Hey, appearance: A new BlackBerry cell phone is right here! And no, you didn’t simply awaken from a 12-year coma. I promise you; it is, nevertheless, 2018. The new BlackBerry Key2, however, is aimed squarely at individuals who omit the dignity days of the physical-keyboard-pack-in telephone — specifically, enterprise customers who still location a few kinds of price on the BlackBerry name (although it is technically an exceptional organization making the devices now). The enterprise’s very own landing page for the device placards that awareness it appears that evidently:
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BlackBerry Key2 Android BlackBerry
The page also makes the Key2’s enterprise-centric selling point pretty clean, claiming the tool is “the comfiest Android phone” — the maximum, dadgum it! — “with stronger security and privateness features built-in.” There’s simply one problem with that declaration. As a result of al, so with the wider narrative surrounding the Key2’s release, BlackBerry, because the business enterprise and most folks discussing it fails to mention, has an, in reality, abysmal file of handing over Android operating system updates to clients.
And trust me: For any cellphone in 2018 — however, especially for one being provided as a security-centered system for Serious Business Users™ — it is a liability you should not ignore. [Get fresh tips and insight in your inbox every Friday with JR’s new Android Intelligence insider newsletter. Exclusive extras await!] Let’s start with the cold, hard records: BlackBerry’s preceding flagship telephone, the KeyOne, arrived in April 2017.
This week—simply these days, in truth—the telephone changed into scheduled to start receiving the Android 8.0 Oreo update. That rollout has already been driven back to next Thursday. Android 8.0 was launched and made available to producers in August of 2017, nearly 12 months ago (and that’s to mention nothing of the newer Android 8. one update that followed the closing of December).
[ Take this mobile device management course from PluralSight and learn how to secure devices in your company without degrading the user experience. ] If the modern-day agenda stands, then it will have taken BlackBerry a whopping 319 days — 10 and 1/2 frickin’ months! — to get that important running machine to replace its flagship-stage, safety-minded, enterprise-friendly smartphone. The update is not even set to reach KeyOne tool proprietors everywhere yet; it’s scheduled to start rolling out simplest in Canada as of this moment.
Now, the KeyOne has, by way of most counts, gotten well-timed and normal protection patches — and that, in reality, counts for something. But ten and a half months for a first-rate OS upgrade? Please do not rely on how you look at it; it is inexcusable. And it is not a fluke, either: BlackBerry obtained zero “F” grades on my Upgrade Report Card analyses for both Nougat in 2017 and Marshmallow the year earlier. (I failed to include the business enterprise in my Oreo Report Card this 12 months due to its diminished relevance within the Android surroundings, but relaxation assured: The overall performance we see now could have stored its zero% “F” streak going sturdy.)
OS updates offer foundational fixes and protection-orientated upgrades.
Why does this matter? Simple: Even if you set apart the characteristic additions and interface improvements added with maximum major Android releases, operating gadget updates incorporate a great number of foundational fixes and safety-orientated upgrades — things like the tightened-down APIs (programming interfaces that allow apps to engage along with your device and statistics), strengthened backup data encryption, and emphasis on steerage apps towards comfy internet transmissions included in the upcoming Android P update.
Similar underneath-the-hood upgrades seemed in Oreo, inclusive of new restrictions on easily abused permissions, a more thorough approach to verifying the working device’s integrity each time a phone boots, and a more powerful device of sandboxing to maintain critical components of the software program remoted from other procedures. This progress illustrates why OS updates should be counted, even if you are not interested in the flashier-the-front-going-through stuff. No count how much patching can be executed — and no matter how much Google deconstructs Android so that you can replace factors of the software program easily, frequently, and in a standard manner — sure foundational factors tied to performance, security, and privateness may be addressed most effective in the OS itself.
BlackBerry’s commitment to offering well-timed protection patches and its process of adding its personal security enhancements into the software both deserve the reward — no question there. However, the business enterprise’s lackluster attempt at maintaining its devices even semi-reasonably up to date with Android OS releases deserves equal interest. That’d be real for any business enterprise selling a several-hundred-dollar phone. Still, it’s genuine for an enterprise that stakes its popularity on safety and serving the enterprise community. Sign up for JR’s weekly e-newsletter to get extra practical hints, personal guidelines, and a plain English attitude to the news that matters.
