the same success.
For android to really succeed as a longterm platform I think google needs to crackdown and stop carriers from modifying the OS directly. If they want to "enhance" the OS with changes they should be downloaded in the form of applications when the phone is setup at the choice of the user.
I bought a Nexus One, it can no longer run the latest software. The software it has is buggy. I will never buy a Samsung, but maybe when the next Nexus comes out, hopefully by Motorola.
You realise that Google is constantly updating your phone via it's Apps (e.g. new Youtube, new Market), yes?
If so, why would you not feel you are missing out during the year between functionality updates for iOS and instead focus only on the OS version number? Is it simply that you don't want other people to have updates if you don't have them, rather than missing the actual functionality itself? Because you not having an update because it's in Apple's secret lab seems fairly similar to not having it because your phone hasn't yet update to the latest Android OS.
Would you prefer if Google kept all those updates to itself and then forced them on carriers once a year? I'm assuming you don't think iOS (or Android) is more than say 6 months ahead of the competition or you'd just have given that as a reason for switching rather than the manner in which you get the latest functionality.
I'm not sure what you're trying to say. You seem to imply that somehow I prefer iOS over Android, when in fact I never owned any Apple product. I still prefer my 2.3 Nexus S over any iDevice I could have.
I'm simply responding to a post where someone assumed that buying a Nexus device will guarantee you the latest OS update. This isn't true as I showed that the Nexus S, which I bought essentially for faster updates. Still didn't get the official 4.0 in my region/carrier even 4 months after it's available.
I'm so tired of hearing about all the new awesome things that are happening with the android operating system and not being able to get them. Even when my device (HTC Incredible) would support such features it's always a question of if HTC/Verizon is going to put in the effort to update the device because they have to update all of the modifications they have made on it. I feel that with android based devices, manufacturers and carriers just focus on the quantity of devices they produce not the quality of the service that is given. This is understandable because they have already made their money and they would rather sell you a new device than put in development time to upgrade your current device.
With an iOS device everyone gets the same updates at the same time as long as the hardware supports the software changes. You know the date you will get the update and you know the feature set you will have. This is because apple focuses on just a few devices and tries to make them really great. I think if HTC/Samsung/Motorola did the same with a stock android OS that got updated as soon as it was available from google they might have some of the same success.
For android to really succeed as a longterm platform I think google needs to crackdown and stop carriers from modifying the OS directly. If they want to "enhance" the OS with changes they should be downloaded in the form of applications when the phone is setup at the choice of the user.