To write an "article" on Android updates, especially in the context of security and not even mention Google Play Services shows either no understanding of the Android eco system or a deliberate intent to mislead!
Yes Android updates by many manufacturers are sloe in coming but contrary to what the marketing department at Apple would have you believe, Google Play Services, the service that runs most of the things on Google supported Android and is updated on devices running 2.3 and above is automatically updated on 95% of active Android devices (a rare much greater then iOS updates) and is used by Google to roll out many of the most critical security updates!
If we go by the numbers, the vulnerability numbers that is, iOS has 415 vulnerabilities to Android%u2019s 334 since inception. So despite common beliefs, there have been more vulnerabilities discovered in iOS than Android to-date. Also, almost all mobile security professionals (the ones who actually know which is OS safer) they have to use Android. Apple is like a gated community, it is hard to get past the outer wall, but once you do there isn't enough of a fighting force. It takes quite a long time (relatively speaking of course) for Apple to fix vulnerabilities. Google on the other hand has a much stronger (even legendary) fighting force and usually has a fix out in a day or two.
Having said that, there is no denying that even once a fix is out there it is up to Samsung, HTC, LG, Sony, Vertu, Silent Circle, Motorola, etc to then send that fix to their respective phones. Samsung is the market leader and they are pretty terrible at speedy updates. So for all the amazing cybersecurity team that protects Android...they are completely disabled by every single manufacturer, carrier, in the world...end result...Apple wins.
Can Apple do anything to capture the buyer who can't afford $450? Yes. I think eventually (talking 3-5 years from now) when Apple has take 95% of premium phone sales they will branch out to lower cost phones in the $250-$350 range.
That will never happen. Never never never never never. Your hypothesis that the only people who will buy them are those who can't afford an iPhone today is wrong. A lot of the people who will buy the low cost iPhones will be iPhone owners who will want to spend less on their phones.
Take a lesson from the nonexistence of a significant market for high end PCs, and the fact that high end Androids, or profits therein, are a fast disappearing segment. For any OS, the introduction of a low end model model kills the market for high end models.
And yet, the same sources who consistently reported that Apple was fated to eventually inherit a malware crisis due to volume shipments are now fretting that Apple is on the brink of disaster, and that next year's iPhone will have a hard time attracting users, even though there is zero evidence supporting this idea.
Which "sources" are saying that Apple is on the brink of disaster? Surely only the most hardcore Android fan site would attempt that argument.
You keep making out that the media is biased against Apple but that just doesn't reflect the reality! Mainstream media coverage of Apple is typically very favourable.
Actually, Google had 2 prototypes. Here's the second that Apple fanboys conveniently "forget"
Shown almost 1 fricken year after the iPhone was introduced. Something the Android fanboys always conveniently "forget". The second prototype was born WAY after the introduction of the iPhone and it shows in the amazingly poor lagtastic interface being shown.
I left out one more thing that you're taken advantage of - Financially. Although, it pleases me to no end to know that Apple is making a 40% margin off of you.
Oh, and calling someone a troll on the worst Apple trolling site on the Internet is Priceless.
To be fair, most of the high end Android phones are priced with the same profit margin, and this is by far not the worst Apple trolling site. The regular posters here are knowledgeable, and well spoken. I personally have learned a lot from them.
As far as Android goes, it was meant to be a OS for a device with a physical keyboard. Andy Rubin even admitted that they changed course when they saw the iPhone and iOS.
Well, of course it pleases me that Apple fleeces you every year. And as a alleged stockholder it should also please you that millions are also fleeced. Apple is a one trick pony. Once those iPhone sales dry up and plateau it's all downhill from there. So you may want to sell your 1 share before that happens.
Not sure why everyone keeps predicting this. Even in the U.S., Apple market share is growing.
Why does no one ever say this about Google? If they lost their search dominance, they would be done. Search ads subsidize all their other activities, including and especially Android.
I'm sure you and Tim has a lot in common when it comes to fantasies.
The correct word here is "have" you imbecile. Does your lollypop or whatever version you're running offer you proper grammar because you are incapable to tell the difference.
Don't like DED opinion pieces, but can't really argue with him. Carrier certification and the slow rollout of updates can potentially cost users dearly.
With so much information on phones, and these days there's likely to be more private information on a mobile device than a desktop PC. Yet Microsoft can push out patches, and is now making those patches mandatory. Why isn't my phones security taken more seriously? Security flaws need rapid patching, and Google needs to figure out how to at least get security patches past carrier firewalls.
On the flipside of this. Popular Android phones have no root, locked bootloaders and a locked ecosystem. By design, flagship android phones are by and large are as restrictive as iPhones. You just have the option to peel those restrictions off. So I don't hold water to the argument that Android is flawed and full of holes. Malware reports on Android devices is still rare.
I have never had a single Malware on any of my phones regardless of OS. Users who sideload apps are the problem, if they stick with Google's Play Store they won't have any problems.
I have never had a single Malware on any of my phones regardless of OS. Users who sideload apps are the problem, if they stick with Google's Play Store they won't have any problems.
I don't think there's anything inherently insecure about Android that isn't shared by every other operating system (mobile or otherwise).
The problem is that, in their desperation to start selling as much of their customers' usage patterns as fast as they could, Google signed up with whatever the carriers put in front of them.
Apple did not.
And now Android is in the situation whereby desperately needed security patches aren't making it to Android users.
The carriers bear most of the responsibility for this (and by most I mean 95%), but I also blame Google for putting short term profits in front of the long-term safety of their customers' data.
Ah, one color in one model in one product from a range of iOS products is comparable to the Android LOGO (i.e., the image that is emblematic of the entire ecosystem)?
Oh, you sad little folks with your utter lack of taste or expectations are really quite laughable.
"Several years ago, Steve Jobs called out Adobe Flash as a trainwreck of security and performance problems, garnering him contempt from industry players deeply invested in the software platform."
The problem with Steve was a monetary on one hand and hardware on the other:
1. Flash would take revenue from stupid apps on the app store.
2. Flash would not allow apple 120% percent full control. They are also trying to get rid of Java..
3. the early iPad and iPhone had a sucking hardware incapable of running flash smoothly. That's not the case with newer hardware.
4. I have never had performance issues with Flash, not even on crapy computer hardware 6-8 years ago. With today's hardware (well except the new Macbook) there should not even be a conversation on performance issues because of Flash:)))
5. Security? that's another excuse to scare the innocent away from Flash!
P.S I do own aapl, and use a rMBP with iPhone 6+ and iPad air 2 (iPad mouth more of curiosity, though barely use it )
my, my, that's a whole lotta personal conjecture presented as fact.
here's a fact for you -- performance of Flash on mobile was so terrible and prone to problems that even Android and then Adobe dropped it. oops.
Comments
As what kind of green would you describe it? 'Spring' green?
Xbox green.
Actually the original Android concept was a pale ripoff of BlackBerry and Palm.
From Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Android_mobile_phone_platform_early_device.jpg
IOW, another Blackberry, Palm Treo, Moto Q, Samsung Blackjack clone.
Andy Rubin had no idea what Apple was about to unveil...
(2) if the only way to update a device's software is to replace it, that's a feature, not a bug (see #1)
Yes Android updates by many manufacturers are sloe in coming but contrary to what the marketing department at Apple would have you believe, Google Play Services, the service that runs most of the things on Google supported Android and is updated on devices running 2.3 and above is automatically updated on 95% of active Android devices (a rare much greater then iOS updates) and is used by Google to roll out many of the most critical security updates!
Having said that, there is no denying that even once a fix is out there it is up to Samsung, HTC, LG, Sony, Vertu, Silent Circle, Motorola, etc to then send that fix to their respective phones. Samsung is the market leader and they are pretty terrible at speedy updates. So for all the amazing cybersecurity team that protects Android...they are completely disabled by every single manufacturer, carrier, in the world...end result...Apple wins.
Can Apple do anything to capture the buyer who can't afford $450? Yes. I think eventually (talking 3-5 years from now) when Apple has take 95% of premium phone sales they will branch out to lower cost phones in the $250-$350 range.
That will never happen. Never never never never never. Your hypothesis that the only people who will buy them are those who can't afford an iPhone today is wrong. A lot of the people who will buy the low cost iPhones will be iPhone owners who will want to spend less on their phones.
Take a lesson from the nonexistence of a significant market for high end PCs, and the fact that high end Androids, or profits therein, are a fast disappearing segment. For any OS, the introduction of a low end model model kills the market for high end models.
And yet, the same sources who consistently reported that Apple was fated to eventually inherit a malware crisis due to volume shipments are now fretting that Apple is on the brink of disaster, and that next year's iPhone will have a hard time attracting users, even though there is zero evidence supporting this idea.
Which "sources" are saying that Apple is on the brink of disaster? Surely only the most hardcore Android fan site would attempt that argument.
You keep making out that the media is biased against Apple but that just doesn't reflect the reality! Mainstream media coverage of Apple is typically very favourable.
Actually, Google had 2 prototypes. Here's the second that Apple fanboys conveniently "forget"
Shown almost 1 fricken year after the iPhone was introduced. Something the Android fanboys always conveniently "forget". The second prototype was born WAY after the introduction of the iPhone and it shows in the amazingly poor lagtastic interface being shown.
To be fair, most of the high end Android phones are priced with the same profit margin, and this is by far not the worst Apple trolling site. The regular posters here are knowledgeable, and well spoken. I personally have learned a lot from them.
As far as Android goes, it was meant to be a OS for a device with a physical keyboard. Andy Rubin even admitted that they changed course when they saw the iPhone and iOS.
Came here to mention this. This article makes a lot of valid points, but knocking android's green color is a little silly.
Not sure why everyone keeps predicting this. Even in the U.S., Apple market share is growing.
Why does no one ever say this about Google? If they lost their search dominance, they would be done. Search ads subsidize all their other activities, including and especially Android.
You both need to knock it off before you get banned.
Don't like DED opinion pieces, but can't really argue with him. Carrier certification and the slow rollout of updates can potentially cost users dearly.
With so much information on phones, and these days there's likely to be more private information on a mobile device than a desktop PC. Yet Microsoft can push out patches, and is now making those patches mandatory. Why isn't my phones security taken more seriously? Security flaws need rapid patching, and Google needs to figure out how to at least get security patches past carrier firewalls.
On the flipside of this. Popular Android phones have no root, locked bootloaders and a locked ecosystem. By design, flagship android phones are by and large are as restrictive as iPhones. You just have the option to peel those restrictions off. So I don't hold water to the argument that Android is flawed and full of holes. Malware reports on Android devices is still rare.
I have never had a single Malware on any of my phones regardless of OS. Users who sideload apps are the problem, if they stick with Google's Play Store they won't have any problems.
I have never had a single Malware on any of my phones regardless of OS. Users who sideload apps are the problem, if they stick with Google's Play Store they won't have any problems.
Or maybe they will.
http://www.scmagazineuk.com/game-malware-has-up-to-1-million-downloads-on-google-play/article/425751/
I don't think there's anything inherently insecure about Android that isn't shared by every other operating system (mobile or otherwise).
The problem is that, in their desperation to start selling as much of their customers' usage patterns as fast as they could, Google signed up with whatever the carriers put in front of them.
Apple did not.
And now Android is in the situation whereby desperately needed security patches aren't making it to Android users.
The carriers bear most of the responsibility for this (and by most I mean 95%), but I also blame Google for putting short term profits in front of the long-term safety of their customers' data.
Ah, one color in one model in one product from a range of iOS products is comparable to the Android LOGO (i.e., the image that is emblematic of the entire ecosystem)?
Oh, you sad little folks with your utter lack of taste or expectations are really quite laughable.
my, my, that's a whole lotta personal conjecture presented as fact.
here's a fact for you -- performance of Flash on mobile was so terrible and prone to problems that even Android and then Adobe dropped it. oops.
got any other crackpot theories?
exactly. major pivot after the announcement.