Apple updates seem to rollout much faster, with fewer impediments from carriers. Why can’t this be the case with Samsung phones after Samsung has tested the update? Why the extra barrier for Android phones?
Made the switch from iOS to Android this year and this completely baffled me.
I’m on Verizon in the US and my S23 Ultra JUST got the update yesterday after checking my software updates daily. After being with an iPhone since 2011, it just feels silly having to wait 20 days after an update dropped to actually have access to it.
If I remember correctly it’s a carrier thing. First Google sends out the Android update to each manufacturer. Then they slap their skin on top of it and do their software tweaking. Then those updates are send to the carrier’s, and they’re the ones sending them OTA to the consumer.
With Apple, everything is “inhouse”.
Most people will say all the blame is all on carriers, but outside the US that is hardly the case as most models sold are unlocked.
While Android has a higher variety of devices they also introduce weird region locks where the same phone model will receive the update at different times just by being in a different country.
Updates on Android are faster than ever, but same day rollout is just not a priority
This region based roll-out is what annoys me the most.
In a way they do because for years the updates come primarily through the Play Store as most of the functionality has been moved out of the firmware and into updateable components. Also a big effort reaching into Qualcom itself who provided drivers that abstract hardware meaning that changes deep in the system can be made via the Play Store as well.
This is why vendors are able to offer longer term support, the work that they have to do has been greatly reduced and simplified.
A verdor update will still offer some refresh of the UI they provide but the core phone is basically keep up to date with the need of there input.
When a vender update does come it requires a sign off from you countries ISP before it is sent to your phone via the update process.
Same reason why iPhones have an ecosystem with little freedom. Like the freedoms of Androids? This is part of the price for freedom.
If you want an imprisoned ecosystem like iOS…get an iPhone.
Honestly, most people are not going to notice or care. That doesn’t excuse it, but if you ask 9 out of 10 people with a phone, or more than that, they will be oblivious to most anything said technical.
Literally, the vast majority of people, when they buy a phone, make a decision based on the color of the phone.
Even when Apple does a rollout, the roll out a lot of bugs. I’m not anti-apple as I have an iPhone as well, but it ain’t roses on Apple’s side of things.
In my experience, iOS is buggy as hell, or has been, and OneUI…I have not, myself, notice any bugs. Just my world view.
Because Android updates are done by Google. Apple owns the software and the hardware which is why they roll out faster
that carrier shit is only applicable to US I guess. But really, it sucks. One time I should be glad livin in a 3rd world country mhhmm…
In my opinion its less related to carriers and more related to hardware and software they have to optimize. In India we don’t have carriers, but still the rollout is delayed and it’s a worldwide thing. Apple has the advantage of
- In house software and hardware
- Limited number of devices with little variables.
Androids usually get their processors from third party manufacturers which takes a little extra time to optimize and they have to do it separately for each processor and device model. Plus you have different screen sizes and types for each of your models (S23, 23+ and 23 ultra have different display size plus they have the older models too with different hardware).
Apple only has to deal with 2 or maybe 3 screen sizes if you take models from last 2-3 years coz the display from iphone 14 pros is the same one being used in the 15s and 15 pros coz their phones usually don’t change much in terms of hardware until you see them 3-4 years apart (they used a 12MP camera for the a long time before upgrading to a 48MP recently).
Long story short, I think that samsung or other android manufacturers have way too many variables to optimize their software with which takes time so they prefer to take it slowly
Also they have so many variants of their devices based on region where they sell that; It adds up to the slow rollout that we’ve been experiencing.
For the sake are squashing the idea that the carriers take the builds and “add” software to the firmware and that takes a month, this isn’t true. At least not in a literal sense that the builds are some how charged when they come from Samsung.
In the US for example. Aside from changes specific to mobile radio firmware, carriers all have the exact same build. People like to assume Samsung cranks out a build and hands it to the carrier then the carrier modifies it. That would be a quality control nightmare considering Samsung is ultimately held accountable for the software on their devices.
Well how do you get carrier software, to include system level apps like visual voicemail and messaging apps to appear then?
This is where DT Ignite comes into play. At the time Samsung generates a build it includes this software that can read the CSC files and the sim card and make a determination of which carrier related changes, limitations, and software to implement.
This means the build that Samsung sends to the carrier isn’t then being modified again, at least not from a software design standpoint, DT Ignite already exists on the phone. Yes your phone does change based on the carrier sim but this is based on a response from software already on the Samsung firmware when it leaves Samsungs servers. This has allowed Samsung to move to unified builds for their devices years ago without worrying about generating a build for each carrier separately.
Why make say five builds when you can remotely control the software each carrier installs after the fact during the first boot when the sim card is read.
This is also why some SIM card changes will trigger a full wipe.
Prior to Apple launching the first iPhone, the business model for retailing cell phones was virtually 100% done by the carriers at retail stores. Carriers largely saw smartphones as inventory that they purchased from manufacturers which they certified for their networks, after which the phones were theirs to control. Meaning they had ultimate control over over the software and hardware of anything connecting to their service. OEMs really didn’t have an alternative to agreeing to that, since being denied certification would mean virtually zero phone sales.
When Apple wanted to enter the market, they didn’t want this to be the case. Their overall product strategy at the time (from computers to peripherals to iPods) was one of top to bottom Apple control of the experience. However they weren’t poised to start putting up their own cell towers. So unless they were happy with limiting their sales to just people willing to ditch their carries and sign up for a would-be Apple Mobile service, they were still going to have to rely on a mobile network partner. It was a conundrum.
They solved it, essentially, by choosing to go exclusively with one carrier at launch. They bet that the promise of exclusive access to iPhone inventory (and all the share of sales and new sign ups and retain customers that could come with it) would be enough to compel whichever carrier was most interested to drop some of their requirements for software oversight or interference. In the US, it was AT&T that agreed to those terms. After the iPhone was a hit, other carriers more or less agreed to the same thing, and it has remained that way to this day.
One of the key reasons why it has stayed this way, however, is not just the history. But rather, Apple’s strength in their own independent retail. Apple stores and their website account for enough of their iPhone sales that if one carrier wanted to play hardball and start insisting on dictating the schedule for updates, or preloading certain apps, Apple would be okay with halting iPhone sales through that carrier’s stores, and/or no longer activating iPhones on their network in Apple stores. That threat maintains the status quo.
Samsung, and other android OEMs, do not have that benefit. Both from the precedent of carrier oversight from the legacy era, as well as not having their own strength in independent retailing to effectively negotiate Apple-like control. Trying to get around that is one of the reasons that Google launched Google Fi, and why they offer such aggressive discounts/trade ins on Pixel phones through their own stores. However that’s still a fraction of overall Android phone sales.
The carriers want a say in the software that goes on the phones.
In exchange for that, the carriers will buy fucktons of phones and promote the hell out of them on their web stores, retail stores and to business accounts.
Big discounts etc.Samsung likes to sell large numbers of phones. Carrier partnerships are a way to do that.
It is not the fault of Samsung, but your shitty US providers who have to test the software on their network first, remove stuff they think you don’t need, and add their own shitty stuff aka bloatware etc.
Samsung released OUI6 on October 30th. What happens after that, is the fault of providers.
i bought my phone directly from samsung fully unlocked. I only recieved it on 16th.
I absolutely agree that the US carriers slow down releases, and make them worse at the same time. But something I didn’t see mentioned here is that Samsung releases updates for different models at different times. For example the S23 series gets updated first, followed by 5 series foldables and the S22 series, then the 4 series foldables and s21 series etc. and this is all looking strictly at unlocked models with no carrier interference.
I understand carriers getting in the way, but I think it’s fair to question why Samsung models have a tiered rollout compared to Apple updating all models at the same time.
I believe part of it is due to how similar the Apple models are from one year to the next 5 years.
Samsung has a rather different feature set across the models (even in the early years). Not to mention, rather different hardware across the models (in the early years). With a different mentality on software updates in the past, and for long term manageability, I understood that they have different teams in charge of the updates for each phone model.
It’ll be a case of getting the apps/software working for the one with the best and latest set of technology, then selectively dumb down or restrict usability for each subsequent model.
Til they do a massive re-org, I doubt the distribution method can easily change.
Resource allocation. You can’t keep a massive team to maintain operating systems for different lineups. Even if they did, coordination would be a nightmare to give the same experience across different devices i.e, one having an issue for something which the other does not. Plus it’s a business, Samsung needs to make a profit for doing all this else it’s a moot point. So you first develop on the common codebase and then tackle device specific features. 50-70% of the developers would be the same who will work on these devices. So you need to stagger the releases simply because you don’t or in fact can’t have separate resources which the Apple can afford with just one lineup.
well what about S22, A54, A53 etc.? spoke releases for every supported device on the same day, also in Europe where carriers don’t customize android it’s the same thing, latest S series then gradually other devices
Just for clarity. The carriers are just testing. They aren’t adding or removing anything. You can tell this because the last beta build became stable, this is usually the case. So the carriers aren’t approving apps after the fact. So it’s not carriers adding and removing anything because one the software packages don’t work like that. That means the carriers would need to build their own updates from source and prior to cranking out a build adjust the packages included inside. Now that’s neither here nor there because it’s not like you get it sooner. But all that time is used to test. Not change builds.
Carriers selectively disable features on Samsung S series phones that they don’t like. For example, I understand that wifi-sharing/wifi hot-spot is actually hobbled on US phones. Some carriers want wifi-calling enable, some want it specifically disabled. I think i ever saw a list of over 100 items that carriers want Samsung to “fix” (like crippling wifi hotspot) before the updated firmware can be released.
Still waiting here on my factory unlocked 23 Ultra, that I have on Spectrum Mobile.