If you bought a smartphone running Android 1.6, don't expect to get the operating system's latest version any time soon.
Android and Me asked several phone manufacturers when their customers could expect an update, and got discouraging non-responses from all of them. Their answers reveal a dysfunctional system where wireless carriers decide whether and when to update a phone's operating system.
"Unfortunately, I do not have any information on if the DROID ERIS by HTC will receive the Éclair update, as it is dependant upon Verizon requesting it," an HTC representative said. Verizon said its conversations with handset manufacturers are "proprietary," and essentially said -- to paraphrase -- "we'll tell you when updates are ready."
Motorola said that its Cliq phone is capable of receiving updates, but there's no release schedule or word on which new version of Android customers would eventually receive.
The latest version of Android is "Éclair," or Android 2.0, which debuted on Verizon Wireless with Motorola's Droid. However, another Verizon phone that launched simultaneously, the Droid Eris, only included Android 1.6. And Motorola's Cliq, which launched less than a month earlier than the Droid, uses Android 1.5.
Advantages with Android 2.0 include support for multiple accounts, multi-touch and a faster browser, among other improvements. Android 2.0 is also the only version that currently supports Google's turn-by-turn navigation, but this function will be brought to older versions. Hardware limitations in older phones, such as lack of storage space, could be preventing upgrades for some phones. I also suspect that the use of custom user interfaces by HTC and Motorola would make upgrades difficult to integrate.
If older phones can't evolve with the platform, that's too bad. The impact will really be felt in apps, as developers try to accommodate old Android versions in order to reach the largest possible base of users. In this regard, it would seem that Android's advantage of ubiquity is being squandered.
