Android has a serious problem and it’s suddenly getting worse. Uniquely, Google controls both its hardware and software, unlike all other Android OEMs including Samsung, the largest of them all. Only Samsung and now Huawei can compete.
Google’s Pixel is now “the fastest growing premium smartphone brand in the world,” outpacing Samsung albeit the Galaxy-maker still outsells Pixel multiple times over. Yet Google controls the OS that drives Samsung phones. Pixels continue to receive OS upgrades months before Samsungs, a continuing nightmare for the brand.
Per CounterPoint, in the first half of 2025 “Google broke into the top five premium smartphone brands after five years. Its sales doubled YoY, driven by strong performance of the Pixel 9 series, expansion into newer markets and more aggressive marketing.”
Now the Pixel 10 promises to take that further. “Google’s Pixel 10 features, especially those that center around Gemini,” Android Authority says, “are miles ahead of Apple Intelligence.” Clearly true, But Samsung has Gemini as well as its own Galaxy AI. And it also pushes hybrid AI to differentiates itself from Google on security and privacy.
The reality check for 2025 is that Google is the only Android phone maker that can compete with Apple and its iPhone when it comes to the overall offering. Next week iOS 26 will be deployed to all eligible iPhones right away. Just as Pixels received Android 16 as soon as it was released. Months later, even new flagship Samsungs are still waiting.
This is arguably even more critical when it comes to security updates. Last month, Apple released iOS 18.6.2 to address an actively exploited vulnerability. It was made available to all iPhones right away. This month, Google has confirmed two actively exploited Android vulnerabilities. Just as with iPhone, Pixel was patched right away.
For Samsung and other Android OEMs it’s a different story. They must take the core Google update and then incorporate that within their own security releases. For Samsung, with the largest, most complex install base, this takes the entire month. For some fixes, especially third-party components, it often slips a further month.
It’s the same for Samsung’s own fixes. CVE-2025-21043 is a Galaxy vulnerability now under attack. It is fixed in Samsung’s September release. But unlike Apple and its similar CVE-2025-43300, Samsung’s update won’t roll out immediately.
Per Android Authority, Google’s entire approach to updating Android devices is now about to change. Monthly updates will focus on the emergency fixes, allowing OEMs to concentrate their immediate efforts on what matters most. The basket of other updates will be relegated to an omni quarterly update.
That’s why July’s update had no security fixes while September’s had more than 100. What hasn’t changed is that Pixel comes first and all other OEMs are left behind. As I’ve suggested before, as Google narrows the gap to Samsung and iPhone, that starts to raise serious questions for Samsung, as well as the other leading (Chinese) OEMs.
Zero-days are now coming thick and fast, and Apple has just launched a new OS defense against spyware, which only Pixel can match on the Android side. With Pixel now competing more aggressively, something will need to give.
