The Hardware Choice Trade-Off

Marco Arment makes the case that the plethora of Android devices has numerous downsides. One point of several:

The manufacturers and carriers have very little incentive to maintain the software on devices that are still relatively new and under contract, because they want everyone buying the newest ones instead. We’re already seeing carriers and some manufacturers refusing to release new Android versions to handsets that were launched as recently as 6 months ago, even though most users bought them with 2-year contracts.

He also mentions the lack of cases for any individual Android phone, compared to the iPhone, where there are just two form factors covering the last three years of iPhones: 3G/3GS, and 4. Update: Maybe two-and-a-half form factors, given the slightly different positioning of the mute toggle on the just-announced CDMA iPhone 4. But still.

★ Thursday, 13 January 2011