Now that Apple and Android’s latest operating systems have been released for new smartphones, customers with older mobile devices are now left wondering if they will be getting the next big OS upgrade. Michael Degusta from the understatement, has broke down the update history for both Android-based smartphones and Apple iPhones.

When Apple released the new iPhone 4S and iOS 5 earlier this year, iPhone 3GS customers were very pleased to find out that they could upgrade their third generation iPhone to Apple’s latest operating system. That makes iOS 5 compatible with the iPhone 4s, iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS. This should make Apple iPhone customers feel pretty good about their investment, right?

On the other hand, Many Android smartphone customers have been on a roller coster ride when trying to upgrade to the latest version of Android’s OS. Google announced the Nexus S will receive Android’s 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich update, as for Nexus One users, thats another story. Michael Degusta thinks the Nexus One has had a good ride with Android’s updates, compared to other Smartphones running some version of Android’s operating system.

Michael Degusta went on to say:

“I went back and found every Android phone shipped in the United States1 up through the middle of last year. I then tracked down every update that was released for each device - be it a major OS upgrade or a minor support patch - as well as prices and release & discontinuation dates. I compared these dates & versions to the currently shipping version of Android at the time. The resulting picture isn’t pretty - well, not for Android users:”

Here is the chart of Apple iOS VS. Android’s, OS update history:



Here are some more interesting facts:
• 7 of the 18 Android phones never ran a current version of the OS.
• 12 of 18 only ran a current version of the OS for a matter of weeks or less.
• 10 of 18 were at least two major versions behind well within their two year contract period.
• 11 of 18 stopped getting any support updates less than a year after release.
• 13 of 18 stopped getting any support updates before they even stopped selling the device or very shortly thereafter.
• 15 of 18 don’t run Gingerbread, which shipped in December 2010.
• In a few weeks, when Ice Cream Sandwich comes out, every device on here will be another major version behind.
• At least 16 of 18 will almost certainly never get Ice Cream Sandwich.

Is your mobile phone on this list? Do you feel like Android Updates should be more compatible with older smartphones? Or, should we expect to update our smartphones about once a year to keep up will the latest and greatest in the OS mobile industry? Leave your comments below.

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Tags: android, apple, ios, ios5, ice cream sandwich, iphone, update, os, Version, ios 5, operating system, mobile, iphone 3gs, iPhone 4S, iphone 4, nexus, nexus 4.0, nexus s, google nexus s, upgrade