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Schmidt: iOS less secure than Android, denies fragmentation

Jordan O'Brien
October 8, 2013

Eric Schmidt has always been a champion of Android, which is fitting for the Chairman of Google, although when he claimed that Android is more secure than iOS, he was met with laughter by the packed crowd at the  Gartner Symposium/ITxpo.

Whilst Schmidt didn’t give exact reasons for his claims that Android is more secure than the iPhone, he did point out that the millions of users of the Android operating system gives Google the chance of a lot of real-world testing to ensure that any security flaws it does have are ironed out.

Schmidt also denied that Android is fragmented, claiming that the company has “an agreement for vendors that you keep the Android stores compatible,” which he then heralded as a “great breakthrough for Android.”

It’s hard to see where Schmidt is coming from on this basis, with the company’s latest version of Android, Android 4.3 Jelly Bean, running on just 1.5 percent of all Android devices. This fragmentation is likely to harm security, given the enhanced security features available in Android 4.3 but there’s no denying that Google is trying, moving many of its security features from its operating system updates and making them available in the Google Play Store.

There’s also no denying that Android has had many security problems in the past, although Schmidt claims that “nothing is secure and that security will be devised on a per app basis for each user.”

Source: ZDNET

About the Author

Jordan O'Brien

Technology Journalist with an unhealthy obsession with trains and American TV. Attempts satire far too often. (+44) 020 7324 3502

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