Gadgetory

why does it take so long for us to get updates for our smartphones could it be carrier subsidies that's our topic on this week's Android guy weekly in the United States when you want to go and get a cell phone you typically find what provider you want and then you find out what phones they have and you sign up for a contract that contract is usually two years sometimes more sometimes less but two years is pretty average and you get a discount on a phone when you do that now the discount is really a subsidy and that discount can be anywhere from no few bucks to a few hundred bucks and you get the latest and greatest phone for sometimes half price of what you get if you bought it unlocked or unsubsidized and that sounds like a good deal until you start looking at what you're really getting first of all you are getting tied into that contract you have an early termination fee that you have to pay to get out of the contract which is usually a couple hundred bucks you know the amount that you saved when you bought the phone subsidized sounds a little convenient doesn't it but you're also losing out on some other stuff that really isn't all that obvious first of all you've got the price that you play pay for your plan you're probably paying too much there look at our friends over across the pond they pick out the phone they want then they pick the plan they want and they put the two together and if they decide that's not the plan for them they go out and get a new plan it doesn't cost them early term fees now of course they don't usually get a subsidized phone when they do that they get a full price phone and then they get the plan at a lower rate and that's how over the course of however long that phone works for them that's how much money they save but that's something interesting hey how long can you use a phone well I've got a nexus one that's still in perfect working condition it's got some battle scars but it works great I've got an epic 4g I've got a g2 all these phones they're not that old they still work great so why why don't I use them daily why do I have a brand new phone why do I have this galaxy nexus in my hand well they don't have a new operating system we come back to that subsidies I'm not the only one who's kind of thinking that subsidies aren't all that great for you and you'll be surprised who had this kind of radical idea let me read it to you first they'll tell you who it was at a conference or summat rather this guy said the following device subsidies actually distorts what devices actually cost and it causes OEMs carriers everybody to compete on different playing fields I think it's really difficult especially from a consumer perspective because it causes consumers to devalue completely the hardware they're using see it's not a phone anymore it's just a contract extension device so let's go back to this it's amazing hardware but it has become a kind of throw away so it's unfortunate you've got dual core multiprocessor devices with amazing HD screens that get thrown away at 18 months so who said that it was t-mobile's chief marketing officer cold broadman wow that's a big player so why do we throw our phones away in 18 months is it because they're broken it might be some of the phones that I've seen get broken relatively easily fact I have one co-worker that has gone through so many of her phones that it's just ridiculous she decided to go to an entirely different phone this time around same manufacturer ironically but that phone kind of had the yeah and I'm not going to tell you which one because i think i'm hoping that hers was an isolated incident but it had kind of a a false impression i hope it was false that it was cheaply made which is sad because it was a flagship device and it was one of the four major devices that this manufacturer made for the different carriers and it was supposed to be wow look how great we are but it was kind of cheap and had some problems with construction why why would a manufacturer do that and possibly tarnish their reputation as a manufacturer you know when that phone breaks one getting one from them again their last one sucked right why would they do that because the OEMs rather the carriers want the OEMs to make specific hardware at a specific price in a specific time frame so that's one thing you know they're not going to put a lot of quality into it because they don't have to last that long they've only got a last 12-18 months and then you're going to be buying a new one anyway right okay so that's hardware and for the most part manufacturers make good hardware software now how many updates do you get on your desktop computer whether that be Linux or Apple or Microsoft it becomes somewhat frequently you know every few weeks it seems how often do you get them on your phone not that often why it's not because there are bugs it's not because there are ways that they can enhance or make things better it's because it's got to go through all these different layers both at the OEM and the carrier before it gets pushed down to your phone and sometimes I can take half a year to do which is really bad if it's like a zero-day exploit that they really need to patch up really quick you're not going to get that because of all of this bureaucracy so if you're oxys one thing but also what about new operating systems I just installed ice cream sandwich on that epic 4g Ice Cream Sandwich and it's pretty darn good it seems nearly feature complete as far as what I use for daily operation and it's amazing it works just fine it's not as fast as you know on a multi-core processor but it works it works every bit as good as the version that came on it so why isn't Samsung saying hey let's get ice cream sandwich on this phone today because it can be done why aren't they putting all their effort behind that because we're not the customer the carrier is their customer their carrier I believe doesn't want that instead they want you to say to get the message oh we're going to get updates for these phones it's just going to take a little time for our quality to make sure it works well on our network because it's the network that's important we don't want to release something that's going to everybody else on our network you know just because you want it doesn't mean everybody else doesn't and if the the situation were reversed you'd want the same thing see how nice we're being by protecting our network it's all about the network okay whatever serious guys if you've got a problem with the device turn it off you've got that option flip the switch right there on the panel anyway way off topic they don't necessarily want to update that device because they've already got a new device that they have in the channel they're working on it and it's going to be out in the next six months with the latest operating system on it and hey yeah we're working on that one and it'll be out by the end of the year so hang on with us don't worry we'll get it to you and then oh hey did you know that now you can get a brand new phone that's got a dual core or even a quad-core processor double the RAM super fast and it comes with that operating system already built on it sweet in fact you know what will even buy back your own device your old device and give you 50 bucks well then sign you up for another two-year contract sub that subsidize it and you're looking at 150 bucks you can get a brand new phone well who wouldn't want to do that except okay two problems one now you're in another two-year contract you just pay it paid another 150 bucks that you didn't have to plus all the stuff that you're going to be paying for the next two years but that phone that they bought back from you do you think they were doing you a favor I don't think so see what you could have done with that phone is hacked it put cyanogen mod or some other rom on it and hey have the latest and greatest thing now or sold it to a friend probably for that same 50 bucks maybe a little bit more even who then hack it and have the latest and greatest on that device and now holy crap they might have a newer operating system on your old phone then you have on your new phone because they were more tech savvy you know somebody like me and hopefully like a lot of you guys were able to add extended life to that device beyond what the manufacturer had originally intended beyond what the carrier had originally intended they don't like that because that's not getting new devices in your hands and that's not getting new contracts under their belt okay sounds like a big conspiracy theory that's my take on it now it's your turn that comment box down below let me know am I off my rocker or does this sound logical does it make sense have you experienced the same thing or maybe you've got an entirely different theory on why subsidies exist and if they're good or bad something that I missed here please let us know that down below of course we want to get as many people participating here as possible so make sure you thumbs up the video so that all of your friends know about it that you liked this format that you like being able to participate in this so that we can get their opinions here as well and make this conversation even bigger even better so that's it for this week subsidies comment down below of course subscribe to the video channel so you don't miss next week's episode if you've got a recommendation on what that should be go ahead and fire that over to me just contact me through pocketnow.com for pocketnow.com and the android guy weekly i'm joe levi