BlackBerry recently interviewed more than 8,000 Android smartphone users in the U.S. belonging to the age group of 35 to 54. The Canadian firm used Google’s Consumer Surveys service to conduct the online research between April 11 and April 13 and released its results yesterday.
Android users not concerned about security
Survey respondents said they were most irked by security headaches, and BlackBerry also learned that the two leading issues were third parties using their personal data (51%) and their phones getting stolen or lost (34%).
Only 7% of the respondents were concerned about email hacks, 4% about unknown parties reading their texts, and 4% about their phone calls being heard. Security and privacy matter the most to 53% of the respondents. To protect their devices, the majority of Android owners use a PIN (45%) or password (41%), the survey found.
Half of the respondents believe their smartphones are “only somewhat secure.” Only one-sixth were aware that Google releases Android security updates on a monthly basis. More than 90% of Android users have a single device for both work and personal communications.
Based on these findings, BlackBerry concluded that Android users take security and privacy lightly, when actually they should be giving it great importance.
“But Android users are not as aware of how to protect their smartphone against threats as we previously thought,” the Canadian firm says.
BlackBerry indirectly promotes Priv
BlackBerry released its flagship Android device, the PRIV, last year, and since then, it has been trying hard to differentiate the device from other Android devices in the market, for which it spotlights its security strengths. The company is making several attempts to drag customers’ attention towards the PRIV’s security prowess, and this new survey is the latest.
BlackBerry intends to suggest there are no Android devices in the market that match up to its level. The age group taken into consideration is noteworthy, suggesting that Millennial-age smartphone users or younger are not included in BlackBerry’s target market. Instead, the company thinks the PRIV is suited for older people who might be a lot more conscious about security, and for this reason, it has set this kind of survey age range.
The Canadian firm will reportedly come up with two new Android devices code-named the Hamburg and Rome later this year. Leaked images show that the first device will not have a keyboard at all, while the other will have a keyboard fixed at the bottom.
