As popular as Samsung devices are in the worldwide marketplace, the company was never the fastest when it came to Android updates…often lagging behind some of its competitors. Samsung corporate philosophy states: “We will devote our human resources and technology to create superior products and services, thereby contributing to a better global society.” The only problem is, once they develop a product, they would move on to “The Next Big Thing,” and sometimes forget about those products they left behind. Samsung was generally good about updating their flagship models – the Galaxy S and Galaxy Note series, but after the cream of the crop was taken care of, the millions of other devices would be stuck with an Older Android OS.
All we know for sure is that Samsung will be updating some devices to Android 4.4 KitKat, but has only said that it will announce its plans, “in due course.” In the past, Samsung has made announcements of update schedules, but then were burnt when they could not be met. In our business, if you announce an update for the second quarter, then most readers see that as April 1, even though the update could come as late as June 30 and still be on time…however, for those 90 days, Samsung would be considered late.
A source close to the situation, has informed Phandroid that the following list of devices will receive that Android 4.4 KitKat love they are all waiting to receive – Samsung Galaxy Note 2 (SGH-i317), Galaxy S3 (SGH-i747), Galaxy Tab 3 7.0 (SM-t217a), Galaxy S4 (SGH-i337), Galaxy S4 Active (SGH-i537), Galaxy Mega (SGH-i527), Galaxy S4 Zoom (SM-c105a), Galaxy Note 3 (SM-N900a), Galaxy Note 8.0 (SGH-i467), and Galaxy S3 Mini (SM-g730a).
The Galaxy Note 3’s rollout started last month in Poland and the Galaxy S4’s (the LTE-A model) rollout just started this morning in South Korea, so it will be a while before we see the updates in the U.S, especially once the carriers get their hands on them. Early reports are warning us not to expect too much of a difference between Android 4.3, where we saw more significant upgrades, for new camera features and Galaxy Gear compatibility, and Android 4.4. We are hoping to see a slight increase in performance, as well as slight changes to Samsung’s TouchWiz UI.
Please let us know on our Google+ Page what model Samsung device you own and if you are looking forward to the Android 4.4 KitKat upgrade.
Source: Phandroid