I'll give you a shocking example. There was a bug on one of the Nexus devices I owned where if you were in a deadzone for more than a few minutes, the radio would crash. I kid you not! The stupid radio would crash whenever my train went into the deadzone of the Grand Central approach. No fix, no official word. Then, some programmer released a free app where if your radio was out for more than 1-2 mins, it would automatically shutoff your radio. Got me going. This is why I would not suggest my wife or any non-tech person to get a nexus device. If you are a tech person, it is probably okay. I'm considering a Nexus 5 myself.
And while it might have been an implicit promise, sadly, I don't think long-term support (or any customer support, really) was ever much in the cards.
FWIW my Google devices (from G1 on) have all eventually migrated to CyanogenMod, where they've run better than they ever did on stock. While CM isn't rushing to 4.4 (the plan is to land 10.2/4.3 before starting work on 10.3/4.4), updates have always lasted longer than I've wanted to keep using the devices. (if you have a GNex, give CM10.2 a try. It blew my hair back. Felt like a brand new phone.)
To me, having unlocked bootloaders is a bigger selling point than stock updates...
I won't be upgrading to the Nexus 5 mainly because I don't really see much improvement over my Nexus 4 w/ CM 10.2 - I have unlocked LTE that works great w/ T-Mobile where I am, it runs quick/smoothly enough, and well, the camera apparently is still bad on the Nexus 5... (that's what the 5s is for)
When you look at it that way, the Galaxy Nexus received one major update and that was it. That's less than most "flagship" consumer devices sold, which typically receive at least two.
As for what I expect from a Nexus, I demand a minimum of two, but find it reasonable to expect three. From this, it seems clear that Google has completely lost its commitment to the Nexus-brand, and to me that makes the Nexus-brand completely uninteresting.
What you expect and what is promised are not the same, in this case they are very different.
I demand a minimum of two, but find it reasonable to expect three.
So now it's an unrealistic demand you're making, and not their failure to keep a promise (they never actually made)?
From this, it seems clear that Google has completely lost its commitment to the Nexus-brand
Regardless of the circumstances, this is an absurd claim.
I live in that ancient belief that you should be able to keep your phone functioning happily for 3 years, which is exactly what happened with my iPhone 4, by iOS 6 it became slow and kind of crashy but usable and it did everything I wanted it to (even if it didn't get all the new features like the new navigation or Siri).
But the main point is that it kept going for more than 3 years, and the Galaxy Nexus, a phone that was really expensive at the time does not get the new update just a year and a half after release. That's half of the lifetime I expect of a phone.
The Galaxy Nexus was sold on software and on software alone. It's hardware was if not underwhelming, certainly not best of breed available in the market when it was launched. And it was launched with a price to match high-end phones from other Android OEMs.
If you bought this phone, you bought it because you wanted software updates.
And when you consider today's smart-phone market, phones have enough RAM, CPU cores and god knows what. New hardware is not really that interesting. All the good, new and exciting stuff happens in software.
From that point of view, Google just shit on the only thing which made the Galaxy Nexus worth buying in the first place. They just outright told the market: Not even a recent Nexus is guaranteed Android updates.
That's a severe breach of trust.