As Google prepares to launch Android 11, the new version of its operating system, many smartphones are still running old versions of the OS. This is problematic because these devices would no longer receive security updates.
This obsolescence of smartphones and other tablets is detrimental to users, warns a study by Which. The British consumer law magazine consulted statistics provided by Google on the state of its OS, reports Presse-Citron.
42.1% of devices exceeded
According to the survey, 42.1% of active smartphones in the world run on Android 6.0 or a lower version of the OS. Versions that are no longer affected by the security patches of Google, which only publishes them for Android 7.0 Nougat and later.
This means, according to Which's calculations, that more than a billion devices worldwide are no longer well protected in cybersecurity. Users are therefore potentially exposed "to malware, data loss and cyber attacks," says the magazine.
Builders are slow
Asked by Which, Google said that this defect did not affect the Pixel and Nexus smartphones, built by the American giant. But if Google is quick to update on its devices, other manufacturers may take much longer, or may never install them.
In this case, the Mountain View company is not responsible. But Google still tries, thanks to the implementation of a new architecture from Android 9, to facilitate the work of manufacturers and developers so that the implementation of updates is as fast as possible.
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