A large part of the ongoing battle to keep a mobile device secure is to ensure that users’ devices are kept up to date with patches for exploits, bug fixes, and keeping the software secure; then the latest numbers from the two main platforms show a huge chasm in the protection offered.
Apple’s own numbers show that 84 percent of active iOS devices are using the latest version of the mobile operating system. The data on iOS was collected by Apple by analyzing the visiting the devices to its App Store on April 18 2016.
Meanwhile Google released its annual security report last week and included details on the update rates of Android OS. Forbes’ Thomas Fox-Brewster looked over the report in detail, but one number stood out to me. Thirty percent of active Android devices are running Android versions that are older than Android 4.4.4, the lowest version number that receives security updates.
This goes hand-in-hand with Google’s own monthly updates of the market share for Android devices, which currently shows the latest major version number of Android (v6.x Lollipop) is running on just 4.6 percent of active Android devices visiting the Google Play Store.