On the annual Qualcomm Snapdragon Summit, the corporate introduced it will be supporting the brand new Snapdragon 8 Elite for eight years. That is nice to see, nevertheless it doesn’t suggest what you are in all probability considering it means.
It has to do with what sort of help a chip maker wants to supply and what half a telephone maker performs in how lengthy your telephone is stored updated. The 2 issues do not align the best way we predict.
In relation to Android model updates, three events have to work collectively to supply one for the telephone in your hand. Google, in fact, must take all the brand new code and adjustments to present code, assemble it right into a particular goal for constructing Android, and take a look at it. It is numerous work, and numerous different firms contribute — Android is just not written by Google alone.
As soon as Google has one thing resembling a brand new model, telephone makers begin working with it. They may take the code and see combine their adjustments with out breaking something, then assemble all of that into one thing they will take a look at.
Lastly, the businesses that make microprocessors, like Qualcomm and the Snapdragon chip, would possibly have to help a brand new Linux kernel or low-level working system adjustments. We additionally see loads of patches and bug fixes from these firms, and in case you ever look into what’s inside a month-to-month Android safety patch, you will see firms like Qualcomm doing numerous the work.
This can be a crucial a part of the chain as a result of solely Qualcomm could make adjustments to its Snapdragon chip. Google or Samsung would possibly know what to do and even do it, however Qualcomm is the one firm that may legally do the work as a result of it owns the mental property being labored on. Snapdragon chips should not open supply, identical to MediaTek, Apple, and even Google chips aren’t. These firms personal that concept and the execution of it and do not share.
If the subsequent model of Android or the subsequent safety replace requires adjustments to the best way the chip operates and Qualcomm does not need to do them, telephones operating unsupported chips will not be up to date. Typically Google can work round it (the Nexus 7 was instance of Qualcomm not eager to make obligatory adjustments) however to work correctly requires the chip maker’s involvement.
None of because of this a telephone maker has to do something. You purchased your telephone with an expectation of the options it has right this moment operating as marketed. A case might be made that an organization like Samsung has to ship on that promise and repair something that does not work correctly, however something new or up to date is additional. That is why telephone makers are fast to let you know about guarantees to replace a telephone for a sure period of time: it is a function that you simply’re paying for.
Samsung does not have to vow seven years of help for its Galaxy S telephones; it does it as a result of it is a promoting level. In an ideal world, as soon as that promise is made, it needs to be honored, however virtually each telephone maker has damaged a promise or two alongside the best way.
This is the place this all begins to sound extra like public relations than a technical promise: each chip Qualcomm has ever made might be up to date right this moment if somebody was prepared to pay for it. If Google, LG, and Qualcomm needed to, they might replace the Nexus 4 to the purpose the place the chip could not sustain. It will nonetheless construct and flash to your telephone with out errors; it will simply run actually slowly and terribly.
I am not aware of how a lot an organization like Qualcomm prices for longer help life on certainly one of its merchandise, however I do know that it is a negotiable a part of the contract a telephone maker enters after they purchase thousands and thousands of them. Qualcomm tells Samsung (for instance) that the chip is supported for, as an instance, 4 years. Samsung says it wants six years. Cash adjustments palms, and 6 years of help is now included. This is not free as a result of supporting a chip prices cash, and Qualcomm did not get the place it’s right this moment by giving issues away. This can be a large a part of the rationale the NVIDIA Protect has a legendary help lifetime. Nvidia is in control of all the things.
What I am saying is {that a} telephone maker may help your telephone for eight years right this moment if it needed to. It may have supported the telephone you got 5 years in the past for eight years. A telephone maker has to juggle what’s greatest for itself and what it could possibly provide to us with out dropping cash.
Eight years of help from Qualcomm is nice and will decrease the price sufficient in order that telephone producers begin providing eight years of help on the telephones, too. If it is possible with out including an excessive amount of to the telephone’s retail worth, we simply would possibly see it. If nothing else, this stage of help ought to imply that telephones can see longer help in terms of safety updates and bug fixes, and that might be simply pretty much as good!