I work with a couple of people with the 3G iPhone and agree that the speed on those phones and what Apple are or are not doing about it, is a little raw.
I tend to make every tech purchase knowing that:
A: It will be out of date as soon as I carry it away from the store or accept delivery.
B: It will no doubt be cheaper tomorrow...
C: I am probably going to need to upgrade this in 12-18 months (if its a computer or phone).
With the iPhone, I seem to go for every other release.
Ultimately I think one of the reasons Windows has problems is because they (MS) had to design it with so many different types of chip etc in mind. By narrowing the scope, Apple have less to check and should, in my mind at least, be able to work on the quality a little more (granted, the recent Daylight Savings Time issue suggests that quality and testing still slips
). I think companies in Apple's position have to have this sliding door/window where they need to offer new products to keep the money coming in, they also need to keep existing customers happy but they can't let the OS become too inflated (yes, I know it is a pretty chunky bit of programming as it is) by making everything work with all of the chips and configurations they've dropped on the market place so far. They have to have a cut off point, they need to pick this sliding door/window and focus on that. If they don't, if they try to do a one for all, they will be creating the next Windows OS. It will be designed to do too many things for too many hardware options and will become buggy (more so) and less reliable, the user experience will be damaged.
Ok, I know this bit probably grates a little as your user experience has already been damaged.
Of course, nothing is more irritating than asking a question or venting a little dis-satisfaction and having someone say they don't agree and offer nothing of use to you... So...
I honestly think that whilst the Android OS is amazing and people like HTC have done an exceptional job of making good looking phones and shoe-horning a great OS inside their own wrappers to give them a little more polish, it (Android) does have draw-backs. Unless you get the flag-ship phone from a manufacturer then you will not get the major updates, which is pretty much the same as Apple really.
Android is already very fragmented, with manufacturers racing with each other to get a new Android phone out. Most appear to prefer to launch a new phone with the latest OS on it than re-wrap the latest Android release and send it out to their existing users.
I am basing this on what I've seen with friends and family, I've not owned an Android device first hand and will gladly bow to any first hand knowledge...
In short, Android may not help you with the dislike of Apples update process, I think you may experience continued, albeit different, frustrations in the Android world as well.
The Windows 7 Phones -
now that's a good looking OS! I don't know anyone that has one yet but I would sure like a play with one!
Excuse the extract.
This may be of some interest to either of you:
How to downgrade your phone to iOS 3.x.
I've not tried it, but after seeing first hand just what my friends' 3g iPhones are like after the update to iOS 4 and watching how they struggle through something like Angry Birds which used to work fine, it might just be worth a look.