Why it takes so long for Android phones to get software updates

One of the biggest complaints about Android, is that Google will announce a new version of Android, but then it takes over six months for that software to actually get on your phone. What gives?

The guys over at Gizmodo decided to talk to both manufacturers and wireless carriers to find out what’s the hold up. It seems like a software update would be a pretty straightforward process, but what they found was a myriad of problems that can take months to answer before your Android phone gets an update.

With each Android update there are three processes that have to completed. First, the chip-makers have to create new code that allows the new Android to communicate with your smartphone’s chips. There are a ton of different chipmakers in the Android ecosystem, so each one takes more time to develop that code, but it usually takes about a month of two.