[Q] Why Doen't My Android Phone Get OTA Updates Greater Than 2.3.6? - Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hello All!
I just purchased a new (but 2011 model) Samsung Stratosphere SCH-I405 cell phone from ebay.com.
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As soon as I got it and set it up there was a notification of an available update. I let the update proceed and when I logged back in I checked the Android version 2.3.6. I have had the phone for about a week now and haven't got any other OTA updates.
Is 2.3.6 the highest Android version my phone will ever get (through an OTA update)? Do older phones not get the latest Android updates and if so why? Is it because Verizon (my carrier) has decided to not update my phone as an incentive to buy a newer one? Or is it something like a hardware compatibility issue?
If I am never going to get a higher version by an OTA is the some other way I can update my Android version? Perhaps go to Samsung or Verizon's website and download an update.zip file? If this option is not available is the only other option I have is to root my phone and install a custom ROM? Or can I root my phone, find a higher Android update.zip file somewhere, and update the phone that way? (I guess I would have to make sure that, if I updated using the update.zip method, that my phone is compatible with whatever Android version I am installing.
Thank you,
Jan
P.S. I used the entry called Firmware Version in the About phone page to determine the Android version . I don't know if Firmware Version really is the same as the Android version but there wasn't an entry called Android Version (like there is on my other Android devices which are all running version 4.4.4).
I assume either Samsung decided not show Android Version in the About phone page or if it's due to the fact that my Android version is so old?

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tackyjan said:
Hello All!
I just purchased a new (but 2011 model) Samsung Stratosphere SCH-I405 cell phone from ebay.com.
As soon as I got it and set it up there was a notification of an available update. I let the update proceed and when I logged back in I checked the Android version 2.3.6. I have had the phone for about a week now and haven't got any other OTA updates.
Is 2.3.6 the highest Android version my phone will ever get (through an OTA update)? Do older phones not get the latest Android updates and if so why? Is it because Verizon (my carrier) has decided to not update my phone as an incentive to buy a newer one? Or is it something like a hardware compatibility issue?
If I am never going to get a higher version by an OTA is the some other way I can update my Android version? Perhaps go to Samsung or Verizon's website and download an update.zip file? If this option is not available is the only other option I have is to root my phone and install a custom ROM? Or can I root my phone, find a higher Android update.zip file somewhere, and update the phone that way? (I guess I would have to make sure that, if I updated using the update.zip method, that my phone is compatible with whatever Android version I am installing.
Thank you,
Jan
P.S. I used the entry called Firmware Version in the About phone page to determine the Android version . I don't know if Firmware Version really is the same as the Android version but there wasn't an entry called Android Version (like there is on my other Android devices which are all running version 4.4.4).
I assume either Samsung decided not show Android Version in the About phone page or if it's due to the fact that my Android version is so old?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're out of luck with any official updates. Back in 2011, neither Samsung nor Verizon were really insistent about keeping their phones up to date. Add to it that the phone has a physical keyboard (meaning more of a pain to add that functionality to updates since most phones do not have this) and less of a demand from early Android adopters and the fact that the phone wasn't popular in the first place means that it didn't make much sense to put the time and effort into keeping the phone going. Also, about the time ICS came out, they were releasing the Stratosphere 2... So yea, that's pretty much it. Due to it's lack of popularity, this also means not as many people who are interested in developing custom software updates owned the phone and not as much work done in customizing and updating either. It seems your only options are other customized 2.3.6 versions that have been tweaked to be slimmer, faster, and/or maybe some UI changes, but nothing beyond 2.3.6. You can find some more info @ rootzwiki since they don't have a forum here on XDA for it (see reasons listed above for why...)
http://rootzwiki.com/forum/280-stratosphere-development/

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Oh well. I guess it's not that big of a deal. I purchased the phone on Ebay.com for my elderly mother to use. I am sure she won't "max" out the system and she probably won't need any features that might be missing from an older version of Android. I am setting up the phone so that everything is very easy to use (I found a launcher for senior citizens called Big Launcher) that changes the interface to simple screens with big buttons. So I guess I really don't need a newer version of android or a custom ROM.
I do have one other question though. You know all those default apps that come pre installed on Android like Let's Golf, etc? Is there any way I can uninstall those and "trim" down the phone so that there are no unnecessary programs running and slowing down the system? Would I need to have root access to do so? Or is a superuser even restricted from uninstalling these core apps?
Thank you.
~J

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tackyjan said:
Oh well. I guess it's not that big of a deal. I purchased the phone on Ebay.com for my elderly mother to use. I am sure she won't "max" out the system and she probably won't need any features that might be missing from an older version of Android. I am setting up the phone so that everything is very easy to use (I found a launcher for senior citizens called Big Launcher) that changes the interface to simple screens with big buttons. So I guess I really don't need a newer version of android or a custom ROM.
I do have one other question though. You know all those default apps that come pre installed on Android like Let's Golf, etc? Is there any way I can uninstall those and "trim" down the phone so that there are no unnecessary programs running and slowing down the system? Would I need to have root access to do so? Or is a superuser even restricted from uninstalling these core apps?
Thank you.
~J
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For that kind of stuff, on the older updates, you would need to root the device. Unfortunately, it's a bit more of a pain to the average rooting novice than some...
http://rootzwiki.com/topic/7840-kernel-guide-root-your-stratosphere/