I had an interesting response from HTC, regarding a cell phone that they put on the market around July 2011. Apparently there was an upgrade from Android 2.1 to Android 2.2, which was available a few months back. The upgrade is NOT available on their website and their response was that since they declared the EOL (End-Of-Life) of the product has arrived, they feel no need to support it or keep software upgrades available for it.
Even though, I do like their products, I have 3 of their phones and was contemplating getting 2 more, their response makes me seriously reconsider any future purchases from them.
But I would like to know what laws if any are on the books the define any length of time during which manufacturers/vendors are required to support their product and insure a supply of spare parts ?
I've never heard of any such laws other than whatever you are entitled to under the warranty. I agree with you that this is BS from HTC but I'm not in favor of laws about it. We have too many laws already.
I don't know of any laws, but there used to be some industry standards. In the case of technology, it is changing so fast it is difficult to keep up and give long support times.
With industrial equipment, it is common to have five or more years, but fast changing, low cost consumer items, they are obsolete in months.
Your HTC phones are a couple hundred bucks and still working, even if it is outdated software. I had two screens go bad on control panels for machines. No longer available, but I was able to get a new setup for $11,000 for the two. Cheaper that trashing a 200k machine though.
I got a Square brand card reader But I need Android 2.2 to run it Currently have 2.1 The upgrade, was sometime last fall. We're talking six months or so after the upgrade You'd think they would still have it on a website.
I know next to nothing about that phone with Android (I have different phones with a later Android OS); but, I would suggest two things may be considered:
It *may* be that the phone can't *handle* the newer operating system (dunno, but it would depend on memory, processor, features, etc.).
Certainly I ran into just that problem with my grandkid's cheap Android phone (his was a ZTE Concord which we bought at Walmart for about $80 but which can't handle the newer Android OS needed to run some applications).
The nntp newsgroups that may be more helpful than a.h.r might be: a. alt.cellular-phone-tech b. alt.cellular.{carrier} e.g., alt.cellular.t-mobile c. comp.mobile.android etc.
Two forums that might be helpful are: A. androidforums.com B. androidcommunity.com
The Magnuson Moss Warranty Act would be the closest thing I can think of but the spare parts provisions, IIRC, concerned primarily spare parts for automobiles. Smart phones were only a Dick Tracy dream when it was passed. Detroit attempted to force people to retire perfectly serviceable automobiles by severely limiting the availability of critical spare parts and the length of time they were available.
Congress reacted to that and other underhanded business techniques (like a warranty covering "all moving parts" in items that had none, voiding warranties for not using manufactured approved consumables, etc) with the MMWA. I recall that car companies had to support items they manufactured for 5 years after the last sale date, but I also recall there were more exceptions than holes in Swiss cheese. I don't recall which, if any, other manufacturers were required to stock 5 years worth of spares.
AFAIK, you're in a different boat. You probably *can* get spare HW parts for your phone, just not upgrades to SW, something I doubt a 70's era law even thought to address. IIRC, squawking loud enough might well get you a discounted new phone from them from what I've seen of this issue. You're clearly not the only one who's discovered this. There are work-arounds, depending on the actual phone but they're not official and you take your chances.
What's the model/DOM on your phone (date of manuf)?
I think you're out of luck, though, with the law. PCs shipped with Windows version X have never been under any legal obligation to support a future upgrade of software *unless* they were marked "Windows version X READY" and even then, the implied warranty of readiness was pretty weak. I can't recall which version of Windows - perhaps Vista - where there was some actual litigation regarding what "ready" actually meant.
This is probably an area ripe for revisiting by Congress since new automobiles depend so heavily on firmware in embedded computers. The control unit for my van's power rear hatch is still available 10 years later and if it wasn't, there would be no practical way to fix the door (because the control unit monitors a number of simultaneous conditions to determine when to open the gate).
I briefly thought about "hot wiring" it when it failed, but the door control is connected to an amazing number of sensors and tie-ins to internal buttons, the key-fob receiver, etc. That's apparently to insure that people are not bopped in the head or ejected from the van by the wrong set of circumstances. But obviously, the more complex, the more prone to failure.
One reason the LCM (liftgate control module) may still be available was that there was a serious recall concerning the control unit, which had a tendency to open the rear doors of afflicted vans at highway speed, sucking out all sorts of cargo and freaking drivers out pretty seriously. (-:
Like the others here, I've never heard of any law that covers this. What seems a bit unusual in your case is that it appears what you want is just a software upgrade that was available in the past and that you could have downloaded and installed. In that case, what the company is doing is not what is usually done. In every case I've seen, while tech companies EOL products and no longer actively support them, that typically means no more new software updates, no more phone support, etc. But they have left software updates, documentation, etc available on their websites for them for a long time. To do what is apparently going on in your case, ie no longer having a download in just 2 years is unusual.
Doubt any law would cover this. I had a similar problem with a Canon scanner on my new Win8 machine and told them that I would not buy another of their scanners even when offered a discount on a new one. There is a problem with a lot of devices with computer components following Moore's law which can antiquate them in a few years.
I've rooted several Android devices and even brought one back to "factory state" without a hitch.
If you're comfortable installing, and transferring your data over to a new hard drive, you can do this.
Read and understand the directions, follow them exactly and it's a no brainer. The end result is the version of Android that you want, customized for your specific model phone WITH the ability to remove all the crap bloatware that HTC or the carrier insist on putting on your phone that you don't want and can't get rid of.
That is a problem when you deal with "open source" products. Android is owned by Google, and given free to companies like HTC. They really don't have a dog in the fight - and these types of "consumer" products have a half-life shorter than that of a limburger sandwich - and are about as repairable.
HTC has said they don't want to support their hardware. The product is EOL, not the OS.
Can't see how or why you want to twist this into an "open source" issue. From what I'm reading above, it looks like a new and improved version of Android is available, just not at the HTC web site.
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