The lawsuit between the US antitrust authority and Google is bringing to light some surprising facts that happen behind the scenes of the Mountain View giant’s business.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai revealed why some Android smartphones receive timely security updates and others don’t.
Google encourages manufacturers to provide Android updates
According to Pichai, Google financially incentivizes manufacturers to update their smartphones promptly. In practice, companies that keep Android devices updated with the latest security patches earn more revenue from Google services than those that don’t.
In other words, the amount of money a smartphone manufacturer makes from using Google products on its device is related to how often it keeps the device updated with security patches.
We knew that Google mandates two years of updates for any Android smartphone and strongly encourages manufacturers to offer more extensive support, but we didn’t know there were financial incentives involved.
Pichai also said that some OEMs prefer not to upgrade devices or make compromises, as the cost to develop them is high. This could explain why Samsung is the most virtuous company when it comes to Android updates , while other companies adopt a bare minimum policy.
