Your old flagship is not important to Samsung

[Smekahle]

The reason they also delay these updates is for consumers to opt for upgrades to the latest devices unnecessarily, my question is why they promise 4 years of OS updates if new software will be only be prioritized for that year's flagships. So the S series remains a flagship until another flagship drops and the previous one gets downgraded to midrange.

[Tendai777]

It falls within the marketing strategy. This is how Samsung generates revenue. If identical features are present across all devices, what would motivate you to acquire a new device?

[Smekahle]

OS updates refer to the latest operating system which is Android, smartphone features will never be the same that wasn't mentioned in the post. Read my post all over again.

[Tendai777]

It appears there may be a misunderstanding. Samsung relies on Google for timely updates and has a diverse range of devices compared to Apple. The software optimizations required for these devices, each with varying chipsets, can be time-consuming. Consequently, Samsung updates tend to take longer. Naturally, they prioritize their latest flagship.

[Smekahle]

My question is why can't OS updates be developed for all qualifying devices and be distributed in one go? Does that make good sense

[TeeA]

You also need to understand that 'qualifying devices' is a large number of devices especially since Samsung makes more phones in comparison to the competition.

Samsung is not completely at fault here. Another problem is that the updates also go through the mobile service providers first since they need to install their apps and boot splash screens and such before they release it.

So it would've been easier for Samsung to push updates to carrier unlocked phones while mobile network operator ones would take longer.

[Smekahle]

So you think it's fair to get a major OS update 4-5 months later?

[TeeA]

Of course it's not but you also need to remember that Samsung doesn't make Android, Google does. On top of that Samsung adds their tweaks to make it One UI. Then there's the mobile operators adding their own things so yes the process takes forever.

I have a S23U and I got 6.1 the day after it was released. Living in South Africa it was shocking as I'm used to receiving updates months later. So yes Samsung can do better and should do better and because of me getting the update quicker I can have hope that they are going to do better.

[Smekahle]

Clearly you are confused, Samsung makes One UI based on the latest version of Android. Samsung adds their unique features to the UI to enhance the user experience. First of all, Android is open source (you should know that).

[TeeA]

To answer your post I hope I understood it correctly.

Samsung has always had this pattern of when a new Android OS version is released, it will first release it to the current flagships then go down the line. So when Android 15 is released later this year they'll start with giving it to the S24 series/Fold 6 and Flip 6 then go to the S23 series/Fold 5 and Flip 5 and so forth.

So it's not about the old flagship not being important, it's about it being at the back of the line so it will take longer for the update to come out.

So it will still get the 4 major OS upgrades, just not at the same time the newer devices recieve them.