I love Android phones. Despite my many attempts to like iPhones and iOS, I still consistently come back to Android. But my fondness for the operating system is constantly tested by issues that should have been solved by now, like bloatware on supposedly high-end devices and products, inconsistent update rules (each manufacturer has its own policies on how long it updates its products), and ecosystem differences between brands.

I’ve mentioned this often when I review high-end Xiaomi products, but it’s worth repeating—there should be no reason why a phone like the Xiaomi 15 should have bloatware or unwanted ads. To be fair to Xiaomi, they’ve reined it in a little for their latest flagship, but not for their newly released POCO F7 series of phones. My personal belief on bloatware and ads on phones is if a phone costs more than Php 25,000, it should have minimal, if not zero ads and unwanted pre-installed applications.

I’m pointing out Xiaomi in this example, but this is an industry-wide problem. It’s something I’ve seen on phones from OPPO, vivo, realme, and others. I understand that brands make money on app activations, but the addition of these unwanted programs (even if they can be uninstalled later) is frustrating and negatively impacts the Android user experience, especially since many of those apps can send inane and useless notifications by default.

While it’s easy to blame the brands for this type of behavior, some of the blame needs to be leveled at Google too. They can enforce stricter rules on OEMs if they want to on these issues, as well as my other pet peeve, multiple app stores on Android. The Google Play store should be the ONLY app store that’s allowed to be installed on my phone, full stop.

I understand that each OEM has to give its flavor to the Android OS and ecosystem, but there has to be a way to do that without negatively impacting users. Adding your own flair to Android is one thing, annoying your users to death with crap they didn’t ask for is quite another.

One thing that sets iPhones and iOS apart from Android devices is Apple’s commitment to providing its phones with software updates long after those products have been off the shelves.

It’s not surprising to learn that a study conducted in 2023 shows that 61% of iPhone users keep their previous iPhones for two years or more, while comparatively only 41% of Android users do the same. I know some people who daily drive the iPhone 12 despite it being 5 years old now because their phones still get software updates from Apple. On the flip side, I’ve heard plenty of people try to get rid of their flagship Android phones a year and a half into ownership because they’re not confident it’s getting another Android update down the line.

To be fair to Google, things have been getting better—more manufacturers are now offering longer Android update support, even matching Apple’s 7-year pledge. But the number of OEMs that have made that promise is still too few and far between, and they’re usually for more expensive devices. If you own a mid-range phone or, God forbid, an entry-level device, you’re lucky if you get three years out of that thing.

It’s frustrating to see that level of support now, considering how much we’ve progressed in terms of processor power, RAM capacity, and computing speed. I could understand the usual 2-year limit that earlier Android phones came with for software updates, considering the computing power of SoCs a decade ago, but now? We have phones with processors that can edit out people from photos, generate entirely new backgrounds from thin air, and handle 8K video, but can’t handle software updates 4-5 years in the future? That’s ridiculous.

And even if you’re pledged to those updates, they take a long time to arrive on your phone. Samsung’s already considered the gold standard when it comes to this stuff (outside of Google’s Pixel devices, naturally), and it still takes months before the latest Android version arrives on their phones. Again, this is something that Google can put a handle on, if not fix entirely, by setting stricter rules with OEMs, but I digress.

It’s not surprising to see that more and more people are getting an iPhone. 2024’s top three best-selling phone models were the iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Pro Max, and iPhone 15 Pro. Say what you want about Apple’s gated ecosystem, people are drawn to it because it just works.

I’m an Android fanboy, and I always will be. I love the ecosystem and the products that brands make for it, but there needs to be a drastic change in how Google handles Android to make it more appealing to buyers. It’s up to them to convince OEMs to have fewer ads, less bloatware, and allow even entry-level devices access to years of Android updates, because if they don’t, well, it might turn out that the best-selling smartphone for 2025 may be the iPhone 16 series.