I am a freedom-hating iPhone owner. This means I tolerate DRM-encumbered films from the iTunes Store. I also enjoy Audible audiobooks, which I can only play back on a maximum of 5 computers. The development of the iPhone operating system is a closely-guarded secret which is then protected by litigation after release. I don’t like these things much at all. Yet, I am better rewarded than my friends who opted for the righteous Android option 12 months ago.

In October 2008, when the T-Mobile G1 was released in the UK, I seriously considered buying one in preference to an iPhone but it was very much a version 1.0 device and it didn’t have a headphone socket.

I considered the second Android phone on the UK market, the HTC Magic. I wanted the freedom to put any software on a device I paid for. But it didn’t have a headphone socket. In the summer of 2009, I bought an iPhone. On that day, I installed Google Earth for iPhone. This was not available on the Google Android platform at the time. I love Google Earth.

In February 2010, Google finally released Google Earth for Android. It works only on the latest version of Android, 2.1, which effectively limits it to the Motorola Droid and the Nexus One. Speaking to owners of Android phones purchased contemporaneously with my iPhone, I gather they remain on Android 1.5 or 1.6. HTC have indicated it is a matter for the carrier networks (such as T-Mobile or Vodafone) to update the OS. A search on the Vodafone forums indicates the Vodafone staff don’t have a timescale for upgrading to Android 2.1. Some people ask the question whether the hardware can even support the new Android version.

These good people who supported the open phone platform are being neglected now. The carriers still “own” the phone, Android or not. Their business has involved getting new phone models in and out as quickly as possible (since the Nokia 3210), not nurturing existing handsets.

There is currently no obvious or safe way to upgrade a 12 month old Android phone to the latest OS version.

Both Apple and O2 “own” my phone but this summer I will download iPhone OS 4.0 for free and I will benefit from the features immediately. The 3 year old iPhone 2G will probably not run iPhone OS 4.0 but every app developed for the last 3 years will run. 3 years is a long lifespan for a phone, albeit a real expensive one. But it strikes me that support for Android handsets is much more short-lived.