Google will require OEMs to provide regular security updates… or else
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- Naman Modi
- vGU
- 25 Oct 2018
Thanks for this detailed piece of information!c
- Kiyasuriin
- Hxp
- 25 Oct 2018
Anonymous, 25 Oct 2018It's a good start but certainly, it is NOT enough. Ther... moreAgreed on all except the last one. And I am a pro-MicroSD user. Have you ever considered of cleaning junk from your phone? And remove apps that you don't need? It's both the user And the manufacturer for Planned Obsolecence. A user that doesn't clean his phone periodically accelerates the process of PO. And don't give me the BS of "but for that we need SD cards". There isn't a relation. Over time apps create Cache. Which hogs space for nothing. So don't drop EVERYTHING on the manufacturer.
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- bm
- puj
- 25 Oct 2018
AnonD-632062, 25 Oct 2018This is a good move. But I take exception to this statement... more"They have lived up to their promise of providing 2 years of major Android upgrades and 3 years of security updates for their flagships and upper-midrange phones."
Em...no they haven't. Samsung a5 (2017) is a popular phone (at least 100.000 users). It was released in 2017 with marshmellow although nougat was out already in 2017. Then it got upgraded to nougat and now with oreo. And the oreo upadate is the last one. So technically it is 2 major upgrades but not 2 years of major upgrades and probably not 3 years of security upgrades as well. They are cheating when they relaese a phone with 2 year old version of android and have been because nobody sanctioned them. Samsung a5 (2017) because it was released in 2017 should in the beginning of 2019 get the Pie update as well. Because 2017 to 2019 is 2 years and pie was released in between (in 2018).
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- Anonymous
- IW@
- 25 Oct 2018
It's a good start but certainly, it is NOT enough.
There should be worldwide regulation/legislation against planned obsolescence in phones, an international body strictly monitoring a country's compliance to efforts to miminimize electronic wastes especially smartphones that make up the bulk of electronic wastes.
Manufacturers who keep on coming up with numerous phone models but don't support them with software security updates for at least 5 years need to be heavily penalized for planned obsolescence.
Additionally, manufacturers that do not make widely available battery replacement services for all their sealed phone models a few years after a phone model has been released should also be fined heavily as practicing planned obsolescence.
Non-expandable storage is also planned obsolescence as they make you buy a new phone when storage is full. These manufacturers without micro sd expansion should also be heavily fined for planned obsolescence.
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- Anonymous
- LaT
- 25 Oct 2018
They really need to do this every 30-40 days max for security and not 90 days.. I mean even 30 days it’s taking the pee...
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- Anonymous
- vV5
- 25 Oct 2018
This is great. This is what Google should do more.
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- AnonD-632062
- nC6
- 25 Oct 2018
This is a good move. But I take exception to this statement:
"Will Samsung ever be on time with a major Android update?"
I definitely agree that Samsung provides late upgrades. And that is not ideal at all. But it is not right to only hold Samsung accountable as it only enforces wrong stereotypes.
For one, Samsung's approach is "better late than never". For the past several years, Samsung despite being slow, has been one of the more consistent upgrade providers. They have lived up to their promise of providing 2 years of major Android upgrades and 3 years of security updates for their flagships and upper-midrange phones.
They have honoured that commitment and haven't broken the consistent promise, despite being slow. The same cannot be said for other manufacturers. In recent years, OnePlus (which often provides fast updates) had reneged on their promise. The OnePlus 2 which is a flagship got launched with Lollipop but did not get it's promised 2-year upgrade to Nougat.
https://www.gsmarena.com/no_nougat_for_oneplus_2_company_confirms-news-25543.php
Also, we must know that Samsung has an extremely feature rich OS. It has features that won't be seen in stock Android phones for several years. Case in Point: A 2012 Galaxy S3 running JellyBean 4.1 had multi-window which only made it's way to stock in Android 7.0 Nougat (and was still more half-baked than Samsung's implementation).
And despite having so many extra features, rarely are there any critical bugs in Samsung's updates as they are thoroughly testes. It's like "Slow & steady wins the race". The same cannot be said for other manufactures who rush their updates only to stop it due to critical errors. Even Google themselves are known for their Pixel phones which have countless bugs and errors year after year, which still don't get fixed even after months of "patch-fixing" updates.
https://www.gsmarena.com/news.php3?sSearch=pixel%20issue
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- AnonD-492870
- khb
- 25 Oct 2018
hmmm...Maybe this should have been done in 2008?
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- Essen
- EP%
- 25 Oct 2018
Great move. Have always maintained security updates are more crucial than OS updates. But there should be no limits on type of device, sales numbers or even age of device. If you sell Android phones, seed savoury security updates every 90 days. Period. Security patches have nothing to do with features, skins and other excuses OEMs give. This is something the EU and other bodies should have gone after rather than bundling Google apps that can be easily disabled.
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- yuuuge
- Svf
- 25 Oct 2018
Anonymous, 25 Oct 2018As long as security patches are available, I would not be b... moreThe difference even between tiny updates can be huge. Any tiny detail can make phone lag like hell, or perfectly smooth. Plus you have no proof that they included only security updates, companies like to include secret stuff too.
- n
- nik.007
- gN@
- 25 Oct 2018
What more Google should do is cap the no. of licensed Android devices from an OEM. Updates would improve significantly, and some of these brands would at least stop launching a new device every other week.
But Xiaomi will still fool Google by releasing one device under 5 names at same price :D
- Z
- ZloiYuri
- Tmf
- 25 Oct 2018
Will Google enforce such unupdateable OEM like LG to provide regular updates? No. Will Google stop licensing Android for LG? No. LG will release unupdateable phones until they will decline mobile business at all.
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- Anonymous
- XTu
- 25 Oct 2018
umm....
am I missing something here
my 1 year old s8 has rarely not received montly updates and now is on October security patch which it got in the sec or first week so security updates are a problem facing Samsung for the most part now.......
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- Ed
- 61s
- 25 Oct 2018
Finally Oppo phone will get an update
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- Anonymous
- wce
- 25 Oct 2018
I wish you and the Google fan boys would bug Google to make fullscreen video zoomable in chrome for tall aspect ratios instead of this. Would be more useful.
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- Anonymous
- vIg
- 25 Oct 2018
As long as security patches are available, I would not be bothered too much about the Android version. There is hardly a difference anyway
Still using a one year old Windows 7 laptop provided by the office (fully patched with all tested patches, of course), even though the company I work for has access to every software product Microsoft produces.