Ship now, update later

Most of the devices we buy today run on software that enables features and functionality.  Of course all our computers have it, our smartphones too. Digital cameras, personal media players, GPS  devices, game consoles and even TVs all come with software or firmware that can be updated and revised to enable features and improve our experiences.

Does the ability to 'upgrade' a product with new software at a later date cause manufacturers to ship products prematurely? We've seen it happen. Is putting the onus of updating this software on the customer a good thing and do they make it easy?

As features and functionality of devices continue to expand and as competition to be first to market becomes more frenetic. The temptation to "ship now, update later," can be all too powerful. With digital devices it sometimes feels that they are shipped to the retail chain before beta testing or proper debugging is completed. Sure, support forums are set-up where users can compare notes, make complaints and most of the time these are addressed (depending on the company and the product).

While its good to know that manufacturers continue to improve and build software updates for the devices, we feel it would be better if the process of updating and enabling these features wasn't tedious and unpredictable.

From our experience, users are expected to be proactive in monitoring their devices and their respective eligibility for software updates.

For computers and smartphones its fairly easy, these updates happen automatically all you have to do is agree to terms, press Enter and wait.

With some smartphones like Google's Android and HP-Palm's WebOS some of these updates are enabled OTA (over-the-air) which is brilliant and works well but many mobile carriers don't allow it so you still have to download-update-enable from a computer of a memory card.

But for things like digital cameras (which increasingly ship with new RAW software implementations that take Macs and PCs months to be able to decode), its a multi-step process and a very frustrating one for the consumer.

First you need to be aware that a firmare update is available, then you either download the new firmware to an SDCard or use the software that ships with the camera to enable the update. For technical users, this is not too difficult but as you can imagine it can sometimes be a harrowing experience either way.

With many devices, most users just simply don't update unless they have to. If they find their device is working well then they'd rather not mess with it, even if an update will enable features that they have, in essence, already paid for.

In some cases, like with Sony's Playstation3, software updates have been known to disable features (like the ability to run Linux operating systems) while manufacturers have valid reasons for crippling these devices, we feel it is contentious specially if consumers purchased said console knowing full well that they want that specific feature.

Another issue with offering software updates to complete, enable or debug existing products is that this firmware can be hacked. In certain cases, mostly with smartphones, the availability of software updates can be opened-up and modded (most popular examples are iPhone firmware updates and Google Android updates that unlock device features at the expense of voiding the manufacturer warranty.

 For now, it seems the ship now, update later scheme of doing things will continue.

As I look around my work table I see an iPad that could badly use an iOS 4 upgrade (coming Fall 2010), three Android OS smartphone review units that are anywhere from one and three software updates away from the current version as well as a Windows PC and a Mac that constantly, and I mean constantly prod me for system and software updates. Throw in a recently purchased digital camera with a few glitches and a game console that's four software updates behind and you can see how this has become a daily part of life.

I can only hope that manufacturers take the time and the initiative to make everything  a bit easier and more transparent for us.