Apple, Android and obsolescence

John Gruber was on a roll last night, bringing up the #1 reason I urge friends and family to strongly consider iOS:

Android devices are famously slow to receive major software updates, and tend to get none at all. The carriers control the updates for Android phones, and the carriers really do want you to buy a new phone as soon as your two-year contract is up. Even with Google’s Nexus phones — for which Google, not the carriers, issues software updates, like Apple does — they only support an 18-month window for OS updates. Thus their own Galaxy Nexus phone, released in November 2011, did not qualify for the Android 4.4 update released a few months ago.

Apple supports four generations of iPhone with iOS 7, Google just two generations of Nexus phone with Android 4.4 — but it’s Apple that has widely been accused of devious “planned obsolescence”.