Until a few years ago, firmware updates for smartphones were few and far between. The norm was probably one or two updates during the lifetime of the product, often massively delayed by the cell carrier. And then the iPhone apparently changed the game. With a quick Google search, I turned up about a dozen updates to the iPhone over its less-than-3-year lifespan. I notice that the Google G1 is enjoying similar regular updates. And even more amazing is the fact that these regular firmware updates are being pushed to users and installed pretty much automatically. I've only ever installed about 1 firmware upgrade on my devices (I've owned a Kyocera 7135, a Treo 650, and two Centros) out of fear that the minor rewards of the update came at too great a risk of bricking my device.While I'm certainly not complaining about easy regular updates to these, and future, devices, I wonder what the trade off is. Is this merely an example of the awesome power of Apple to force AT&T (and other carriers by example) to provide better support of their devices? Or is it as RIM has suggested, an ecosystem designed to support increasingly complex and buggy smartphones that require constant attention?
Whichever the case, I certainly hope we'll see Palm release the Pre bug-free and with constant updates.
