> Failing that, vendors should for the very least offer an extended paid OS update service past the usual 2-3 year support period.
Sadly this is called buying a new phone and it won't change.
With Android devices now around 150 euros price range, I doubt very much anyone is willing to pay for updates versus a new phone.
And on the OEM side, Google seems unwilling to attach update requirements on their contracts with OEMs.
They would only need to make it part of the requirements to integrate with the Play Store, so easy, but they won't do it, looking at their current behavior.
Lack of updates was already the norm in the older days, with luck some Symbian handsets used to have just one firmware update during their lifetime, which only technical users would apply anyway.
I think it's pretty irresponsible to have things hooked up to the internet that don't receive security updates. I would support legislation that forces vendors to fix security problems for free for all devices with network interfaces for at least five years, better ten. It's only going to get worse once the IoT really gets going.
IoT is already worse, in the last couple of years there have been multiple security talks joking about the state of affairs, yet it doesn't seem to have improved much.
While I do not immediately agree I can see one nice side effect:
It would maybe limit the rate at which new imcompatible things are sent to market: if you have to support that stupid thing for a number of years you better get all the drivers into some sort of mainline kernel etc etc
I would count software problems as manufacturing defects, but I'm no lawyer. I wonder if anybody tried getting their old hardware replaced for free after discovering a software problem.
Sadly this is called buying a new phone and it won't change.
With Android devices now around 150 euros price range, I doubt very much anyone is willing to pay for updates versus a new phone.
And on the OEM side, Google seems unwilling to attach update requirements on their contracts with OEMs.
They would only need to make it part of the requirements to integrate with the Play Store, so easy, but they won't do it, looking at their current behavior.
Lack of updates was already the norm in the older days, with luck some Symbian handsets used to have just one firmware update during their lifetime, which only technical users would apply anyway.