Why are tablets restricted to a particular version of Android?

[Doomer]

The version they come with.

Is this a technical or economic/political limitation?

Thanks

 

[Ravynmagi]

Not sure what you mean. Tablets can have any version of Android (other than very old versions like 2.x and earlier).

Some tablets get updated. But yeah most get stuck with the version they ship with because the manufacture is too lazy to update it. Well, I don't think it's just laziness, they want the tablet to feel old, so people will upgrade more often. Samsung is particularly evil about this, they'll release a new tablet with virtually the same hardware as last years model with the only notable difference that it has a newer version of Android instead of just updating the previous year's model. Haha.

 

[cronos]

Not all tablets are stuck on their original version. I bought my Note 8 with 4.1.2, and then got two upgrades, to 4.2.2 and to 4.4.2.

Just like all devices, some don't get upgrade while some do. It is likely both a technical and economical limitation (i.e. it's not economic for the manufacturer to spend valuable resources to update more than a year old device).

 

[Roland00Address]

It has to do with drivers and how the software is written. Android has a whole lot less "universal drivers" than windows, and if the driver is not up to date enough to work with the OS you can't update.

Second not all androids share the same layout for things like the bootloader.

Thirdly there is not one version of Android. There is an original version of android which is called the AOSP and their are different versions of the AOSP (4.0, 4.1, 4.2, etc). All the oems such as Samsung, Dell, HTC, etc actually modify the OS, the AOSP and take features out and put futures in.

------

Android is not one "species" but instead is more of a "family." In biology (bringing up biology to use an analogy showing how they are similar) if you can mate with one another you are the same species, above species is "genius" and above genius is the term "family." For example the

• Grey Wolf also known as C Lupus is a Species,
  Wolves are part of the Genus Canis which includes dogs, wolves, jackals, and coyotes
• The Genus Canis, aka all those animals are also part of the Family called Canidae family which now includes foxes.
• Canidae are part of the Sub order Caniformia.
• Caniformia is part of the Order Carnivora

Even though a hyena looks like a dog/wolf/canine it has very little genetically in common with a canine. Hyenas are part of the sub order Feliformia which is the same order that felines come from like Lions and Housecats.

------

Now windows on the other hand is windows. Every dell, hp, gateway, computer you built yourself runs the same OS. Sure the OS is far more bloated for there are parts that they do not need, and all these extra drivers your computer will never use but hey you can put a computer you bought 10 years ago in 2003 with XP, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1 and probably windows 9 on it.

------

There are advantages and disadvantages to what microsoft and google is doing. The disadvantage of what google is doing is that it is harder to update the software. Google is trying to do certain things to remedy this such as a common platforms / reference designs such as Android One, and allowing a lot of things to be modular so you can use google play services to update things such as security and other features of the OS. With new devices such as android wear, android tv, and android car it appears OEMS will have limited to abilities to skin the device thus there is a greater chance for updates since then the only thing holding it back is drivers.

 

[jhansman]

Two updates to my Nexus 7 within a month (to 4.4.4). I'd say that's keeping up. It's the providers and manufacturers who won't keep pace; Google just puts it out there.

 

[Yuriman]

Two updates to my Nexus 7 within a month (to 4.4.4). I'd say that's keeping up. It's the providers and manufacturers who won't keep pace; Google just puts it out there.

Indeed. The Nexus 7 2012 model has received at least 4 updates to my knowledge.

 

[Bateluer]

Unless you bought a Chinese nobrand tablet, then you can usually count on at least one major Android update for your LG/Samsung/Asus/Lenovo/etc tablet.

 

[BarkingGhostar]

Indeed. The Nexus 7 2012 model has received at least 4 updates to my knowledge.

My 2012 model also had two updated this year (4.4.3 & 4.4.4).