[Galaxy S II General] jaykresge:
Dark79 -

My comparison was to show development life cycles of a phone, and it works. Google offers roughly 18 months (typically 20-22) of updates on their Nexus. We got the same on the SGS2. However, since you brought other phones into the mix, I will gladly show you how my comparison still works on them.

In regards to the Galaxy S versus the Nexus S, I've already explained the life cycle of the Nexus. However, to reiterate, it was released in 12/10 w/2.3, updated to 4.0 and 4.1, with the final update being 10/12, or 22 months after release. It had two major OS updates. The Galaxy S, by comparison, was released 6/10 w/2.1. It was then updated to 2.2, then 2.3, and then Samsung faced a major hurdle (that they had caused) for the final update. You see, it wasn't lack of RAM, it was lack of ROM, a completely different beast. This is where the base firmware (and radio firmware, and other key software) resides and goes untouched by the user. There was not enough ROM on the device for Android 4.0 w/Touchwiz 3.0 (the THEN current UI of the Galaxy S1). Samsung thought that they could just do no update, but that would be a disservice to the users. They thought about just doing Android 4.0 w/TW 3.0, but then the phone would essentially be the same, as TW3.0 already had many Android 4.0 functions. This option also meant stripping some TW 3.0 features, which would cause the update to have less functionality. So instead, they made a compromise. They gave it Android 2.3.6 with TW 3.0, but added in some ICS and TW 4.0 capabilities. This value pack was released 03/12, 21 months after the phone came out. So, the Nexus got 2 key OS udpates over 22 months, and the Galaxy S got 2-3 (depending on how you look at it) over 21 months. That's damn good support and more than any other OEM.

You then mentioned the Galaxy Nexus compared to the Galaxy S II. Well, again, Galaxy comes out in Spring (April for all but the S1), and Nexus comes out in Fall (October/November for all but the Nexus One). So, the Galaxy Nexus came out 11/11 w/Android 4.0. It has seen updates to 4.1 and 4.2 over 13 months. The S2, to reiterate, came out 04/11 w/2.3 It has seen updates to 4.0 and soon 4.1 over 20-21 months (it is currently 20 months old). It will also be seeing a new TW UI, something HTC rarely does with their phones.

So in conclusion, my point was to explain the "beta" and incomplete nature of vanilla Android. This is the Nexus program. Most OEMs do 1 major update within 12 months on a new phone and then bail (HTC, Moto, Sony). Samsung has a history with their flagship phones of doing 2-3 major updates over nearly 2 years, just like the Nexus phones. There are no phones released on Android 2.1 that have official 4.0 updates. The two most heavily supported 2.1-based phones were the Nexus One (caped at 2.3) and the Galaxy S (got ICS value-pack, more support than the Nexus One). Phones released on 2.3 typically either stayed on 2.3, or got 4.0 max. The lone exceptions to that are the Nexus S (got 4.1) and the Galaxy S 2 (getting 4.1). Again, my point was to illustrate that Samsung phones get similar lifetime support to that of the Nexus phones. Not only did I illustrate that with my example, but your examples helped to further illustrate that, so thank you.