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[eyecre8]

For years wireless carriers have shown reluctance to provide regular updates to Android mobile devices. The lack of updates leaves millions of Android users sometimes upwards of two revs behind in not only feature updates, but patches for security vulnerabilities.

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Activist Chris Soghoian made a call for legislators to get involved in calling AT&T, Verizon, TMobile and Sprint on the carpet for their practices, or cede control to Google for providing regular updates to devices. Google's Android OS has been given up to the masses for free which leaves update distribution with the carriers and handset vendors.

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said Soghoian

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Android has the largest mobile device market. As such 99 percent of mobile malware detected was targeting Android. Most prevalent among them are are SMS attacks that run up premium calling charges. Consumers remain in the crosshairs of attackers because they are not getting the updates they are essentially promised with the purchase of a device.

Soghoian showed some numbers backing up his premise; some LG Android devices were up to 16 months behind, while Samsung devices were up to 13 months in arrears.
Also, as stated in a previous article here, according to the Google Android Developers Dashboard, 50 percent of devices are running the Gingerbread version of Android, which was released in 2010.

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Google is quick to patch vulnerabilities and makes those patches available to its hardware partners. Those fixes, however, are not getting downstream to consumers,
Most concerning is the default Android Web browser, which unlike Chrome and Firefox desktop browsers that are on six-week update cycles, the Android browser is two years behind in updates. browser updates are available only when the manufacturers send complete updates. Outside the geek space, consumers don’t know the problem exists, says Soghoian. “They may realize they’re not getting feature updates, but they may think security updates are happening in the background, or they don’t realize security updates are important.”


Can we hope to see some movement on this front?


Via:

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[johnlgalt]

Yeah, saw that at another forum - the problem is not just hte carriers though - the OEMs are just as responsible b/c they put things like Blur and Sense and TouchWiz on their devices....

[ihavenoeffort]

This is why I want a Google device such as the nexus 4. When an update is ready, you get it.

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[eyecre8]

This is why I want a Google device such as the nexus 4. When an update is ready, you get it.

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This is true however one of those articles states Soghoin's opinion that:

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Which if true is very upsetting.

[johnlgalt]

I actually doubt that very statement. In fact, I'm betting the opposite - as frustrations mount over hte lack of updates from carriers Google will start pushing its own devices a la Apple.

[ihavenoeffort]

I actually doubt that very statement. In fact, I'm betting the opposite - as frustrations mount over hte lack of updates from carriers Google will start pushing its own devices a la Apple.

I agree. I think Google needs to essentially take back the android OS and only make nexus devices. Like apple, but just allow companies to make their own apps. I think though on the back side of that, android may decline. So far, with the nexus lines, they don't offer quite the variety of options other manufacturers do with 4-6 phones a year, each tailored to be a bit better in one are than the others ie bigger screen/battery, typical cpu vs quad core cpu and normal screen for multimedia. Something like that.

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