Making the Case: Why HP isn’t allowing OTA updates (and why we think it’s a good thing)
Yesterday, HP let it be known that they will not be providing an OTA update to older Pre, Pixi, and Plus models to allow them to upgrade to 2.0 (although there may be a webOS Doctor option in the future).
Why God Why?!
After speaking to HP directly about this decision we learned that HP debated on this for 2 months before coming to this decision. Their reasons were thus:
- Evolving hardware made it possible to do things in software that the first gen Pres and Pixis simply couldn’t handle.
- They had to change webOS to provide parity between phones, tablets, and a whole host of other form factors (something old webOS builds were not built for). HP decided rather than hamper these improvements by trying to obtain backwards compatibility, they thought this was their best decision moving forward.
- [Warning: Tech Speak Coming] The OTA update is difficult because the OS has grown larger and they would likely need to repartition the device, causing a wipe of the media partition, and you can’t do that OTA if you want happy customers. This is why the webOS Doctor idea may end up being the better solution for those who do want 2.x on their older devices, but isn’t something the average Joe would do.
They told us they did not want to alienate the webOS community and will try to soften the blow to users by various means [Ed: upgrade voucher program?], but as this is the “rebirth” of webOS, they had to act as though they were starting from square one. A lot of the folks who made these decisions were from Palm (they operate as their own unit), so despite what some jaded folks say, this was a tough decision to make.
The Aftermath
Regardless of the reasons, once this info was unveiled a firestorm erupted in all the webOS fan sites and several tech sites (ours included). Just about every article we posted was clogged with HP BETRAYED US!!! comments… or some other nonsensical statements.
Now you know we love all of our readers and fans, but it is time for a bit of tough love, people:
Suck it up and stop whining.
There. I said it. You are now free to throw your fireballs in the comments, close your browser in disgust, or unsubscribe from our feed…do whatcha gotta do.
Still here? Good. Here is why we believe that cutting the old models off from the latest OTAs is actually very good for webOS.
Phones have a lifespan
Name any modern smartphone that has been released in the last say, four years. How long was it sold? My educated guess is that just about all of them were around for two years or less. Phone contracts reflect this as well. The whole industry revolves in a two year (or less) cycle.
So with that said, why would any company, HP included, spend their resources to make their latest updates work on hardware that is already EOL (end of life) or just about to be?
Phones have limits
There are a lot of people wailing and gnashing their teeth saying that if they can’t get their original Pres (and Pre+) to upgrade to webOS 2.0 and beyond that they are “DONE with HP and hope they rot in the deepest pit of hell!” … Really?
Let’s be really honest here: the original Pre had a tough time running webOS 1.0 a lot of time. I mean seriously, how many of you wailing have overclocked your phone to the point of melting, just to get it to run smoothly?
webOS 2.0 (and above) takes the graphical goodies and other stuff that takes a lot of horsepower and pushes it up to another level. Think of stacks for a second. The entire point of that functionality is to allow people to run so many apps at one time that they need to group them together. Is that really necessary when your original Pre chokes after five apps?
You wouldn’t ask your mom’s old Pentium computer to run Windows 7 would you?
Software needs to stay lean
The basic truth about OS and other software development is that if they don’t cut ties with older versions at some point they get bloated and start to limit functionality.
Look at Internet Explorer for a moment. Back in the day, IE had a ton of proprietary stuff that allowed people to build websites that did cool things they couldn’t do in Netscape and other competitors of the time. Fast forward a bit and Firefox and Chrome emerge, offering great user experiences and begin to chip away from IE’s dominance. Despite their best efforts, IE could not keep up because it had an obligation to remain compatible to these older versions…it wasn’t until they finally cut that baggage that they have been able to truly compete again.
If an OS is required to keep working on hardware several generations back, then it limits what it can do in the future. For instance, imagine that the webOS devs come up with an idea that would be a major advantage to the OS, but to do it would require a massive change to how things fundamentally work. If the devs were mandated to keep things working on older models then they would not be able to move forward with this great new idea. It is just a guess, but I bet that JustType falls into this category.
Is that what we want? An OS that is hamstrung because we want our 2 and 3 year old phones to “get the latest and greatest”? I know I can answer that an emphatic no. I want webOS to blow other mobile frameworks out of the water, and I bet that, deep down, even the whiners want that as well.
Bottom Line
If you frequent this site a lot, you probably are what we affectionately call a Geek. As such, it is my guess that when your two year contract is up for your phone that you will be feverish to get a new device rather than keep something that is out of date and can’t do all the coolest stuff.
With that being said, why all the uproar? Yesterday HP showed you the options you will have when that contract is up. They have shown you the awesomeness of what those new devices will have. It is pretty cool stuff. Stuff that wouldn’t have been possible had they been required to keep infinite backwards compatibility.
Could it have been handled better?
Maybe, yeah. When iOS 4 was announced Apple let everyone know right away that some devices wouldn’t be allowed to use the new version. People complained a bit, but it wasn’t a huge deal. When webOS 2 was announced HP said they wanted to give it to the older devices. They never actually said “Yes, it will be available X”, but it was a pretty good assumption. So now people feel as though they have been lied to and betrayed, and the wailing began.
I think when 2.0 was announced HP/Palm really did intend to release it out to the old devices, but at some point they had to change their plans. So the next time they got everyone’s attention (i.e. yesterday), they admitted that the plans had indeed changed and here we are…
So there you have it – my argument for why it is actually a good thing that HP isn’t allowing an OTA update to 2.0 and beyond. I have my fireproof suit on because I am sure that you have your own opinions. All I ask is that you keep them family friendly and as constructive as possible.
So… dare I ask… what do you think?
