BlackBerry is taking a massive gamble with the upcoming Android powered Priv. Android is not exactly the most secure operating system, and the Canadian company is working on doing its best to ensure fans that it is doing all it can to keep them safe; even if it includes ignoring carriers and pushing critical updates out themselves.
Google tries to keep the many Android OEMs on a strict monthly update schedule for security patches; and more often than not these deadlines are missed. Samsung and LG are doing their best to keep up, while HTC has said that it is just not possible to push out that many fixes. US based carriers also often get in the way of delivering patches on time to their customers.
BlackBerry has promised to keep to the monthly update schedule as well, and considering its reputation for security this it isn’t too much of a stretch to see this happening. However, the company has also promised hotfixes for critical Android vulnerabilities that cannot wait for a monthly update. The BlackBerry Priv will allow the company to push this hotfixes out without having to wait for carrier approval.
This news will generally affect customers in the US, where security patches require approval from the carriers before being published. It is also good news for customers who are interested in picking up the Priv, due to the fact that BlackBerry is taking Android’s security flaws extremely seriously.
Whether this is enough to get people to pick up the device is entirely a different story; but after multiple stories of Android vulnerabilities, this might be a bigger deal than we give it credit for.
[Source: BlackBerry]
