Devices getting outdated

[kolaval]

I notice that the HTC one and S4 are getting vanilla android versions and it got me thinking.

We all know about the issue, that OEM's/carriers cannot be bothered to upgrade our android devices to the latest versions. The exception to this has been the nexus devices always getting updates quite quickly.

So why can the carriers/OEM's not decide to release optional vanilla android with just their drivers for older phones?
Which means you might loose e.g. sense on your older HTC but at least you will be able to get to e.g 4.2.2

Probably will not motivate you to upgrade to the latest device, I suspect

 

[Valerion]

I notice that the HTC one and S4 are getting vanilla android versions and it got me thinking.

We all know about the issue, that OEM's/carriers cannot be bothered to upgrade our android devices to the latest versions. The exception to this has been the nexus devices always getting updates quite quickly.

So why can the carriers/OEM's not decide to release optional vanilla android with just their drivers for older phones?
Which means you might loose e.g. sense on your older HTC but at least you will be able to get to e.g 4.2.2

Probably will not motivate you to upgrade to the latest device, I suspect

Because the carriers want things like "no tethering", which is not available on vanilla android. So they are not interested in doing this.

The device manufacturers have to honour warranties, which is harder when they can't control what software is installed on your phone. Is the fact that you can't make calls because the hardware is broken, or because you installed a incorrect driver? Or incorrectly flashed a new ROM? This all puts more load on the help desks and repair centres.

Also, on vanilla, neither the carrier nor the device manufacturer can get paid for pre-installing applications (like Netflix).

 

[Lupus]

Also if they don't release a new version of Android you are more motivated to upgrade your phone to get the newer OS. Planned obsolescence