Why can Windows run on any hardware easily but Android requires specific ROMs for each phone?
In: Technology
Phone manufacturers are more able to lock down things because they want more control, and to direct you to services and apps they want you to use. They want to lock you to specific carriers, they want to prevent you from using hotspot data freely, keep you from playing unapproved media and enforce DRM.
With Apple setting the expectation for how awful an OS can be, they have an easy opportunity to control everything and lock things down. Consumers expect to have no control.
Some manufacturers like Samsung incorporate their own components so they can vertically integrate their own drivers and not share them with anyone else. Things like this mean Android won’t actually support the OS without the necessary drivers and changes.
Android Open Source project is actually kinda barebones which makes it flexible but means that every manufacturer needs to do their own software updates instead of having a usable product distributable from Google.
It is possible. But nobody cares and companies are very interested in making money. So it’s not going to happen.
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