Eric Zeman/Android Authority
TL; PhD
- A new proposal by the German government calls on smartphone brands to provide security updates for seven years.
- This is two years longer than the EU’s own proposal.
Samsung recently took the lead in Android smartphone updates, promising to provide three years of operating system updates and four years of security patches for its most famous devices. This is an important step in the right direction, but it seems that the German government wants manufacturers to go further.
Germany is now pushing smartphone manufacturers to provide seven years of security patches and spare parts availability, Hayes Online report. A government spokesperson also told the media that spare parts should be provided “at a reasonable price.” The proposed security update promises to be two years longer than the European Commission’s own statement.
Hayes Online DigitalEurope, an industry association representing companies such as Samsung, Huawei, and Apple, is opposing the German proposal. More specifically, the association proposes that three-year security patches and two-year operating system updates are still required standards.
It is worth noting that the security update promise is not only for smartphone brands, because chipset manufacturers and operators may also become the bottleneck of the update promise. Therefore, we hope that these players will also join in a longer update commitment. If manufacturers are indeed forced to fulfill this promise in Germany, it is only natural that more markets can obtain seven-year patches.
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