“I guess there will be a celebration somewhere,” Ewan Spence reports for Forbes. “The latest major version of Android, Marshmallow [6.0], has broken a psychological barrier and is now running on one percent of Google-powered devices.”
MacDailyNews Take: Smirk.
“For comparison, Android 5.0 is now sitting on 34.1 percent, sixteen months after it was first released,” Spence reports. “As always, Google’s biggest issue with Android is the inability to roll out timely updates to its code.”
“The most popular version of Android is 4.4 KitKat on 35.5% – that would be the OS released in October 2013. Recent studies have shown just how slow Android is to be updated, with an overall average of just 1.26 updates per year per device, and almost a year for one update to roll out to ninety-five percent of a single device line,” Spence reports. “Is it any wonder that Android is seen as a less secure operating system than the competition?”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Now to be fair, this is only because Android is an inferior product peddled to cheapskate tech illiterates who do not value their privacy and/or who are unable to recognize a half-assed knockoff from the revolutionary original.
Android is a BlackBerry clone that was hastily rejiggered to mimic iPhone at the last minute.
Obviously, mistakes were made and corners were cut.
So, the Android rush-job is a security nightmare. It’s a fragmented morass. It’s too many cooks in the kitchen. It’s crap-by-committee. Lowest common denominator junk. Anyone who rewards blatant thieves by settling for Android garbage deserves their fate.
iOS is to Android as a world class chef is to a kitchen full of McDonald’s fry cooks.
And, yes, once you go to Apple’s iPhone, you’ll never want to go back.
SEE ALSO:
More than 90% of Android devices are running out-dated, insecure operating system versions – January 27, 2016
Dangerous new zero-day flaw affects more than two-thirds of all Android devices – January 20, 2016
Android malware steals one-time passcodes, a crucial defense for online banking – January 14, 2016
New Android malware is so bad, you’d better off buying a new phone – November 6, 2015
Apple issues iPhone manifesto; blasts Android’s lack of updates, lack of privacy, rampant malware – August 10, 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
Even though Android doesn’t get updated on handsets very often, it does something magical which is underappreciated here on MDN.
IT DRIVES GOOGLE TRAFFIC!
Google pays Apple $1 billion a year just to stay relevant. That’s how much Google is valued in mobile today. It actually has to pay out hard cash to get clients to physically use Google products.
Well, then, maybe it should be 2 billion…
“It actually has to pay out hard cash to get clients to physically use Google products.”
How Microsoftian.
But not the amount of “buying traffic” that iOS drives!
Nothing is undermining Google. They’re the most valuable company in the world.
Not anymore.
^ Bernie Madoff investor.
Maybe not Google, but their customers, yes…
4 a day
“And, yes, once you go to Apple’s iPhone, you’ll never want to go back.”
Actually I switched from iPhone to Galaxy S3, loved the software, HATED the hardware. Very happy Z3 Compact user here now. No wish to go back to iOS.
I expect this comment will make me super popular here and everyone will give it five stars. 😉
Having said all that, Android updates are a MAJOR PITA and they absolutely must come up with a different way of doing this. My phone was fully exposed to the Stagefright vulnerability for months thanks to T-Mobile NL’s way of rolling out updates, or rather NOT rolling them out because Sony phones don’t sell as much as Samsung so why bother updating them on time.
You recently bought a Sony Ericsson when you could’ve had an iPhone. And now you come here in the vain expectation of rationalising your woefully poor life choices. The world doesn’t work that way son. Just lie down and take the punishment you brought onto yourself.
“Just lie down and take the punishment you brought onto yourself”
more like bend over and take it like a doofus
Aren’t you concerned about having some lurking issue that hasn’t been discovered? And, if so, does that prevent you from fully utilizing your device, such as saving pictures, surfing the Internet, banking, commerce, etc.?
When I got malware on my Android phone I basically stopped using the device, and even after is was “fixed” there was still trepidation in the back of my mind.
A big part of life is risk, and as one gets older and wiser risk is managed down to lower risk. An iPhone is low risk.
That’s why you buy an unlocked phone.
KitKat was the best version of Android released.
Anyone stuck on that version is *lucky*
*lucky* read: STUPID and vulnerable
“Is it any wonder that Android is seen as a less secure operating system than the competition?”
“SEEN AS…” <- Marketing speak, thinking only in terms of perception. Sheesh.
The fact is that Android is the single most INsecure operating system currently available, and the situation is consistently becoming WORSE over time, despite Google's attempts to attenuate it. Until Google END the multiple problems that result in Fragmandroid, Android will remain the most dangerous OS available.
Meanwhile, the irony of Google's 'Project Zero'. They out everyone else's security flaws, which is fine with me, while ignoring the impact of their own, which is total absurdity. 😛
Windows XP is the single most insecure operating system currently available. Or did you forget that?
Windows XP is NOT available. MS discontinued support on April 4, 2014. At the start of 2016 MS discontinued support for Windows XP Embedded as well (used in thousands of dangerous credit card scanners).
Sorry, I hadn’t intended to insult your intelligence. XP may be EOL and not available for purchase but it continues to roll on a lot of machinery out there. Did you upgrade yet?
Thank you! I have both XP (SP3) and Windows 10 running in virtualization. I’m always wary to use XP on the Internet and only do it for very targeted tasks. I also have an up-to-date anti-malware app running on it 24/8. That didn’t stop me from picking up one adware infection. But I did ID it and exterminate it. I think FoxIt infected me with it. The nasty was an add-on for awful Internet Explorer 8, which I avoid unless some application calls it out of its dungeon.