If your very manufacturer fragmented Android phone has the same issues, where do you go?
You go to the manufacturer
Seriously, support is the responsibility of the manufacturer. In Apple's case, the manufacturer is the sole curator of the platform, and, big surprise, Apple happens to have a good customer service track record. In Android's case, the manufacturer does not develop the platform, Google does. Some Android manufacturers offer better support than others. Arguments against Android manufacturers cannot and should not be levied against the Android platform itself.
What Apple fanboys often don't understand is
what Android is. It's a free and open source operating system, and
any manufacturer can use it. If I had the resources, I could design and market my very own Android phone. Fragmentation of the platform as a whole is generally a much greater issue for Android developers than it is for consumers, unless you're on some very old version of Android.
If you want a unified, "iPhone-like" or "iPad-like" experience (or rather, the closest Android equivalent) with a quickly up-to-date OS, buy a Galaxy Nexus, Nexus S, or Nexus 7. The fact that these devices are open to (completely optional) user modification and development
by default is a bonus. These devices are officially supported by Google, and are supported with updates for as long as the hardware is capable. Google has a little bit of control over most Android devices in their "Google apps" certification process, controlling the distribution of apps like Gmail and Google Play, but not much. If you expect Google to be able to
directly support the myriad of hundreds of Android devices out there, then you haven't the slightest clue how Android works. You can make as many arguments against Android's open nature as you want, but that's just the very
nature of the OS. If Apple had gone this way with iOS, you would be seeing many of the same things.
If you want everything iOS has to offer, the
only choice you have is the iPhone 4S or the new iPad (or perhaps, in a few months, the iPhone 5 instead), because Apple likes to hold back features from its old products to sell its new ones. Android manufacturers are often guilty of the same things, but many of the same arguments iOS fanboys like to use against Android hold for Apple too, and too often, Apple's motives are much more nefarious - where is iOS 6 for the third generation iPod touch, which has the same hardware as the iPhone 3GS, and where is iOS 6 for the original iPad, which has far more capable hardware than the iPhone 3GS? Where is Siri and turn-by-turn navigation on the iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS? Where is Siri on the iPad 2?
Unlike Google, Apple doesn't fragment its platform because of a lack of control, it fragments its platform intentionally to get consumers to replace their products with new Apple products. If that's the kind of ecosystem you want to support, then go right ahead.
