Qualcomm pledges 8 years of security updates for Android kit using its chips (YMMV)

It seems manufacturers are finally getting the message that people want to use their kit for longer without security issues, as Qualcomm has said it'll provide Android software updates, including vulnerability fixes, for its latest chipsets for eight years instead of four. Lack of support for older kit has been a huge pain for …

[ComputerSays_noAbsolutelyNo]

Fairphone opted to use an IoT chip for its Fairphone 5 for its longer support.

So they could offer a phone with support until 2031.

[Snowy]

Great first step

The handset manufactures also have to issue the fixes for the phones too.

[ecofeco]

Good on Qualcomm!

But will the retailers allow or hinder it? Or use it as a stick to force purchase of more expensive phones?

My bet? The later two, because real benefits and savings for average people in some western nations is just crazy commie talk!

[Zola]

HMD

This is good to see.

HMD uses Qualcomm in their Skyline "repairable phones" (great idea!) but then only offers a 2 year OS update policy which is utterly stupid given the phone as mentioned is "easily repairable" etc. And the competition are offering 4-7 years of OS updates.

Hopefully HMD will get their shit together on future phones with longer term software support otherwise they're just wasting their time on repairability.

I would have bought a Skyline - nice hardware design - but NOT with only 2 years support.

Do better, HMD (and take my money). Clearly Qualcomm is not the issue...

[Alan Brown]

"Clearly Qualcomm is not the issue...""

Not the ONLY issue. The relentless focus on quarterly reports has been hugely damaging to business models worldwide and enabled rampant asset stripping

In aviation there's a term for it: "Target fixation" - which doesn't JUST include things like trying to land instead of going around, but when you dig deeper into many near-miss events where a heroic crew saved the day, you find that same crew ignored or were oblivious to warning signs well ahead of time which telegraphed that they would be in serious trouble if they didn't pay attention - the classic example of that is an Air India flight which encountered unexpected headwinds which took them well below minimum fuel at destination - which they'd calculated 6 hours aghead of landing, and then overflew at least a dozen airports suiutable for a refelling stop before declaring a fuel emergency and landing at JFK (destination) running on fumes

The average financial chucklehead only sees figures but never looks at larger pictures. The average "sucessful businessman" leaves school at 15 or so and never learns much more than aggressive trading. The average accountant studied "economics" at school (double entry bookkeeping) and barely passed - from my experience at those schools, their intellectual capabilities and ability to see anything that isn't explicitly laid out in front of them is simply nonexistent - these are the people who run the world, so it matters