Android Enterprise Expert & Product leader. I help OEMs, EMMs, MSPs build, certify, support, & service the Android Ecosystem.
It's a small win for the respective OEMs setting the bar, but important to consider Apple's °minimum° far exceeds the °maximum° of a considerable number of OEMs in the Android Ecosystem. Further, Google enables this by mandating only ✨2 years✨ of security updates to remain compliant with GMS, and even dropped the requirement in AER mandating longer for knowledge worker devices with Android 11. So in January I could launch a device running Android 15, give it 8 security updates (90 day cadence, per GMS requirement 2.3), and EoS it with no further commitments, and that'd be a compliant device with a 2 year lifecycle. It could even pass AER validation. Food for thought. #androidenterprise.
For years, iPhone was known as having a longer security support lifetime than Android. Yet Apple never actually committed to a minimum support lifetime at purchase. Thanks to the UK government's PSTI regulation (which I had the pleasure of supporting via multiple testimonies and IoT security standards work - see https://lnkd.in/gH-4qGAR), Apple has finally published a purchase-time commitment - 5 years - two years LESS than Android flagships from Google (Pixel) and Samsung. Apple's 5 year commitment: https://lnkd.in/gNMAkubr. Google's 7-year commitment for devices starting w/ Pixel 8: https://lnkd.in/gJ2VhfxC. Samsung announcement of 7 years support: https://lnkd.in/g9uN3-7r. Consumers deserve to understand the minimum security support lifetimes for their consumer electronics at purchase time, and kudos to the UK government for mandating this transparency. Apple deserves a lot of credit for providing 5+ years of security updates for a long time. But now it's time to acknowledge iOS is no longer offering the best security lifetimes in the smartphone industry. Android is.
Technical Solutions Architect
2moI’m sure OEMs like Zebra do a far better job, but if you’re an enterprise buying devices to a budget then you are sure outta luck BEFORE the warranty expires. Buy cheap, buy twice.