net-security.org reports that Google is going to stop providing security patches for core components of Android prior to Kit-Kat. Jelly Bean, which is the last version before Kit-Kat is actually less than 2 years old. Note, this is only to core components, although the article did not get into details what that means. Basically Google's stance is they will back patch up to current version minus one.
Also, according to the article, one of Google's response was that Android is open-sourced and manufacturers are free to patch them. My view is that this actually further accentuate the fragmentation problem, a criticism that Android regularly gets from opposing user bases or competitors. In reality, from personal experience, most manufacturers are slow in supporting the latest version and vary very differently in terms of patch releases and support.
I don't have the statistics, but I would think there are still a large user base out there with pre-Kit-Kat phones. net-security.org quotes 930Million. What does the SN community think about this?
(Score: 1) by Tedderouni on Thursday January 22 2015, @05:51PM
The current Android version distribution is shown here:
https://developer.android.com/about/dashboards/index.html [android.com]
According to this, currently less than half of users are on KitKat. Jelly Bean alone still has more users than KitKat.