This is going to get a bit meta, as I’m linking to a post linking to a post (shut up with the Inception jokes), but here’s John Gruber:
It’s almost certain that this is what the executives at these Android device makers think, too. Why bother with software updates? We’ve got their money. Let them buy a new device if they want the latest software.
Now, that in mind, take my history. Bought the orignal iPhone. It got better the entire time I owned it. Not really any competition at upgrade time, so I got a 3G. At the end of my time with the 3G (when the iPhone 4 came out), there is a ton of competition. But I bought another iPhone. Sure, it was the best phone available, but by this point I trusted Apple, and with an iPhone I felt like I would get a return on the investment.
The alternative with Android: There is a new flagship phone every 6 weeks. And those 6 weeks are likely going to be the entire time the device gets any software updates. You might get security patches. But realistically an Android device’s software feature set is locked when it ships. Conversely, an iPhone will get better as you own it.
Back to me. I’m an iPhone 4 customer. I skipped the iPhone 4S. Now, Samsung would look at that and say “Well, of course you did. You got most of the features of the 4S without upgrading your hardware.” And they’d be entirely wrong. I, like most Americans, can’t afford to plop down $500 on a phone every year. So like most Americans, I follow the subsidy upgrade path. Which means the 4S was never really on my radar. Which means that Apple could either make me as happy as possible for two years until I can upgrade, and hope I stick with Apple, or they can be as entirely shortsighted as Android manufacturers have been, and ensure that I won’t buy from them again.
But don’t listen to me. Ask one of the 10 million Samsung Galaxy S users how they feel about missing the boat on a major upgrade, even though their phone probably still smells of the packaging it came in.
