Android is the most popular mobile OS in the world. It also has some of the most frightening security holes, currently Stagefright. The carriers know this and use it to legally to seemingly extort their customers.
Apple has one thing that Android doesn’t have, and that is a decent patch cycle. You can see people still using the iPhone 4s today. They don’t have to get a new device just to be secure, but not everyone likes the iPhone. Android, on the other hand, is awash in situations. From the heavy fragmentation of the OS, to the majority of phone snot getting critical security updates thanks to the carriers, it really is the wild west. The best bet is to get an unlocked phone that will get updates directly from Google, but the cost of an unlocked phone is high, and the everyday person might not realize that is an option.
Carriers such as Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint know this and use it against the everyday person. Heck, last year when Android 5 came out, the list of phones to get it included mine. I still have not seen that update, even though Android 6 was just announced. So in my wisdom with Stagefright out there, now in two versions original and even better, I went through my phone settings to see when the last update was pushed out to me. The answer was June, before Stagefright, even though there have been patches made by Google and approved by the phone makers to patch Stagefright version 1, and soon version 2. Now why would a carrier not push out such critical patches? The only answer I can come up with is profit.
Think about it, they don’t send out the patches, you need a new phone to be secure! With the changes all the companies have been making this year to move away from plans and phone subsidies, it is the perfect plan. Extort the customers to make them secure! It is a perfect plan, especially considering no one has done the one thing that could end this. Sue the carriers once hacked. Lawsuits, especially class action ones are going to be the only way to get non-rooted, locked phones timely updates. The carriers have to be held responsible. The problem is those of us that know the carriers are doing this, root our phones, or get the Nexus line of phones. The lack of communication with the layman who uses an Android phone, continues to allow this pattern to continue.
The only other option is for everyone to move to iPhones, but without the competition how bad will the iPhone get? Think about it, most of the “great new features” on a iPhone are features that were already available on an Android phone. Apple just refines the feature a bit and whammo, now people are saying how Apple invented x, y, and z. Without Android what would spur iOS’s development?
One last thought though on all of this, and that is mobile payment, buying things online. Maybe someone else out there knows, but doesn’t being able to use your phone to make payments and the way it does subject the phones or carriers to some part of the PCI standard? If so, how many of us or them are truly compliant?
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