Samsung still leads in Android updates and it’s not even close

To say that Samsung has been having a good year so far would be beyond deluded, particularly in regards to its mobile efforts. Yet it’s the only smartphone manufacturer around that continues to invest anything beyond the bare minimum into keeping its devices updated on a regular basis. The only exception being Google, whose interests in this area are much more connected to its ownership of Android and key OS services instead of the dozens of Pixel handsets it moves every year. Meaning Google has way more to gain from the Android ecosystem dealing with its inconsistent security update policies than Samsung does. Yet it’s Samsung, not Google, that now seems to be pushing the envelope in terms of after-sales software support.For many years now, Samsung consistently demonstrated it’s the only Android OEM that values its existing customers about as much as the prospect of attracting new ones – even if there’s no immediate PR benefit to be gained from the former. And, let’s be realistic, Android software support cycles are hardly something the average consumer can even wrap their head around, let alone factor into their next purchase decision. This is a huge part of the reason why Android, on the whole, remains so much less secure than iOS – because OEMs can afford to cut corners without facing any mainstream attempts at being held accountable.Few of today’s smartphone business models can even survive decent update policies