Samsung slipped in an interesting piece of information at the exciting launch of three different products in Berlin; apparently, owners of the Galaxy S4 smartphones should look out for an Android 4.3 Jelly Bean update.
Despite earlier promises of eventually updating the Galaxy S3 to Android 4.3 Jelly Bean OS, the update is yet to happen. Consumers got wary of the reality of this update coming anytime but soon. Last year, the Galaxy Note 2 and the Galaxy S2 update to Android 4.2 Jelly Bean was announced and Samsung even added “Premium Suite” features to these devices. Several Galaxy S3 owners would have been expecting the same treatment.
Samsung has now hinted that the Android 4.3 update is coming soon. How soon? Samsung is looking at sometime late in October. The update is expected to hit the international version of the unit first, before the US gets a feel of it.
The AT&T variant of the Galaxy S3 seems to have been caught testing through GFXBenchmark. The benchmark reports that the device was running Jelly Bean 4.3 with a build number JSS15J. The build apparently dates back to earlier this September, which means that at this moment, a bootable and testable version of Jelly bean 4.3 could exist in the store of Samsung’s updates.
In addition to the Galaxy S3, two more devices are expected to be updated to Jelly Bean 4.3. These are the Samsung Galaxy S4 and last year’s Galaxy Note 2.
The strategy by Samsung is to give as many people access to the Galaxy Gear smartwatch as possible. The Gear is only compatible with hardware running Jelly bean 4.3 and at the moment, that’s the Galaxy Note 3 and the 2014 Note 10.1. Do some Math with the millions of Galaxy S3 and S4 owners into the mix, and Samsung’s sales projections for the watch rise considerably.
We will keep you informed of the development regarding the release of the updates.
