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Comment by kevincox | Hacker News Reader

The sad thing is that it shouldn't be on Google to force them. It should be Google to enable them and the users to "force" them.

They have argably been enabled for a while, but Treble is making it even easier. Hopefully this pushes the needle over the line for at least some OEMs/teclos.

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In Germany there are quite a few stores still selling budget Android 4.4 and 5.1 devices, which people keep on buying.

Same is in Bulgaria. And when you ask them "Hey actual version is 7.0. Why you use outdated OS with vulnerability? How you buy that devices?" They told "I have seen 7.0 there was nothing new."

But no one want to get computer with Windows 95 (or 98) anymore. Just Android 4.4 is "OK".

There are no cheap windows 95 computers where everything works on the market. Android 4.4 does do everything people need (like running whatsapp), and the devices are out there to buy.

Security vulnerabilities? Nobody was ever affected by those (at least in the social circles of the people buying the devices), so why should they care?

Tons of sites full of "amateur porn" think you shouldn't worry either. Who cares if all of your pictures are freely available to anyone on the planet, right?

> But no one want to get computer with Windows 95 (or 98) anymore. Just Android 4.4 is "OK".

They should do a yearly release (eg. Android 2018). Then at the store when they display phones, they'd have to write "Android 2013" instead of "Android 4.4 KitKat."

Doing yearly releases is such an obviously great idea that there must be a big reason why they are NOT doing it.

In the UK last year, I bought a Samsung android tablet for the kid (my first Android device). It was running 4 and I ass7med Samsung would have an upgrade available. Ha! No chance.

It seems people have made their choice they don't care. If they cared about updates they wouldn't be buying Android.

They didn't choose, they just didn't know.

This is why software/hardware needs best before dates.

You're thinking like a technical person. Aunt Susan doesn't know her phone is an Android phone. In her mind, it's a Samsung phone. It's not a question of not caring, she simply doesn't know.

There is such a thing as not knowing because you don't care, and I wouldn't even say that it's irrational. There's simply too much to know and care about in the world, so you have to be selective and event driven.

Some of them do care, but with an average salary of 500 euros or less, they have better things to do with the money than spending on iPhones.

The only viable alternative was Windows Phone, but that is gone now.

That is very true, and I have to say it's disappointing and baffling how Microsoft dropped the ball on this one.

Microsoft are the only ones who ever managed to make the separation between OS vendor and hardware vendors work (at least on the PC side). They are sorely missed in the mobile space.

You can get a Nougat device for as low as Rs 3500($55) in India. Which would be considered low end mobile.

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