I bought my current Android phone back in January, on a one year contract – the longest allowed by law here in Norway. There’s still three months left, but I will admit to keeping an eye on the market for my own future upgrades, stealing some hands-on time with whatever I can whenever I can. And yet, when that date comes around, I’m not even sure I want to upgrade – or should I say, dare to upgrade.
Not a week goes by without me seeing a report of some sort of compatibility issue on some sort of Android device. I just came from the xda forums, where the WidgetLocker thread is currently buzzing with people who can’t get the thing to work right on Jelly Bean. A few days ago, I had an email conversation with someone trying to control screen brightness in Tasker on a Galaxy S III, revealing an issue where the brightness won’t change unless you turn the screen off and on again. That’s only one of several issues with Tasker and the S III. My tablet now uses a (to me) awkward pin unlock code in order for Unlock With WiFi to work after the changes made to “security” in ICS, there’s an instant upload bug with Dropsync on my phone, and so on and so forth.
I won’t debate whether or not you should blame Google for making Android the way it is, the manufacturers for not agreeing on how to modify Android, or the developers for not being able to keep up with compatibility fixes. That’s a discussion for another day. In the end, it doesn’t change the very basic, and very disturbing, fact: I don’t know if I actually dare upgrading my phone!
To me, software is what Android’s really about. I most certainly would like a higher resolution screen, more processing power, a better camera, and all that, but given the choice between my current Galaxy S II with the software I have on it and a Galaxy S III or Galaxy Note II where only part of it actually works, I most certainly would pick the former. I occasionally watch video on my phone, making a better screen nice to have. I occasionally do processing-heavy tasks, and experience UI lagg, making a faster chip nice to have. I occasionally take important pictures, making a better camera nice to have.
However, I each and every day have my phone do tasks like control my lights, feed me weather data, handle my todo list, handle my emails, control my calendar, act as a remote control for my PC, and a whole bunch of other tasks where hardware is really not a major factor. These are the features that are threatened to fail complete if I upgrade the features I use only occasionally on my device. Not exactly a bargain to begin with, and then you slap a massive price tag on top of the upgrade too.
I freely admit that my phone is much, much more customized than most. People generally don’t have to worry about their custom control UIs not working properly on a new device, because they don’t have custom control UIs. However, the problem is there even for more standardized Android users, as exampled by mainstream apps like WidgetLocker and Unlock With WiFi being affected. It shouldn’t be like that. There’s a big enough monetary downside of upgrading to a newer device that you most certainly shouldn’t have to worry about it actually turning out to be a downgrade in the process. Jokes about Apple Maps aside, you generally don’t have to worry that going from an iPad 2 to a third generation iPad or from an iPhone 4S to the iPhone 5 is going to cause you endless pain because nothing works the way it used to.
I’m not placing the blame in any specific corner here, I’m simply pointing out that there is a problem. I don’t have the luxury of going to a platform like Windows Phone or the iPhone anymore, because they’re so ridiculously incapable of doing the things I do with my phone that I might as well just get a string and two cans. Still, it would be nice to be on a platform where the answer to the question “should I upgrade” doesn’t result in a formula that looks like something related to quantum physics.
You can’t compare upgrading an Android phone, where there are literally hundreds of options, to an iPhone/iPad upgrade where your options are limited to 1 each.
When you upgrade your device, you assume the risk that what you are currently using, might not be compatible. It happens with Windows upgrades as well. I had to chuck my old sound card from Turtle Beach when I moved to Windows 7. It’s part of the process, sometimes you need to move on and let old things die.
Android provides many more options than Windows (or Apple, lol) in that you can go ahead and root the device and slap on ASOP or Sense/Moto/Touchwiz hybrids. You could get different compatibility with all of those, but that’s the beauty! If the developer of your favorite application is awesome, then they might look at updating their software to support the new versions/hardware. Life isn’t always that grand though.
Please though, for the love of God, stop comparing Apple, who has at most 5 different phones (starting from 1) with android that has about a thousand (starting from 1). If you want to never change, get an iPhone. Android users need to be able to adapt and understand that things change and their favorite developer might not move as quickly.
If you get so ingrained with exactly what your setup is, then you shouldn’t upgrade. That’s what happen when you highly customize. Sometimes you’ll have to stick to the older platforms. Ask NASA (486 CPUs anyone?), any government, and my work (where they are stuck on older systems due to the use of PowerBuilder).
I think that it’s the beauty of Android, not an issue at all.
You read my mind.
I think it’s just a matter of the environment. Android seems to be more “bleeding edge” than apple or windows. It’s awesome but it’s a double edged sword. Android tends to get the coolest gadgets and features first but also get the bugs that come along. As a tinker-er I would rather be on the forefront and deal with the bugs (because when there’s a bug, there’s something to learn from) and there is almost always a workaround or fix if you dig deep enough.
I agree with Greg D that this is due to the multiplicity of options available with Android. That makes QA exponentially more difficult. (But problems still slip through the limited Apple ecosystem, as we’ve all seen.)
Over the next couple of years, I would expect much more stability just as we saw with personal computers. I still recall these types of upgrade/incompatibility problems, apps not working, etc (and they still crop up from time to time). Android and mobile hardware is still relatively new – these are just the growing pains.
I disagree with Andreas title. Their can be many reasons for fearing upgrading – but they aren’t necessarily due to the eco system.
Maybe I live a sheltered life, but when I went from 2.1 to 2.2 amd 2.2 to 2.3 and 2.3 to 4.0 changing devices but keeping the same account and apps (in general) I have had no problems.
I think that Google have roughly the right idea of launching an OS update every 6 months, with a big step every 2 years. Because it is a big step it will cause problems with apps. The bigger question is – how easy can they be changed!
Windows Phone 7 to Windows Phone 8 is a big step and they aren’t even letting you use the old hardware – with Android Eco System you can.
iOS has this falsehood that all the old iPhones will run the latest iOS. They don’t and aren’t allowed to and when they do they can have restrictions. Can a 3GS run iOS6 – yes it can but actually runs slower than iOS5 and doesn’t have all the new functionality. Maps for example doesn’t give turn-by-turn navigation. Can the original iPad? No it can’t!
So the big question always comes down to – does can my key software handle the upgrade? If no then wait for the it to be amended or don’t upgrade. This is true fo any OS you choose to use unless its kernel is never changed.
You summed up my concerns in trying to figure out which (used) Android phone I should buy as my first smartphone… I never would have thought of the crashes or artificial install limitations until I got my Nook Touch 6 months ago — I just figured it’d be like running regular Linux, which I’ve been using on my 1.6GHz Centrino, 700MHz P3, and Intel Atom with the same updated version & apps…boy was I wrong. :-/
There are really only 2 players in this whole game, iphone and galaxy nexus. Everything else is just cluttered crap.You hate apple? Buy a nexus. You hate android? Buy an iphone.Everthing else, good luck. Go start a forum bitch thread.