The wireless industry hasn’t quite got it yet. I’ve penned countless editorials on this site, dating back to 2003, begging the industry to wake up on the importance of a steady stream of firmware updates.
One reason Apple is kicking the industry’s butt is that iPhone keeps getting firmware updates. No, not iPhone 3G, and not iPhone 3GS, but the first iPhone. Apple continues to backport firmware for a device they don’t sell anymore. Does HTC do that? Nope, they’ve already cut support for their first Android phones on most carriers. Does Samsung do that? It took a community white paper to convince them to fix the bugs in their SCH-i8910 Symbian superphone.
No, folks, the industry still doesn’t get it. People expect their phones to last longer than their contracts, and only Apple delivers that. Granted, Apple does a lot of stuff that can only be described as communistic. But, one thing they get right is what average users expect… and they typically beat that.
Case in point is today’s buried failure of the SMT5800. The average eBay value of this phone has fallen below the Motorola RAZR. Why? Because the firmware wasn’t maintained. Had it been maintained, we would have seen EV-DO Rev A, Windows Mobile 6.1, and yes, dare I say, Windows Mobile 6.5 and beyond. GPS should have been there in the first place, no excuses there.
Companies try their quirky tactics, such as forced firmware updates. It doesn’t matter if it’s Palm or Verizon, we nail them for their lame efforts that miss the mark. Palm got our message and stepped up with native code. But where are the carriers stepping up, promising that devices will have to launch with firmware support timeframes? Where are the lifecycles that go beyond the contracts?
In short, I’m angry. The SMT5800 should have been a killer phone. It should have seen a successor. But the industry still has its head stuck in a pre-iPhone mentality. At PhoneNews.com, we’re already in a post-iPhone mentality… and we’ve butted heads with far too many in the industry that just don’t get it.
So, for 2010, we’re going to buck the trend. We’re going to bring consumers through this, and let the chips fall where they may. We’re going to tell consumers how to rise above this mindset that plagues the industry. Hopefully, maybe, just maybe, the industry will wake up in the process.
Apple and Palm are selling a platform. They want all users of there devices to get updates to drive the platform forward. I’m been saying this very same thing on several posts awhile back.
Companies, namely HTC are only interested in selling phones. They rather you just buy a new phone if your old one has bugs. Google should FORCE device makers using android compulsory updates. The old G1 should get android 2.1. Microsoft with WM7 should control 100% of the software that goes on the phones, similar to the model that google is doing with the nexus one.
The boat may have sailed on branding Google Experience with guaranteed updates, but I think Google could still create a more premium brand.
Android – No Google support
Android with Google – Google Experience apps (market, maps, etc).
Android with “Google Plus” – Guaranteed three years of Android OS updates, cloud sync services, etc.
That would work.
Their is a simple reason that cellphone companies and cellphone makers like HTC, Sanyo and other do not maintain firmware updates like apple does. It’s all about the money. First off it costs money to produce the updates, they have to test, and verify with the phone company that it works. This process from what i was told can take 6 months to do.
Second and most important reason is that the cellphone companies will make money off of you. If you are just one year into your contract you might have to pay full price for a newer phone that does not have the issue your current phone has like the Sprint HTC PPC6600 was to have a firmware upgrade to EVDO, sprint said so then changed their mind telling people to purchase the HTC PPC6700 with EVDO. Sprint and HTC makes more money this way, and if you extend your contract they make money longer.
Neither of those reasons hold water anymore. Competition killed the excuse star.
All those “analysts” that are in shock that iPhone has outpaced Windows Mobile, need to get their heads out of their pre-iPhone mindsets, and stop harkening back to laughing at my circa-2003 editorials. The fact that the industry still doesn’t get, is the joke.
Like the American auto industry learned, a sub-standard product will hurt you for decades to come. If the industry doesn’t react with multi-year commitments on firmware, Apple could easily become the Microsoft of the phone industry.
I’ve already given up on MS. For me to even look at windows mobile 7, its going to have to knock my socks off, make me breakfast, and mow my lawn. MS’s plan is to still make money of off licenses. From a consumer perspective, this is a flawed model for the mobile space. MS will care less about regular updates, instead forcing you to buy a new phone. The ball right now is in Apple’s court and so far Palm. Hopefully Palm will remain faithful to their core base and update the pre/pixi for years come. Palm has stated that they are selling a platform (webOS) and they want it to succeed.
Android is in a different boat. I think google should FORCE handset makes to guarantee regular android updates in order to receive the full suite of Google services( maps, calendar, gmail, goggles and more) While android is free and open source, these apps are NOT. So if a handset makers wants to provide them, they have to guarantee google 3 years of updates, I’m not talking about bug fixes only, but full version android OS updates. Look at the iphone 2g. Its running Iphone OS 3.0 and it launched with 1.0.
What do you think Chris.
The problem with Google “simply demanding” that device makers add in mandatory upgrading, is that the manufacturers can just pull a Dell and make their own branch of Android, sans Google completely.
The only way for Google to get manufacturers to agree to upgrade devices consistently, will be to appease them with additional features and services, the “with Google plus” concept that I touched on previously.