Keeping your smartphone as long as possible is often seen as a reasonable choice, both economical and ecological.
However, behind this virtuous logic lies a much less visible reality: that of software support. On Android, the fragmentation of system versions continues to raise questions, and today exposes a massive part of the world’s fleet to known security vulnerabilities…
A third of Android smartphones run on outdated versions
The latest figures from StatCounter provide a less than reassuring observation, where more than 30% of active Android smartphones still working under Android 13 or an earlier version. Reported on a global scale, this represents approximately one billion devices still in circulation.
And while using an older version of Android is nothing unusual, the problem arises when these devices can no longer receive security updates every month. For example, Google has stopped support for Android 12 last springleaving millions of smartphones without patches in the face of well-identified vulnerabilities.
These devices then become prime targets for cybercriminals, capable of exploiting documented vulnerabilities to steal personal data, identifiers or even banking information, often without the user realizing it.
Invisible updates, but decisive for security
Unlike major updates, security patches generally go unnoticed, not adding new features, but plugging holes. For example, the December patch released by Google, for example, fixed 107 vulnerabilitiessome already actively exploited.
Le Global Mobile Threat Report 2025 de Cimperium also points out that the absence of these patches greatly increases exposure to mobile exploits. More broadly, the report estimates that more than half of the world’s smartphonesall platforms combined, rely on systems that have become obsolete.
A phone can therefore seem perfectly functional on a daily basis, while being weak on the software level. It is precisely this gap between perceived use and technical reality that makes the situation delicate…
Longer support policies, but a dilemma for users…
Behind this concern, practices are evolving, because where two or three years of updates were the norm, some manufacturers now offer up to seven years of supportnotably at Google and Samsung.
This development makes it possible to really extend the lifespan of a smartphone, provided you opt for a relatively recent model. For others, the question remains: Should you replace a device that is still working?