manufacturers and then on top of that mulitple carriers


all 3 play their own little role in how and when you get updates

if having the latest and greatest software is important to you, theres enough information out there by now to know this is something you should look into before buying your phone


Then with android, you have almost free reign to do what you want, so theres nothing really stopping you from rooting your phone and putting whatever version of android you want on there.


so in summary, as a nexus 6p owner, I'm perfectly fine with the way android works these days as far as updates are concerned