thundervore :
Google needs to force OEMs and Carriers to stop discontinue OS upgrades after one cycle or 2 years. There is no reason why my phone that came with ICS only received an update to JB then discontinued even though the hardware can support MM
When buying android smart phones the smartest thing a consumer can do is buy a phone that's most likely going to have Cyanogenmod support. And what determines whether a smart phone is going to have Cyanogenmod support or not is what chipset manufacturer the phone uses.
Smart phones from most Chinese ARM manufacturers don't make their source code public even though they're legally obligated to do it. But you really can't enforce copyright law in China so this likely will never change. These vendors usually consist of Rockchip, Mediatek, Allwinner, and Spreadtrum.
Buying instead ARM devices with Samsung, Qualcomm, Nvidia, Texas Instruments, and Freescale chips guarantees a much longer life for that device with third party Android ROMS like Cyanogenmod.
*The more you know Xenophobic buying habits were actually useful in this one circumstance*