>Your theory is as daft as asserting that the people who made your wallet are liable if you get mugged and the mugger steals the cash out of it.
Not really.
There is an inherent defect in the product. I don't think anyone would suggest that the bug is included under the banner of "works as expected."
The main issue is the complicity in customers accepting two years as an acceptable life span. I'd be pretty upset if HP gave me a two year life for a laptop, server or switch and expected me to buy new hardware because they couldn't be bothered to work with MS and the Linux chaps to make sure their kit kept working. Apple's billions seem to be leading the phone industry into an entitlement to profits mentality.
Is it time to pull the plug on proprietary phones? I know everyone wants to be Apple-successful, but most companies are not Apple, probably couldn't be Apple even if given the chance, and their customers are reasonably ok with that. We need a base-Android OS on top of which applications are added. The whole point software layering is so we don't have to worry about the lower layers. We don't seem to have that any more with everyone (Apple, Google, MS, Samsung) wanting to own the entire stack - the OS and all the apps.
Perhaps Google need to man-up and provide leadership. They need to tell licensees to get their act together and support customised versions of Android for longer or stop shipping them. They should ship stock Android and add custom applications on top.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
