Google’s business-friendly Android cellphone checklist has a giant drawback
The Android Enterprise Recommended program makes some lofty guarantees, however a Computerworld investigation revealed it is not all it is cracked as much as be.
Google/OpenClipart-Vectors/JR Raphael
Google’s extremely severe about making Android interesting to the enterprise and the broader universe of enterprise customers.
That’s the official firm line, at the very least — and the narrative Google’s been pushing exhausting since launching its Android Enterprise Recommended program in February 2018.
Android Enterprise Recommended, the corporate advised us, could be a “Google-led international initiative that raises the bar of excellence for enterprise units and companies.” It’d set up “finest practices and customary necessities” for business-ready Android units, and it’d guarantee any cellphone with the stamp of approval offered an expert and correctly supported expertise with out the entire frequent ecosystem asterisks.
[ Related: Why Android upgrades absolutely matter ]
It definitely sounds sensible and smart. The enterprise realm specifically is carefully tuned into safety and information safety, and having staff carry units that do not obtain well timed and dependable software program updates — whether or not we’re speaking in regards to the month-to-month safety patches or the larger working system releases round them — poses an unacceptable danger for any cautious group.
Some 4 years after its launch, although, Google’s Android Enterprise Recommended program appears to have devolved right into a principally meaningless afterthought. There’s a disconcerting disconnect between this system’s front-facing promise and what you discover whenever you dig deeply into its choices and look carefully at what’s truly occurring with the units it is endorsed.
And for any firm that is counting on that seal of approval as a information to which Android telephones supply an optimally safe and up-to-date setting appropriate for enterprise use, that disconnect might result in some troublingly flawed selections.
The Android Enterprise Recommended story
I first wrote in regards to the points with Google’s Android Enterprise Recommended program practically two years in the past, in July 2020. At the time, I famous that this system’s “Devices” web page prominently featured some telephones that had been woefully old-fashioned and in direct battle with the security-minded guarantees on that exact same display.
Specifically, as I noticed on the time, the primary cellphone listed on the web page was the Motorola-made Moto Z4 — a tool that was “validated by Google” for assembly its “highest requirements,” with “common safety updates assured,” because the web page proclaimed.
The Moto Z4, nonetheless, had acquired the then-current Android 10 working system replace greater than six months after its launch, with completely no communication alongside the best way. And reporting on the time indicated it had gone months with none safety patch updates and remained perpetually old-fashioned on that entrance as effectively.
Now, the actually surprising twist: Pull up that very same first-level “Devices” web page right this moment, practically two years later, and what do you see? Yep, you guessed it: the now-three-year-old Moto Z4, nonetheless prominently featured as the highest machine incomes Google’s stamp of approval.
JR Raphael/IDG
Google’s Android Enterprise Recommended “Devices” web page nonetheless prominently options telephones from 2019. (Click any picture on this story to enlarge it.)
The Moto Z4, suffice it to say, hasn’t been formally supported with updates for months at this level. Heck, it was barely supported even when it was technically nonetheless in line for energetic ongoing rollouts. And but, it is in some way nonetheless the top-featured machine on Google’s Android Enterprise Recommended web site — together with different equally outdated and no-longer-supported merchandise.
And that, sadly, is simply the tip of the iceberg.
A deeper machine drawback
Having a distinguished introductory web page that does not appear to have been up to date in years clearly is not a superb signal for the state of the related program. But perhaps that is simply an oversight. Maybe the database itself continues to be present and stuffed with significant enterprise-ready Android cellphone suggestions. Right?
Well, perhaps. But not precisely.
Make your method over to the complete checklist of Android Enterprise Recommended merchandise, and you’ll certainly see some extra present units within the assortment of authorized and endorsed gadgets. For North America, particularly, telephones such because the Motorola Edge (2021), Moto G Stylus (2022), and Samsung Galaxy S21 and S22 are all included, as are quite a few present Google-made and Nokia-made units.
I made a decision to dig deeper but, although, and see how effectively a few of these merchandise had been truly maintaining with the Android Enterprise Recommended promise. And exterior of Google’s self-made Pixel merchandise, the reply is not precisely uplifting.
The Moto G Stylus, as an illustration, nonetheless hasn’t acquired the now-seven-month-old Android 12 replace as of this writing. Equally unsettling, it is operating a five-months-outdated safety patch from December 1, 2021 at this current second — regardless of the machine’s in-phone System Update display assuring homeowners that “every little thing seems good” and that they are “utilizing the newest software program.”
JR Raphael/IDG
The Moto G Stylus’s System Update message, as seen in late April 2022.
A cellphone’s worth should have no bearing on its capacity to maintain up with this program’s guarantees, after all, however for perspective, even Motorola’s 2021 Edge flagship — which sells for $700 and launched final September, roughly one month earlier than Android 12’s launch — simply began getting the Android 12 replace days in the past, in late April.
Nokia’s units, in the meantime, appear to be faring significantly better on the safety patch entrance. I checked out the Nokia G10 for instance and located it to be operating the safety replace from March 5, 2022. Sure, it is lacking the more moderen April replace, in battle with its acknowledged promise for month-to-month safety patch rollouts, but it surely’s at the very least fairly near the place it should be.
But that is the place the excellent news ends. The Nokia G10 continues to be operating 2020’s Android 11 software program as of this second — a launch that is now practically 20 months old-fashioned. And as anybody who research Android carefully can let you know, working system updates completely do matter past what you see on the floor. They usually comprise quite a few privacy- and security-related enhancements together with critically necessary adjustments to the best way apps are allowed to work together with units and delicate consumer information.
Neither Motorola nor Nokia has made any significant communication to prospects in regards to the standing of their rollouts, both, or when any progress could be anticipated.
And bear in mind, the core Android Enterprise Recommended promise is an assurance that you’re going to get “well timed safety patches and clear details about main updates” with any endorsed units (although amusingly sufficient, the Android Enterprise Recommended web site’s database truly has a built-in filter to determine merchandise the place the safety replace frequency is “not offered,” and it at the moment options 227 units with that designation). Beyond that, Nokia’s G10 cellphone is technically additionally a part of Google’s Android One program for customers, which has the same speedy-update promise — although that program seems to be deserted and now not actively maintained.
JR Raphael/IDG
The web page selling the Nokia G10 on the Android Enterprise Recommended web site.
Following an preliminary acknowledgment of my inquiry, Nokia didn’t reply to a number of requests for touch upon this matter. Motorola, in the meantime, offered the next assertion through a spokesperson:
We know OS and safety updates are necessary, and we’re continuously evaluating our technique and dealing with companions and our inner groups to make sure customers have the newest and finest expertise on their Motorola units. Essential options can be up to date through the Play Store, which permits us to supply key updates extra typically. Users can count on ongoing assist for software program options like new My UX experiences, new digicam options, and new Ready For experiences, depending on {hardware} compatibility. Additionally, we all know safety is necessary to our customers, so we’ve elevated [security maintenance release] replace assist from two to 3 years to all mid-tier and premium units.
As for Samsung, after years of dismal software program assist efficiency, the corporate is definitely doing a fairly respectable (if nonetheless slower-than-optimal) job at preserving its units updated and preserving its prospects within the loop about its progress. The Galaxy S21, as an illustration, at the moment has Android 12 and the April 2022 safety patch.
But, considerably troublingly, all Galaxy cellphone fashions depend on the identical common Samsung privateness coverage, as Samsung confirmed to me — and that coverage, amongst different issues, states that:
- Samsung “might permit sure third events (equivalent to promoting companions) to gather your private data.”
- Samsung “might have” beforehand bought delicate information to undisclosed third events — every little thing starting from “distinctive private identifiers” related to a tool to “data of services or products bought, obtained, or thought-about”; “different buying or consuming histories or tendencies”; “web and different digital community exercise data, together with, however not restricted to, looking historical past, search historical past, and data relating to your interplay with web sites, functions, or ads”; and “inferences drawn from any of the knowledge recognized above to create a profile about you reflecting your preferences, traits, psychological developments, predispositions, conduct, attitudes, intelligence, skills, and aptitudes.”
- Samsung might have additionally “disclosed” much more private information to “distributors” for “a enterprise goal” — together with buyer names, addresses, cellphone numbers, signatures, checking account numbers, bank card numbers, buy histories, looking histories, search histories, geolocation information, and “inferences drawn” from all of that.
The checklist retains going from there, with an entire separate coverage surrounding a Samsung software program layer that, if enabled, can accumulate, analyze, and even share consumer information related to Samsung’s Galaxy-branded calendar and browser apps.
How is any of that applicable for enterprise use — or for anybody who’s severe about defending their privateness, for that matter?
Android enterprise solutions
To be honest, Google’s in a little bit of a clumsy place right here. Given Android’s open-source nature and the best way device-makers are in a position to change and customise the core working system software program, there is not any possible way Google itself might fully management each side of the consumer expertise — together with the supply of updates on units exterior of its personal Pixel line.
When I introduced a few of these findings to the corporate, a Google spokesperson offered the next assertion:
Android Enterprise Recommended gives companies with a simple approach to discover one of the best units to deploy for his or her wants. Partners and their units are assessed and vetted primarily based on quite a few standards, and we’re at all times working to make enhancements to this system. When we turn out to be conscious of any discrepancies in what companions are reporting via Android Enterprise Recommended, we work with them to deliver their units into compliance with the Android Enterprise Recommended program.
That appears smart sufficient, however the truth stays that these points in this system have been current for years now — and the identical device-makers and even particular machine fashions proceed to be included regardless of their clear lack of compliance with its parameters.
And that in the end factors us to the actual root of the issue.
“The promise of this program is fairly clear,” says Avi Greengart, lead analyst at analysis agency Techsponential. But, he notes, this system’s effectiveness appears to rely totally on the person distributors maintaining with their finish of the discount — and when units aren’t in compliance, there seems to be no actual recourse or actively enforced system for correction.
“It’s not clear to me [that] there is a course of in place that Google has for kicking distributors out of this system, flagging merchandise that are not in compliance, and extra to the purpose offering some assurance to enterprises that in the event that they purchase this right this moment, it will likely be maintained,” he says.
So, in need of Google turning the ship round and really beginning to implement its requirements, what is the final reply for firms looking for out steerage on which Android units can be optimally updated, safe, privacy-protecting, and usually advisable for enterprise use?
The actuality, sadly, is that there isn’t any simple reply. Android Enterprise Recommended was created to handle that very drawback — the shortage of clear, official information about which units could be trusted to supply well timed and dependable updates and a totally optimum, enterprise-appropriate setup. And when you understand that this system’s suggestions do not imply a lot, there’s little you are able to do past relying by yourself experiences with completely different device-makers and any accessible analysis carried out by impartial, exterior sources.
My personal Android Upgrade Report Cards converse volumes. The constant message, yr after yr, is obvious: If you need units which might be assured to stay optimally updated and with the strongest privateness, safety, and efficiency protections doable, Google’s self-made Pixel telephones are the one totally advisable choices you need to take into account.
They use Google’s personal core Android software program, with out the interface-muddying and typically privacy-jeopardizing modifications different producers make, they usually reliably obtain all software program updates inside days of their launch, immediately from Google — even after they’re now not the new new children on the block.
For all of its progress as of late, Samsung nonetheless would not come near matching that customary. Its most present top-of-the-line flagship had a 65-day delay in receiving Android 12 within the US, whereas its previous-gen, simply one-year-old flagship cellphone waited a full 95 days — greater than 1 / 4 of a yr — to get the newest Android software program.
Beyond that, nobody else is basically even attempting.
Android most definitely could be an efficient choice for the enterprise, and Google’s strategy to pulling integral system-level components out of the working system and updating them independently, through the Play Store, provides an necessary and broadly underappreciated benefit over Apple’s all-in-one bundled replace strategy — even with Apple having the advantage of being the only real device-maker inside its iOS ecosystem.
But even with that issue, working system updates and safety patches stay an necessary a part of the general equation — for anybody, actually, however particularly for enterprises that require probably the most present and full measures and strategies of safety. And for now, at the very least, Google’s Android Enterprise Recommended program merely is not an efficient approach to assess how dependable any given machine can be at persistently offering these items of the puzzle.