"You're either buying into a platform or you're buying gadgets."
This is it. Manufacturers are still in the mindset of selling gadgets, not a platform. Each gadget ships with featureset that doesn't change after it is shipped (ie. they don't expect to upgrade the OS).
On the other hand, we're buying into a brand that represents a platform. We expect apps written after the phone was released to work.
I think it's interesting that this is exactly what a Linux distribution solves. The "gadget" (ie. computer) does not matter any more.
My laptop is the same as your laptop, except perhaps in the specs. But we can run the same version of the same OS if we choose to. But my Android phone probably isn't running the same version of Android as your Android phone, and we would probably struggle to achieve this if we tried to.
What we need is a vendor-independent Android distribution. Is CyanogenMod the future?
This is it. Manufacturers are still in the mindset of selling gadgets, not a platform. Each gadget ships with featureset that doesn't change after it is shipped (ie. they don't expect to upgrade the OS).
On the other hand, we're buying into a brand that represents a platform. We expect apps written after the phone was released to work.
I think it's interesting that this is exactly what a Linux distribution solves. The "gadget" (ie. computer) does not matter any more.
My laptop is the same as your laptop, except perhaps in the specs. But we can run the same version of the same OS if we choose to. But my Android phone probably isn't running the same version of Android as your Android phone, and we would probably struggle to achieve this if we tried to.
What we need is a vendor-independent Android distribution. Is CyanogenMod the future?