Well, my friends, hell has officially frozen over.
Samsung, the company traditionally associated with slow and unpredictable Android software updates, has started sending out the latest and greatest Android version to owners of its current-gen Galaxy S23 flagship phone.
Make no mistake about it: This is quite an accomplishment — and quite a milestone not only for Samsung but for Android device-makers in general. For context, this has Galaxy S23 owners in the respectable position of receiving Android 14 roughly four weeks after the software’s release. Last year, it took Samsung nearly three months to get the current Android version out to folks who shelled out top-dollar for its top-tier phone models. And it was among the least embarrassing performers across the ecosystem for that cycle.
But while the company showing some hustle and serving its highest-paying customers well is certainly something to celebrate, for anyone who watches Android closely (and has been watching it for a while — hi there!), the story isn’t so simple.
Here, then, are three tough but fair and incredibly important questions about Samsung’s Android 14 adventures — things we should all be thinking about in the weeks ahead to put this in proper perspective.
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Samsung Android 14 question #1: When will this upgrade actually reach everyone?
First and foremost, it’s critical to consider that in cases like Samsung’s, a company “starting” an Android upgrade is often a small-scale phenomenon limited only to certain parts of the world.
In the past, we’ve seen certain former phone-makers get sneaky with this and use it to their advantage — starting what’s essentially a test rollout in a random place like Lithuania and then putting out a big honkin’ press release touting that they were the “FIRST!” to the finish line. Perhaps predictably, that ends up getting them lots of positive coverage and little in the way of critical eyebrow-raising.
Samsung’s tactics aren’t anything that extreme, thankfully, but as of this moment, the Galaxy S23’s Android 14 rollout is limited to the UK and parts of Europe. The US — where Android Intelligence is based and which we use as the consistent basis for our annual Android Upgrade Report Card analyses — is notably not included in this current rollout as of yet, and Samsung has often started its US upgrades a fair bit later than their international counterparts.
An ”upgrade” is not always an upgrade everywhere, in other words — and as of now, Samsung says only that the software should start to reach Galaxy S23 owners in America sometime “soon.”
Samsung Android 14 question #2: What about the rest of the Galaxy?
Most mainstream coverage of Android upgrades focuses mostly on the first rollout to a company’s most recent flagship product. That’s why every year, we see breathless hype…
2023-11-01 18:41:02
Article from www.computerworld.com rnrn