Can anyone see a reason this wouldn't work?
Apple controls the iPhone soup to nuts and can update them as they see fit. They are the OEM and they do not allow Carriers to modify their devices.
Google provides an OS for free and stipulates that OEMs must make some concessions to get the GAPPs everyone wants for that OS. It has no where near the control over handsets or the ability to update them without cooperation from OEMs and Carriers who contracted with those OEMs.
With each new version of Android, Google is asking for more and more control over the system however they'll never own the devices or be able to exert their will the way Apple can.
Attacking field devices won't spur Google to ship magic updates to everyone's unsupported handsets because they couldn't even if they wanted to. It might spur them to make additional changes in future OS versions but the vast majority of handsets in the field would never receive those updates.
1. Windows runs on many many PCs and it is trivial to keep updated, so it is possible without OEM cooperation.
2. Google actually have finally started this work, which proves that they can solve, or at least improve the situation. But the fact that they didn't start working on it until now shows how low a priority it is for them. That is what needs to change, and I would hope an automatic Wi-Fi worm would do it.
Finding an exploit is one thing, making it work and bypassing all of the OS mitigations, on a platform that essentially has OEM's build their own OS, is an entirely different matter. It's why Stagefright never got anywhere and it's also why this will go the same way Stagefright did.
https://googleprojectzero.blogspot.com/2017/04/over-air-expl...
The Broadpwn discoveries were informed by the techniques used by PZ to discover the original exploit.