There’s a new Android phone every two weeks now. That often spells bad news for slightly older phones as carriers and makers abandon their development. Not anymore.
Google just rolled out the founding partners of an inititive to keep hardware up-to-date for at least 18 months. That means these top five hardware makers and top five carriers won’t forget about last year’s hot device. They will eventually get the latest update although since details were a bit light at I/O, it isn’t exactly clear how this will work. The only stipulation here is that the phone’s hardware must support the Android build, which sort of means low-end Android devices will still be left to die before their high-end brethren.
Google is, however, rolling out new guidelines that dictate how long it takes a given device to receive the latest Android build. Right now it’s up to the makers and carriers, which often leave the consumers feeling frustrated and abandoned as months go by without an update. Now, under the new guidelines, there will be a set time that consumers should get the latest OS.