Android phones aren’t bad. There are a plethora of great Android phones out there, especially from Samsung and Lenovo, which are my favorite of the lot. The big problem with Android is apparently the same that Google itself has, and that is about the devices being up to date. Bloomberg reported earlier this week that Android phone makers are horrible at keeping their devices up to date. In fact it’s gotten so bad that Google has even threatened to shame its Android partners by releasing a list of manufacturers who have failed to issue critical updates to their devices and pass them on to the public.
This is when Android fans like to shout unanimously, saying none of this actually matters. Google itself does a great job at keeping its suite of apps like Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Now up to date. And older versions of Android work just fine. But those arguments fall flat when Android phone makers do not update the phones that have been exposed to nasty bugs, for instance, Stagefright, which, according to reports, made about 1 billion Android devices vulnerable to hackers. They fall flat again when the only way to enjoy cool new Android features is to buy a new phone instead of waiting for a software update that might never come. The arguments fall flat when developers delay their apps because they’re too busy programming for all the fragmented versions of Android that are in use.
Currently only 7.5% of Android devices are running Marshmallow, which is the latest version of Android that came out over six months ago. If one can compare that to the latest version of iOS, iOS 9, it is on 84% of devices. That, and only that, according to me is the real strength of the iPhone. The only way to ensure you get timely Android updates is to buy one of Google’s Nexus phones. They’re amazing devices, but they only represent a tiny percentage of the Android phones in existence.
If Google can get over this problem, which seems highly unlikely in the near future, there will be no beating Android and even hardcore iPhone fans will sway towards Google’s Android.
