Well, my associates, hell has formally frozen over.Samsung, the corporate historically related to sluggish and unpredictable Android software program updates, has began sending out the newest and best Android model to homeowners of its current-gen Galaxy S23 flagship cellphone.Make no mistake about it: This is sort of an accomplishment — and fairly a milestone not just for Samsung however for Android device-makers normally. For context, this has Galaxy S23 homeowners within the respectable place of receiving Android 14 roughly 4 weeks after the software program’s launch. Last yr, it took Samsung almost three months to get the present Android model out to people who shelled out top-dollar for its top-tier cellphone fashions. And it was among the many least embarrassing performers throughout the ecosystem for that cycle.But whereas the corporate displaying some hustle and serving its highest-paying clients effectively is actually one thing to have a good time, for anybody who watches Android intently (and has been watching it for some time — hello there!), the story is not so easy.Here, then, are three powerful however honest and extremely essential questions on Samsung’s Android 14 adventures — issues we must always all be serious about within the weeks forward to place this in correct perspective.[Get level-headed Android knowledge in your inbox with my free Android Intelligence newsletter. Three new things to know and try every Friday!] Samsung Android 14 query #1: When will this improve really attain everybody?First and foremost, it is important to contemplate that in circumstances like Samsung’s, an organization “starting” an Android improve is commonly a small-scale phenomenon restricted solely to sure components of the world.In the previous, we have seen sure former phone-makers get sneaky with this and use it to their benefit — beginning what’s basically a check rollout in a random place like Lithuania after which placing out a giant honkin’ press launch touting that they have been the “FIRST!” to the end line. Perhaps predictably, that finally ends up getting them plenty of optimistic protection and little in the best way of important eyebrow-raising. Samsung’s techniques aren’t something that excessive, fortunately, however as of this second, the Galaxy S23’s Android 14 rollout is proscribed to the UK and components of Europe. The US — the place Android Intelligence is predicated and which we use because the constant foundation for our annual Android Upgrade Report Card analyses — is notably not included on this present rollout as of but, and Samsung has typically began its US upgrades a good bit later than their worldwide counterparts.An “upgrade” is just not all the time an improve in all places, in different phrases — and as of now, Samsung says solely that the software program ought to begin to attain Galaxy S23 homeowners in America someday “soon.”Samsung Android 14 query #2: What about the remainder of the Galaxy?Most mainstream protection of Android upgrades focuses totally on the primary rollout to an organization’s most up-to-date flagship product. That’s why yearly, we see breathless hype about how Samsung is the “king of Android upgrades” and “absolutely killing it” whereas my very own in-depth improve analyses have a tendency to color a really totally different image.Here’s the factor folks are likely to brush apart with this: Every phone-maker has a number of Android merchandise that should be upgraded to present Android variations. At the very least, that features older-generation flagship telephones — top-tier, top-dollar units from as current as a single yr prior. As the usual window for Android software program assist continues to develop, that additionally now consists of flagship telephones from two years in the past and in some circumstances even longer. And that is not all. With Samsung, particularly, the corporate maintains a top-tier cellphone with co-flagship standing in its Galaxy Z Fold line. And, maybe most important, the corporate sells a sprawling choice of midrange and budget-level units — telephones just like the Galaxy A14, Galaxy A14 5G, Galaxy A54 5G, and Galaxy A34 5G (gesundheit!), all of which have been in a current listing of the highest 10 smartphones offered worldwide within the first half of 2023.These are the units most Android-owning organisms are utilizing, in different phrases. And these are the units that sometimes take an embarrassingly very long time to obtain present software program updates.So far, Google’s been the one firm to constantly ship software program updates out to each present mannequin on the identical time, whether or not it is a current-gen flagship, a previous-gen flagship, or a lower-priced Android possibility. When we speak about a phone-maker making it to the tip level, we now have to take a look at this larger image and never simply when it managed to squeeze a single toe over the end line.Samsung Android 14 query #3: Is this the beginning of a brand new pattern — or just a short-term fluctuation?Last however not least, to don our skeptic hats for a second, we have gotta ask if this single Samsung Android improve accomplishment is the start of a newfound dedication to sooner processing on the corporate’s half or if it is merely an remoted, restricted second of success. And this is not being overly cynical, both. It’s being real looking.When you zoom out and look intently at Samsung’s Android improve efficiency over time, the corporate’s had loads of ups and downs. With Android 12 in 2021, for example, Samsung scored a then-new report by sending that software program out to its present flagship cellphone homeowners in 65 days — a notable enchancment over its earlier efficiency in that space, through which it took wherever from 91 to 213 days to attain that very same feat.Its previous-gen flagship improve supply was one other record-setter that go-round, on the fairly first rate 95-day mark — in comparison with a 136-day delay a yr earlier and waits so long as 293 days in some years earlier than that.But then, the following yr, with Android 13, Samsung slipped again and took 86 and 105 days to get Android 13 out to its current-gen and previous-gen flagships, respectively.The firm’s had this ping-ponging sample all all through its Android improve historical past — going all the best way again to Android 5.0 in 2014, once I first began monitoring these things intently.So whereas it is refreshingly commendable to see Samsung beginning off on a robust word with this yr’s Android improve progress, we have got loads of unknowns but to evaluate by way of what this implies each within the fast second and what it’d (or may not) counsel by way of any broader affect. And since Samsung sometimes would not provide a lot in the best way of clear communication or guarantees about its intentions on this space, all we will do is ask.But asking is essential — because it offers us the deeper, extra significant perspective that truly lets us interpret the data in an correct manner. And particularly in an period of surface-level scorching takes and restricted institutional data, that type of context is invaluable.Sign up for my Android Intelligence e-newsletter to get extra sensible ideas, private suggestions, and plain-English perspective on the information that issues.
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