Do you think Samsung delays new android releases to make people buy new devices
 

Hi,

I'm happy samsung is doing well in the mobile market but my only gripe with them is the delay of new android releases. I know it takes time to code and test before releasing a newer version for a specific device but experience shows that samsung takes too long or doesn't release any newer versions.

For example the samsung galaxy Note 10.1 is still at 4.0.4 and it's a quad core tablet. I'm pretty sure it can handle jellybean 4.2.2 if it ever gets it.

So, do you think samsung is making us buy new mobile devices because of their slow release cycle of android?

Frankly, I just bought one and I neither know nor care if it's the latest release (updated itself to 4.1.2). There's plenty of good reasons not to rush a new software release out.

1. let it go wrong on somebody else and let them do the recall.

Samsung adds its own extra software features as well.

When they're planning to release new hardware, this comes with new Samsung (software) additions.
Releasing this before their new hardware platform would give them less "new" things to advertise their latest devices.

Nexus might be more your thing if you prefer vanilla Android with fast updates.

Thanks to all who read, replied and voted.

I would say that the upgrade coming out later for their existing devices is just a useful (for Samsung) side effect of the development process mentioned above. It's more important to get the new device with new features out there to make money than it is to update an old device when that process loses money in man-hours and gains nothing in revenue. This leads to the update having low priority and if it so happens this means that people who must have the latest Android version go out and buy a new phone, that's great too.
Supporting existing devices is almost always secondary to selling new ones as it's lost revenue.
That said I think along the lines of business_kid -- I buy a device which does what I want it to do when I buy it and I would view and updates as something to look into only if they're stable and have a compelling reason to upgrade.

If Samsung wants to ignore the older and less expensive devices that may be fine but if you spend $500 or more on a device that is two years old or less they should at least give it two future releases of android before they consider it obsolete. Otherwise, you'll be stuck with the original android that came with the device.

I think it was Android that started getting behind in the releases originally. They couldn't keep up then devices all of a sudden where running old ROMs. Doesn't really matter though. I still enjoy good old Gingerbread to be honest lol and you can always just upgrade when it becomes available. You don't need to buy a new device.

Samsung have committed themselves to Tizen but haven't delivered yet. Their upgrade policy is schizophrenic. Hardware is top, though.