FTC and FCC asking Smartphone makers why security updates take so long....

[StrangerGuy]

Well, it is and it isn't. Carriers and OEMs usually create the delays, but Google also bears some responsibility for neither designing Android to minimize those delays nor making Apple-like arrangements that prevent companies from arbitrarily stalling releases.

One of the bigger mistakes Google made early on was hewing too slavishly to Andy Rubin's absolutist "we're open! Open open open!" philosophy. That created the same problem that many open source projects face: a laissez-faire policy sounds good in theory, but in practice it leads to partners pulling the project in all kinds of selfish directions that ultimately hurt users. It's better to have some sort of control over partners so that you don't end up in a situation like this, where companies delay OS updates for months or purposefully skip them in a bid to make you buy a new phone sooner.

Sure, the OS per se is open but the services that actually gives it the value is closed.

Reminds me of about something something having a cake and eat it.

 

[blankslate]

Well, it is and it isn't. Carriers and OEMs usually create the delays, but Google also bears some responsibility for neither designing Android to minimize those delays nor making Apple-like arrangements that prevent companies from arbitrarily stalling releases.

Fairly recently Google made the Android System Webview component(s), used by a some 3rd party web browsers in the Play Store to provide basic functionality, updatable separately from the OS. Hopefully they do that with other components that can be problematic in the future.

the media player components is definitely one of the next things that should be compartmentalized in this manner in a future Android version


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[JMB1911]

For Android to take off, Google had to make some trade offs, unfortunately, one of them was to give the manufacturers and carriers so much control over updates and security patches.

Manufacturers and carriers have no motivation to update, if you end up with a bug riddled phone, you buy a new one, and they make more $. Plus there are so many different phones, and so menu tweaks by the manufacturers and carriers, it becomes a Herculean task to keep up with the updates.

Doubt that Google can fix this any time soon, I strongly prefer the nexus phones because of Google's support.

<-hugs giant nexus 6.

If only the Nexus had a microSD slot and dare I say removable battery. I might actually buy one.

 

[Commodus]

Sure, the OS per se is open but the services that actually gives it the value is closed.

Reminds me of about something something having a cake and eat it.

That's the irony, I suppose -- the company has been at once relentlessly dogmatic about open source (mostly while Rubin was there) and yet determined to hold the keys to the kingdom. I'm fine with either, but Google's approach sometimes comes across as self-contradictory. Either offer more flexibility or take more control of the experience!

This isn't to say that the have-your-cake-and-eat-it approach is terrible, it's just problematic.