Android needs to move to a software model more like how Windows or linux distributions are released where a single disk image can work on just about any device, and after installed, you simply install the drivers for your specific hardware. Though with most smartphones using the same board level specs, driver packages should be easy to maintain.
If android could move to that model, then it will be easier to keep smartphones up to date. While I use android, I find that these devices have the worst support out of any other device.
Think about this, when you buy a video card, a low end Nvidia GPU from 200, got updates until late 2018.
Windows will typically offer security updates for 10+ years.
My Samsung Galaxy S5 still gets security updates to fix bugs when some OS updates cause issues with the phone.
With a smartphone, we typically get 18-24 months of support and most smartphones will at best offer 1 major OS update and a security update every 4-6 months or so. Low end models may at best get one update over their life.
Most laptops priced similarly to the higher end smartphones, will typically get bios and major driver updates for 5+ years.
With all of this in mind, if we look at laptops and smartphones we see that the smartphones will typically have a 350%-600% profit margin over BOM + manufacturing while a laptop may have a 20-50% margin.
Why can a laptop maker release a device at a 20-50% margin and support it for 5 years while a smartphone maker can get a 600% margin and only support it for 18-24 months?
PS, by support for laptops (and even desktop PC motherboards), I am talking about things like driver and bios updates. Overall, many other companies are shipping devices at a lot lower profit margins than smartphones while supporting their devices for a longer time.
Tags:
Android
