Google did not make any announcements at the recently-concluded Mobile World Congress. But that doesn't prevent the company from being in the news, especially when it is related to Android, its mobile operating system.
Android chief Sundar Pichai was quoted as saying that Android was "not designed to be safe, it was designed to be open," by a French website Frandroid during MWC. The report even claimed Pichai having said that if he had a company dedicated to making malware, the attacks would be targeted at Android as it is the most popular operating system.
Perhaps, the quotes were lost in translation, or Pichai was misquoted. Google has since provided a transcript of the particular portion of Pichai's talk to TechCrunch, which suggests that he had defended the openness of Android with the argument that it's under more scrutiny, contributing to making it more secure.
He suggested that the problem of security was due to device makers shipping devices running old versions of the OS and that Google keeps a check on apps available on the Play Store.
"Open platforms historically undergo a lot of scrutiny, but there are a lot of advantages in having an open source platform from a security standpoint. I would argue that it's the best way for a platform to be secure, because every researcher in the world can inspect it, every developer in the world can inspect it, and I think that contributes a lot to Android security," said Pichai.
"Android was built to be very, very secure. The thing that you're seeing is because Android is an open platform, many people can ship Android in many different ways and so there are some partners when they ship devices, they have an older version of Android. And sure you can have a security vulnerability there, but that doesn't mean Android isn't secure," he added.
Interestingly, Google's transcript reveals that Pichai did admit that Android is bound to be targeted by malware makers as it is more popular.
"Malware targets where users are. When you say numbers like 90% of malware is targeting Android, you know ... I hate to point out that if you're a smart businessperson running this malware company, that's what you should do. It's the wrong way to look at the lens. Obviously, you will always see more malware targeting Android because Android is used more than any smartphone platform by a pretty substantial difference. I think that drives a lot of it, so I understand that part of it. What matters much more is - (that) as a user, if you use Android, are you fundamentally more compromised? We don't think so," Pichai reiterated.
The French website had also reported that the next Nexus phone won't be launched in the first half of the year, quoting Pichai. He also said that Nokia's X series phones highlight how Android is truly a free operating system.
Apparently, Pichai had also downplayed the alleged tension between Google and Samsung, and was quoted by the French website as having said that the next Samsung flagship would also run Android. When asked about Samsung abandoning Android and opting for Tizen for its Gear smartwatch, he dismissed the wearable as a 'product among hundreds of others' but did mention that he'd rather that it used Android.
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