Comparing iOS and Android is a completely thankless task. There will always be those who will accuse the comparator of bias and even venality. True, it is not clear who should pay in this case? After all, neither Apple nor Google, which has long ago divided the market of mobile operating systems among themselves, is clearly not needed. Therefore, I prefer not to pour from empty to empty, comparing the imaginary indicators of stability, performance and safety. But sometimes situations occur that simply do not allow not to speak out.
iPhone surpasses Android not only in the duration of software support, but also in the attitude of manufacturers to older devices
Researchers from the Google Project Zero team, which are engaged in information security research, have identified a critical vulnerability in the Samsung Galaxy line of smartphones. It hides in the Skia graphics library and, in other words, allows hackers to send a modified image with malicious code to the victim's device, which can take full control over him. The thing is, of course, unpleasant, especially when you consider that there is a vulnerability in all the devices of the brand, which came out from 2014 to the present.
Samsung Smartphone Updates
And so it goes: Samsung decided to fix a critical bug only on new smartphones
It would seem, well, what's wrong with that? After all, vulnerabilities are found in both Android and iOS. However, the fact of its existence is not important here, since it is impossible to create an ideal operating system that would be free of bugs and security problems. The manufacturer's approach is important here. Samsung, to its credit, immediately released a vulnerability fix as part of the May security update, which came out even earlier than Google, albeit for only two devices: Galaxy S10 and Galaxy S20.
Obviously, Samsung will not stop there and will release a patch for some more devices, but only those that came out no earlier than 2018. That is, it turns out that all smartphones of the company, which are already three years old, will not receive an update, which means they will remain vulnerable and susceptible to hacker attacks. Do you think this is a far-fetched assumption? Not at all. Practice shows that smartphones such as the Galaxy S6, Galaxy S7, Galaxy S8 and Galaxy Note 8 are still in use today. The last two models are generally considered new for many, because until the beginning of 2020 they were freely sold in official retail, and now suddenly became obsolete.
Where iOS is superior to Android
Apple released 5 updates for iPhone 5s and iPhone 6 even after their support ended
For Apple the probability of such an outcome tends to zero. For a company from Cupertino, it doesn't matter how long ago one or the other came out iPhone. If it turns out that something is threatening users, the developers Apple without further ado 'collect' and release an update with a fix. Do you think this is fiction? Then remember about iPhone 5s and iPhone 6, which were released in 2013 and 2014, respectively. Despite the fact that their support officially ended last fall, since then Apple has released as many as 5 updates for them, aimed at improving their security. Can you imagine this at Samsung or, God forgive me, Huawei? Personally, I am not. Yes, not a single smartphone manufacturer on Android will update devices older than three years, because they simply do not need it. Therefore, here, first of all, Samsung is not to blame, but the prevailing circumstances that allow vendors to believe that it is normal to give up supporting gadgets that are not yet old.
It is very significant that in this situation the nominal period of software support for smartphones does not matter. In both Apple and Samsung, vulnerabilities affected actually outdated devices, but the first one, without further ado, simply took and corrected all the shortcomings, and the second did not even come to mind. After all, you will not release an update for a device that is no longer for sale and no longer brings money. Is not it? That's the whole difference between iPhone and Android, which differ not in the interface or the degree of permissibility, but in the attitude towards users.