Paid update to Android 4.4 or 5?

Reading through the discussions concerncing newer Android versions on our Fairphone it all came down to the fact that Fairphones small user base makes it unlikely (but not impossible) to get newer versions of Android. Someone pointed out that there is a petition which Mediatek will not care about. I agree. However, Mediatek will care about money. Some companies do charge money for updates. Fairphone was pre-paid on the first batch. So why not do the same for an Android update? If enough people want it and are willing to pay for, Mediatek will get interested. It could be an option if there is no othe option to upgrade the Fairphone. From my experiences embedded systems software costs for cars (including the high expensives of all required safety tests), costs for a single use could be reasonable low. However, one cannot simply transfer these costs. Therefore, this is just an proposal without having numbers.

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Why not make a poll about this? E.g. “Are you willing to pay for an update to Android 5?”

See: ✏ How to create a poll?

Great idea, we could also try to set up bounties for Cyanogenmod or Omnirom developers, like crmhoffmann on xda.

May we should include the amount of money we would be willing to pay.

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I would pay a few euros if the update is hassle free and comes with customer support…

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I would pay 10 €, but I would expect continuous support and updates (not 10€ for each update).

As soon as the software is available it should be free (as in gratis) and open for donations. Only the development should be crowd funded.

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I would pay for libre software, not for more closed solutions.

You mean like cyanogenmod? :stuck_out_tongue:

And that’s the sticky situation here.
When a company like FairPhone pushes out an update of their OS and everything starts falling apart, you can hold them responsible for it and demand an update that fixes things. If a hobbyist releases a (with all due respect) hacked together Cyanogenmod and things don’t work properly, why would he have any obligations towards fixing it, even if he is payed for it. Personal or professional life might demand more attention sipping away development time on the CM release. An individual, or even a group of individuals who are doing it in a hobbyist fashion (as in it not being their day job and them being both commercially and legally bound to the product) can never be held to high enough standards of product support that’s required for a device as important as your (primary) mobile phone.

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Good idea! If enough people are willing to pay a reasonable amount -say 10 € - I seen no reason why this wouldn’t work! I say: let’s make this a crowdfunding- project, controlled by the Fairphone organisation!

Please continue conversation here.

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