This is a good month for Pixel. More critically, this is a month that confirms Google’s device is now all but impossible to catch, at least where critical updates are concerned. Something needs to change. This is not a good look for Android. And for Samsung — its leading OEM, the stakes are getting ever higher.
Pixel’s key market is the U.S., where its users were upgraded to Android 15 with its new security and privacy enhancements last year. While Samsung’s new Galaxy S25 runs Android 15, there is new doubt as to when its other flagships will be upgraded. “Things aren’t looking so good for Samsung at the moment,” warns PhoneArena.
Perhaps one reason for this is the U.S. government mandate that all Android phones be updated by March 25 or powered down. This follows Google’s warning early this month that two zero-day vulnerabilities are being actively exploited in the wild. Pixels were updated days later, not Samsungs though. The Galaxy-maker did not include one of the critical fixes in its March security release, and no conformation yet when that might turn up. As things stand, the U.S. government deadline will be missed.
This is a pattern and it goes to the heart of Android’s biggest weakness when compared to iPhone — the disparate, fragmented ecosystem. Samsung does not control its software and hardware stack. It’s reliant on Google for key updates, for its OS, security fixes and the core Play Service platform that underpins Android. It’s the same for all other OEMs. Not Google though. With Pixels it fully controls everything end-to-end.
In that way, Google is currently the only Apple lookalike within Android’s ecosystem. It can rush out fixes to everyone, everywhere all at once. It can change its OS timings — as it has done with Android 16, and yet keep to schedule. It can run betas across its own devices and ensure they’re always first to every upgrade, update and new feature. And now its hardware seems to be getting closer to its rivals, the offering has changed.
Time for some disruption. There’s a new fox targeting this hen house. Huawei — China’s tech champion, and the original bête noire before the U.S. fixated on TikTok and then DeepSeek. Holed seemingly below the waterline during Trump 1, the Chinese tech giant is now back and stronger than before, having replaced Android within its own OS. The company is now poised to rival Apple and Google with a third global OS if it chooses to. There’s nothing to stop this being made available to other OEMs. It will not stand still.
But as I said when this started, Huawei wants to be China’s Apple not its Google. It’s now on the way having ditched Android. “We are one of only two companies globally that can have this hardware and software solution for our own ecosystem,” Huawei told me in 2020. “Only Huawei and Apple can do this — it’s our long-term strategy.”
Android 15’s rollout with its One UI 7 has been a disaster for Samsung. Six months of negative headlines and delays has become the story. With $2000 devices, users want Apple-like (now Pixel-like) immediacy. It’s 2025, no one wants to wait for anything.
Pixels should see Android 16 in June. Samsung needs to ensure it’s not too far behind. Otherwise the question might be asked as to whether all this delay and lateness is sustainable long-term, or does a phone giant competing with Apple need more control. Huawei has shown it’s possible — its OS will run Google apps, only U.S. restrictions stop that happening. Pixel changes perspectives on Google’s long-term control of an open-source OS relied upon by its rivals. At some point that will become the focus.
Meanwhile, U.S. Samsung users await clarity on One UI 7 and the March security fix that leaves their phones at risk. Update your phone as soon as releases are available.
