You make very little sense....
I believe we are misunderstanding each other....
1) I am not calling for more frequent upgrades. The original comment I responded to complained that Apple only releasing one phone model per year was unacceptable. I believe that is garbage and its like saying Microsoft needs to release a new version of Windows yearly, or Office, or anything. I probably did not make my point well since it was very late when I wrote that -- my apologies. I think less frequent updates, more stability, and making updates available to nearly all users are a good thing. I also think new features given to users of old devices makes more sense than selling a new phone every three months and expecting folks to fork over more cash to get the new features.
2) Clearly I am not up on my Windows Phone news -- I should probably get one of those devices. Apparently they have gotten more updates than I was aware of. I'm not trying to talk smack or even get into that argument of which is better. I was originally just trying to point out that Apple need not upgrade their phone more than once per year because every software upgrade makes even their 2-year-old phones even better than they were. I know MS botched their first upgrade and bricked some people, but I must admit I stopped following Windows Phone news after that with the exception of the Mango announcement a few months ago. Which looks very nice.
3) I did not say "the last six months", I said I get more updates in
a six month period than most Android or WP users see in a lifetime. Clearly that statement was wrong on Windows Phone -- and I'd probably know better if I had such a device to play with. And that brings us to Android.....
Well I can assure you I've had some unexpected upgrades out of the last 6 months of development....
The vast majority of those iOS "upgrades" were already possible on Android due to the differences in the way that third party applications can integrate with the system and that Android as an OS already had that functionality.....
Yes, they are different platforms. I can say that I could pull photos from an SD card or use my iPad as a USB host for a keyboard with the adapters that shipped at the time the product shipped. I could even rent, download and watch movies on it when it shipped. Both platforms have their advantages and drawbacks, but are converging in many ways and diverging in others. I still can't use it as a generic USB host or have treat an SD card as external storage which are clearly two of the differences. Are these use cases I care about? No, but some would like that. Apple does put you at their mercy, but the trade off is you get things that work out of the box without any third-party setup and configuration which makes my life easier since at the end of my work day I am tired of configuring and setting up and doing technical support. It's nice that my wife rarely has to ask for help with her iPhone. It's two different models, like Chevy and Honda. I can go to a Chevy dealership and order a brand new car to my exact specifications and choose from tons of options. If I go to a Honda dealership I have a set of pre-defined choices that make sense together and I don't have to think about it. I am confident I could take a premier Android phone and trick it out to do almost everything an iPhone does and still have other options the iPhone can't do. I could even jailbreak my iPhone and maybe even do more than I could with the Android device. I don't bother with those options for the same reason I don't buy parts and build my own car or build my own computer, the building brings me no joy. I like using these things, not configuring and tinkering them except for the basic stuff. It needs to just work without a bunch of third-party downloads. That is "for me" -- and it is clearly not for everyone and so I am glad we have choices.
So it looks like some of the newer devices are getting upgraded. My iPhone 3Gs was released prior to the Motorola Droid. The only way to upgrade the Motorola Droid to Gingerbread is by rooting it, but my brother-in-law's experience with that has been horrible performance. Something Apple determined was the case for the iPhone 3G and iOS 4. My iPhone 3Gs is eligible for iOS5 next month, the performance may stink on that too. This is the
list of phones that will not get Gingerbread, but I must admit that I am impressed by the list you provided because it looks the situation is much improved over what it was in the past.
Are these versions being offered including updates to the manufacturer's UI layer are they pure Android with nothing on top, or is it a mix of both?
