Is it any surprise that I like Android as an operating system? Would you be shocked if I told you I despise Apple’s App Store practices and how they restrict iOS devices? If you answered yes to either of those questions you’re either new here or have problems comprehending what you read. In the first case let me say welcome and in the latter case let me question your intelligence.
I’ve made a few posts about my Android phone and a few posts criticizing Apple’s practices in regards to iOS. This post is quite an opposite because I must give Apple some serious credit where it is due, their support for older devices.
Apple does a pretty decent job of supporting old versions of the iPhone for some appreciable amount of time. For instance if you have the previous model of the iPhone you can install the newest version of iOS and get many of its features. This isn’t so true in the Android world. I have an HTC Evo 4G and a while ago HTC released Android 2.2 for the device. Unfortunately that update has some glaring issues, the biggest of which in my opinion is the inability to sync multiple GMail accounts. If you have two GMail accounts added to your Android phone only the primary one will sync automatically leaving you to manually refresh each other account. Couple this with non-functioning VPN and flaky Exchange support and you have a desperate need for a patch.
The problem is HTC has so far simply stated they are looking into the problem and have not released an fix. Why am I concerned? Because of the history most Android manufacturers have with dropping support for devices that aren’t that old. While an iPhone owner can expect to receive updates for a couple years after purchasing their phone most Android users are lucky to receive fixes for a full year. There are some exceptions such as Google’s Nexus One (which is no longer being sold to consumers) and Motorola’s Droid (which is obsolete) but for the most part it seems manufacturers are quick to drop support for their devices forcing you to either go without updates or upgrade to a new phone.
I will also note that Palm has done a great job at continuing to support the Pre and Pixi but that could be due to the simple fact those are the only two phones they have released. Previously they were fast to stop releasing updates for their Treos and PDAs.
Let me simple give Apple a big cudos