One Plus Promised 3 Years of Shelf Life of its Phones

One Plus 6 Red Edition

I tried my Android luck back in 2010, and one thing I understood that Google backed Android has huge potential. The first Android device in my house, was Samsung Galaxy 3, for my brother. 

However it's more than 8 years now, and Android devices have a strong presence in the market with 4G and 5G support. Indian market also saw huge change - from Nokia, Samsung, Micromax, Lava lost their top positions, and Chinese OEMs are now ruling the market. Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo, OnePlus are the new kings of the turf. 

Through out the period I understood that handset makers needs R&D (research and development) on both software and handware front. Without timely Android/software update a company can't create a good ecosystem. I wrote on this topic as Android Software Update: A Thing Many OEM Skip back in 2017, where I pointed out that only Xioami is not following trend, they are offering Android OTA update to its most of the smartphones at regular intervals. Sorry to add Google's name, as their phones both Nexus series and present Pixel line up, running on stock Android, are getting timely software updates. 

Read more Will RealMe Give Software Updates?

Actually slowest (or never) roll out of updates including critical security ones are one of the biggest complaints of Android users. These days Android/software update is a must, as most handset makers are using forked out Android, like Oxygen OS of OnePlus, ColorOS from Oppo, MIUI from Xiaomi, EMUI by Huawei, Flyme OS from Meizu, FunTouch OS from Vivo, Realme UI by Realme and others. 

And now, after so many years, companies seem interested in our points. By the end of June '18 One Plus announced its Software Maintenance Schedule on their forum. They promised to give regular software maintenance for 24 months (includes new features, Android version upgrades, Android security patch updates) bi-monthly, and software security maintenance for another 12 months in bi-monthly manner. 

Soon Huawei also announced similar schedule for some of its product line. I can see more similar announcements coming from other OEMs. 

Annoying OTA Ads by GiONEE Smartphones

Android pushed smartphone usage to a level, where people are just pushed to use it for many reasons. And for some reasons it's always nice to get Over-The-Air (OTA) update on your phone. OTA means you don't have to connect your handset to a PC/Mac; just download the essential packages over phone's WiFi/Mobile Internet and get it updated.

Most Indian handset manufacturers like Micromax, Lava, Karbonn etc don't offer OTA update on their handsets. (Does Micromax even offer Android version update to any of their smartphones, apart from Canvas ones?) Lava offers, but to get the update you have to visit Lava's service centers.

Anyway GiONEE, a new handset company, directly from China has been launched in India, and they have some quite-good smartphones under their portfolio, and they offer OTA update on them.

GiONEE misuse the OTA feature and they push advertisement over OTA. Most of them are irritating, showing over the drop-down menu. Check the screenshots.