Why doesn’t my Android device enjoy the same updates that iPhone users enjoy?

Alright, let’s get something straight here… I’m going to argue this topic purely from an economic point of view, not a technical one, but an economic point of view. With that being said, let’s continue…

When an Android OEM is about to come out with a new device what does the Android OEM do? Think about this for a moment. Have you thought about it?

When an Android OEM is about to come out with a new device they start off with a marketing blitz. In the case of Samsung (the OEM I’ve chosen for this blog post), they market the device as “The Next Big Thing”©. Why is that? I’ll give you some more time to think…

OK, time’s up. The reason why they do this is because this marketing strategy practically prints the cash for them. It practically hauls the cash in for the OEM by the semi-truck full. All they need to do is come out with a new device every year and it’s like a gold mine for the company.

So with that being said, we now ask the question which is also the title of this post. Why doesn’t my Android device enjoy the same updates that iPhone users enjoy?

To answer that question we have to think about the economics of Android. Android is a money printing machine for any company that makes Android devices. The hard work is already is done for them, the base OS is handed to them free of charge and not only that but they can modify it all they want and change it into whatever they want it to be. Not only that but every time an OEM releases a new model device it practically prints cash for them. So from a purely economic point of view, there’s no good business reason for the OEM to develop software updates for their older devices.

Let’s face some things here… If you were an executive in one of these OEMs, Samsung for instance. What would you rather do?

  1. Develop software updates for your older devices which not only costs the company money but also takes away from the R&D of new devices.
  2. Put the effort into making “The Next Big Thing”© which is pretty damn well guaranteed to bring in the cash like nobody’s business.

Hmm… if I were an executive which one of those choices would I choose? Choice #2 of course, silly.

So basically from a purely economic point of view there’s really no reason why the OEM should update your phone. They already have your money after all. The OEMs consider it a done deal the moment you hand over your cash.

And now you know why your Android device will never see updates like iPhone users enjoy. This is purely economics here folks, you can’t argue with economics.

Last updated on Sunday, July 17th, 2016 at 6:36 PM by trparky.