Google to Shame tardy vendors for Delays in Android Updates for the good of users

Google has been trying to push the phone makers to update to the latest version of Android but that’s something that has not been implemented. Few weeks back we had reported in the 2015 Software Upgrade Report that most of the brands have not been sending the firmware updates to their users. Now google is getting very serious about this problem & the competition could be a reason for that. The only biggest competitor is Apple, whose users keep getting the iOS updates on time & in fact, a major percentage of them even update their devices too.

Keeping the Android Operating System updated is not just in the interest of the company, but is also useful to the brand because they could push their latest features to the masses. If you recall they had launched the Now on Tap feature last year, followed by the StageFright bugs that were fixed, that reached a very small percentage of users. It is not just the hardware that counts, but most of the market is still under this delusion & is pushing the latest hardware ignoring the software. This year Google had announced the Android N version that was made available to a few Nexus devices like Nexus 6P under the developer preview, but we not sure which brands would be pushing this to their products lineup.

Apple is doing a better job in this case because they have control over both the hardware & software, that is helping them get more control over everything. According to the reports, 84% of the iOS devices are running on the latest software, while only 7.5% of the Android devices are running on Marshmallow that has recently been superseded with the Android N version.

Solution to the Problem:
Google is persuading phone manufacturers to install the security updates quicker to their customer phones because they are of the highest importance. This is followed with the system updates that are also important since sometimes they come with some useful core features. The problem is with the carriers that take a few months just for the approvals of these updates to ensure there is no disruption to their network services along with the Chinese manufacturers who care less about the software updates to the devices.

To fix this Google is going to make a list ranking the Top phone makers depending on how regularly they update their devices based on the security patches & the operating system. Once this list goes public, the pressure from customers & fans would indirectly push the brands to quickly make changes & also push the OTA updates. It is all good for the users to some extent because we can clearly see this is the only way Google can push their latest features & applications like Allo or Duo to the billions of users.

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