“A few years ago I read an article about Android OS fragmentation among smartphones,” Wil Gomez reports for Mac360. “What has happened in the more than three years since? More fragmentation.”
“In fact, if one tried to describe the differences between Apple’s iPhone and iOS vs. Google’s Android and its many versions and manufacturers, it would be this,” Gomez reports. “It’s unification vs. fragmentation. That synopsis helps to explain why Android OS has failed most of the smartphone makers and why they – and Google – can’t make any money with it.”
“A growing number of more sophisticated smartphone and tablet users– and the corporate IT segment of business– view that fragmentation as a problem to be avoided at all costs,” Gomez reports. “The first and possibly the most important reason is security. Apple updates each version of iOS frequently throughout a year… Most Android smartphone users never upgrade to a newer version (often because they cannot); instead, they buy a new smartphone, as many security upgrades are never made available to the user base. That’s criminal. Is it any wonder that sophisticated buyers and businesses flock to iOS, which owns a commanding share of the enterprise smartphone and tablet usage?”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: It certainly is criminal. Android is the criminal OS in more ways that one: patent infringement, trade dress-infringement, lack of security, lack of privacy, not to mention lack of taste.
SEE ALSO:
Certifi-gate: Hundreds of millions of Android devices vulnerable to stealth unrestricted access – August 7, 2015
Malformed video files can be used to crash half of all Android phones – July 30, 2015
Security journalist: Goodbye, Android, hello Apple iPhone! – July 29, 2015
950 million Android phones can be hijacked by malicious text messages – July 27, 2015
New Android malware strains to top 2 million by end of 2015 – July 1, 2015
Symantec: 1 in 5 Android apps is malware – April 25, 2015
Kaspersky Lab Director: Over 98% of mobile malware targets Android because it’s much, much easier to exploit than iOS – January 15, 2015
Security experts: Malware spreading to millions on Android phones – November 21, 2014
There’s practically no iOS malware, thanks to Apple’s smart control over app distribution – June 13, 2014
F-Secure: Android accounted for 99% of new mobile malware in Q1 2014 – April 30, 2014
Google’s Sundar Pichai: Android not designed to be safe; if I wrote malware, I’d target Android, too – February 27, 2014
Cisco: Android the target of 99 percent of world’s mobile malware – January 17, 2014
U.S. DHS, FBI warn of malware threats to Android mobile devices – August 27, 2013
Android app malware rates skyrocket 40 percent in last quarter – August 7, 2013
First malware found in wild that exploits Android app signing flaw – July 25, 2013
Mobile Threats Report: Android accounts for 92% of all mobile malware – June 26, 2013
Latest self-replicating Android Trojan looks and acts just like Windows malware – June 7, 2013
99.9% of new mobile malware targets Android phones – May 30, 2013
Mobile malware exploding, but only for Android – May 14, 2013
Mobile malware: Android is a bad apple – April 15, 2013
F-Secure: Android accounted for 96% of all mobile malware in Q4 2012 – March 7, 2013
New malware attacks Android phones, Windows PCs to eavesdrop, steal data; iPhone, Mac users unaffected – February 4, 2013
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
MDN…..you missed the biggest thing. “Google Android” is criminal because it was stolen from Apple.
Well … I think we need to be honest here about where the dishonesty resides. Criminal; I can’t say. I don’t know the agreements in place & whether or what if anything was stolen and when.
Eric (the mole) Schmidt, then CEO of Google was on Apple’s Board of Directors and used his inside information to jump start part of Android at the very least.
At the very least, Eric was a traitor to Apple and personal acquaintance Steve Jobs, and he should have instantly resigned from the Board the minute any potential or actual conflict of interest occurred and he should have been the one to notify Apple instantly.
Eric was not up front, however.
Herr Schmitt was indeed a thief,,,,,at the board level. But I am talking about the actual engineer who worked for Apple on Apples Android endeavour. When Apple decided to stack Android in favour of iOS the Engineer defected to Google and basically took the Android “bag of hurt” with him as a stolen product. ‘That’, is what was criminal. The rest is history.
“It’s unification vs. fragmentation. That synopsis helps to explain why Android OS has failed most of the smartphone makers and why they – and Google – can’t make any money with it.”
This is false, there’s no direct link between the fragmentation and why no one can make money with it. They are both true, but not causally related. Consumers may feel that the race-to-the-bottom of android handset prices is a good thing for them, but in reality, it is a disaster for the platform long term, it means that innovation will dry up and Android will be left to do what it does best: copy Apple. But it will never be as good, it will be the “Elvis impersonator” of iPhones.
There is another kind of fragmentation, but this time in the iOS world, namely Apple refusing (even partial) support of new features on older devices. If you buy a new iPhone/iPad, chances are that you aren’t yet in the market for a new iMac, MacBool or iPad/iPhone. So you will have to wait YEARS to benefit fully (really: at all) of the newest features in the Apple ecosystem.
What’s the point of the often touted deep integration and sharing of all one’s data between Apple devices, if there is no integration between product generations?
“namely Apple refusing (even partial) support of new features on older devices.”
Ridiculous troll lies. I use an 8-year-old iMac. I have access to all kinds of new functionality with each iOS update.
He’s not lying, so pull your head out of the ‘Apple’s perfect in every possible way’ a-hole for a minute. I’ve been a dedicated Apple user since 2003, but gave up on the Cool-Ade years ago.
Handoff? Thought not.
I’m running my 2012 iMac and 2010 MacBook Air, neither benefits from Handoff, since neither has Bluetooth 4.
Easy solution, allow USB Bluetooth 4 Dongles to be used on older machines. Apple’s response. . .Nope.
You named ONE specific function.
He said, ““refusing (even partial) support of new features.”
Note – EVEN PARTIAL. That is nonsense.
It was announced not long ago that Google Nexus and Samsung phones and I think that was it, but they are supposed to start doing monthly updates! Thats not good for Apple, as that was always the advantage. Will they screw it up, can’t wait to find out!
These would be security updates for Jellysandwich (or some other food sounding name) to go from JS v1.0 to JS v1.1
These will not address taking a phone from JS to, let’s say, KittyLitter.
“Feature wise” the Android crap will still be fragmented.
Monthly updates will depend heavily on the carriers willingness to provide support, and I’m guessing they want no part of that.
I will be very surprised if we do not hear in the next week or so that Google are finally going to do something to fix this very real security problem, let alone the ‘image’ problem that goes along with it.
I don’t see how they can not do anything. I bet there will be an ultimatum from Google insisting core updates get pushed to all users or Android will no longer be licensed no charge to manufacturers. Something is going to happen.
Sorry, but the carriers have zero interest in support beyond the OS version included in the phone at point of sale…it costs them money, time and resources which are needed to develop their wizzy_whatever_skin for the next batch of newer phones. This is their real game – sell you another phone
Android was created in a panic…now that panic has spread to millions of people. iPhones for all this Fall.