Google to Rank Android Phone Makers

The search engine operator wants its customers to get latest software updates

A large challenge Google’s platform Android faces is that often makers slowly offer software updates. This does not let a large number of Android products have recent security updates. Soon the American search engine developer will give an incentive to manufacturers for speeding up the software update procedure. Bloomberg has reported the company will publicly grade smartphone makers from the worst to the best depending on safety patch as well as operating system updates.

Already, the company internally tracks the rankings, but it currently keeps that private. The ranking leaderboard goal is to speed up the progress of slower vendors. Even after the Mountain View based organization launches new mobile operating system versions, a huge number of the 1.4 billion active Android products are able to just access the outdated software- which is itself a problem that must be solved. Usually, Apple doesn’t need to be concerned regarding these kinds of issues as it fully controls its software updates. To further cut down the time it is needed to push new Android versions, the search engine operator is collaborating with telecommunication service providers to shorten update testing cycles.

And a number of carriers have been asked to entirely skip safety update cycles. But the company’s decision to “shame” sluggish manufacturers could possibly backfire as a number of bugs could be ignored to meet tougher deadlines. In the previous times, Google tried to make more seamless software updates by setting up the Update Alliance Organization. Nevertheless, manufacturers favor delivering newer as well as more costly products instead of providing maintaience to the older ones.

To a degree, the company has circumvented safety problems by offering its software updates with the help of Google Play Services. And currently, most of the organization’s latest features are being launched as exclusive applications through Google Play instead of being packed inside the operating system Android. In 2015, the organization launched a feature in Android 6.0 Marshmallow, which showcases the devices’ safety level.

Following the discovery of a vulnerability within Android that turned to be called “Stagefright,” the company as well as its production partners like Samsung and LG promised to offer safety updates. Nevertheless, small Android makers such as HTC stated the objective was “ unrealistic”. And a Motorola source spoke to Bloomberg that it aims to offer quarterly instead of monthly updates.

In other news, Record has reported that the organization has planned to aggressively push into the consumer hardware industry. The organization announced its Home product, an Al-oriented facility to battle with Amazon Echo, a new smartphone unit that will deliver and manufacture its  modular Ara phones and a virtual reality headset.