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Comment by wonderyak | Hacker News Reader

So we can now lump all Qualcomm devices along with Verizon (CDMA) devices into the 'may never be properly updated' pile.

You'd think that Google would have the foresight to listen to the maintainer of the project; perhaps they did and this is just the way it is now?

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Google is still able to release updates to the affected Nexus devices, and they have a good track record of doing so; they just can't put those blobs into AOSP.

You know who owns all the patents related to CDMA devices (and makes literally the only CDMA radio chipsets you can buy)?

I'll give you a hint, it starts with Q and rhymes with "Wallcomm".

> and makes literally the only CDMA radio chipsets you can buy

Actually, this is not true. The CDMA/LTE Galaxy Nexus, Droid Charge, and Stratosphere (all made by Samsung) actually used VIA Telecom's CBP 7.1 baseband for EVDO/1XRTT (and a Samsung LTE radio for that). I'm not sure how/why VIA Telecom was able to license QCOM's patents covering CDMA2000, but they did.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4465/samsung-droid-charge-revi...

To my knowledge, these are the first non-QCOM CDMA2000 phones shipped (at least in the US) since Nokia's ill-fated CDMA S30 phones made for Verizon/Sprint from ~2003-2005, the 3589i, 6235i, and maybe others. I believe TI/ST/Nokia teamed up to make that baseband, but it all ended in lawsuits from Qualcomm a few years later.

It's too bad, the 3589i was a great phone.

They own many of the 3G and 4G ones too, and can give you a great deal on bundling if you go with them.

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