A rather surprising point mentioned during the Google I/O event is this…
We’re jointly announcing that new devices from participating partners will receive the latest Android platform upgrades for 18 months after the device is first released, as long as the hardware allows…and that’s just the beginning. Stay tuned for more details.
That’s a pretty big statement. Reporters are already pressing Google representatives on this point, especially with networks currently having to jump through hoops to update their branded versions of the OS.
Google state that Verizon, HTC, Sprint, Sony Ericsson, Samsung, LG, Vodafone, Motorola T-Mobile and AT&T are on-board. Will Google be able to handle all those branded versions from AT&T, T-mobile, Vodafone etc ? Will they be able to continually roll out updates with bolt-on GUI tweaks like Blur, Sense, TouchWiz etc ? That’s a lot of extra work .. who’s going to be doing all that ? Google or the manufacturers and their own coders ? It’s not really known at this point and the details seem a little vague.
Link – Google Blog
this is freaking fantastic news BUT! thats the biggie, if the hardware allows. now we all know that HW manufacturers will slack off and say their hardware wont cope with the latest OS purely cos they’re lazy, it’ll cost them and want to sell the latest hardware with the latest OS update. we’ve all seen when the dev community spits in their faces and crams in the latest and greatest into some pre-historic hardware to make it work – and they companies still say it wont work? pfft…
You also might want to bear in mind that you may have the situation where the manufacturer releases the update, but like SE are doing with the X10 to 2.3 upgrade, not all the operator derived phones will get the updates.