It’s hard to tell what the reason is, especially after people responded so negatively to the initial announcement of the iPhone 7, but in any case, there is a clear trend that people are paying more attention to Apple’s devices lately.
Whether or not that trend will reverse over the next year depends strongly on Google’s attitude to software updates, and that could be one of the main reasons for the company’s new approach. It remains to be seen if they will succeed in making the upgrade process smoother and more accessible though, and we’re paying close attention to the situation at the moment.
In the meantime, users who want to always be ahead of the curve will still have the option of going with a custom ROM. That has been the traditional workaround for upgrade issues in the Android community for a long time now, and it’s one of the best advantages Google have over Apple at the moment. Of course, that could easily change in a short period of time, depending on how both sides act.
In any case, let’s see how the market will change over the next few months, and whether Google have some major ace up their sleeve that they have been keeping hidden from the public. The company tends to come out with some shocking developments every now and then, and it’s not unlikely that they could be preparing something for Android as well.