For pity's sake, enterprises, upgrade your mobile OS - report

Re: Part of the problem...

Changes to the UI just because it's cooler.

For instance I just don't see Lollipop's floating random-coloured special round button put randomly somewhere on the screen. They're not part of a menu, a toolbar, or a list. They don't match the rest of the UI. At the beginning after updating to Lollipop I was be staring at a screen for a minute before I realised that the special button thing is the thing I have to press.

Perhaps it's just me. Obviously I've got used to contacts and messages but any new app always gets me in the same way, although now I can get the staring at the screen bit down to 15 seconds if I'm lucky.

So I'm not surprised that others don't update.

That's my little rant over.

Re: Part of the problem...

Don't forget the User is God and Tech don't know shit attitude from some of the vendors. With no way to push updates to the devices it's a nightmare to update them. And that's assuming there's a viable update available for the device.

Re: BlackBerry?

I seem to remember we were still reliant on the operator to do over the air updates, I can't remember BES (pre 8.x) having the ability to push them ourselves.

Re: BlackBerry?

"All the large enterprises I've worked at have a stable of mobile devices overwhelmingly consisting of ancient BlackBerry "Curve" handsets."

Those type of shops seem to be largely moving to Windows Phone / Lumia handsets these days - presumably as they care enough about security to be using Blackberry in the first place.

Last figure I saw was that Microsoft have about 30% of the new SME device deployments in the UK.

"a large percentage of users who's mobile phone manufacturer have not actually released the updates"

The whole thing reads like a thinly disguised attempt to flog new phones on the basis that you'll never get an update on your old one.

Not just the phone manufacturer, in many cases the manufacturer has released updates but the phone software has been tweaked by the mobile operator and only fetches updates from them - but once you're locked into a contract and that phone model has been superseded, there's no profit in them repackaging the manufacturer's updates and merging back in their own "value" added tat and branding, testing and developing fixes if it doesn't work.

Personally I think phone operators should be required to provide unmodified phones that will go and install the manufacturer updates, and not inject their own applications which probably are not highly security tested. Or required to provide timely updates (within 1 week of the upstream release, say) to their customers for at least the length of the contract, preferably 3 years, even if a newer shinier model comes out. You don't give the customer a new phone 6 months into their 24 month contract so support the one you gave them at the start.

It is high time that the cost of vulnerabilities was put on the manufacturer of the phone (or carrier, if bloatware). Basically, for say 5 years after purchase it has to be supported, and if not patched in a timely manner (say 30 days from notification) they are liable for the costs.

Yes, it would put up the costs of phones slightly, but then we would have a damn sight less trouble over all from them and lower cost than the current "you need a new phone gov" option.

Re: a large percentage of users

Not iOS. Since Apple have total control, so long as the hardware supports it, it's ready to roll when they release it. I don't care for much about Apple, but that part they do reasonably well. Apple's primary issue is the one I referenced above: no central management mechanism for their phones.

Re: That the price you pay!

Care to suggest one that's better?

Apple? Nope, they knobble handsets more than a few generations old.

Android based? Well I'm still waiting for my update to Android 5, and I did ask the manufacturer nicely.

Windows based? How's Windows RT doing these days?

Blackberry? The Playbook really did sell well didn't it?

Windows Mobile/CE? Say what now?!

Java2 Micro Edition? Don't swear at me!

Re: Apple

How old of an Apple device are you talking about? Apple delivered the last update for the 3gs (introduced in summer 2009) in spring of 2014 - that's nearly five years. The current release iOS 9.x is supported back to the 4S which was introduced in fall 2011, so that is 4 1/2 years and counting. How long are they supposed to support it in your mind? Apple is doing better than any of the competition in providing updates for phones/tablets.

PCs can't be updated forever either - Linux distributions are slowly phasing out support for 32 bit hardware, Microsoft will do the same with Windows before long. The lifetime of a PC may be longer than a phone but still isn't infinite.