Samsung Galaxy S3: KitKat Update Android 4.4 Further Delayed

Samsung Galaxy S3: KitKat Update Android 4.4 Further Delayed

Even though some Samsung Galaxy S3 carrier variants in the United States and Canada have received the Android 4.4.2 KitKat update, most users around the world haven’t seen it yet. There’s actually been a new response about this topic, but it doesn’t seem like good (or bad) news.

We saw Samsung push the Android 4.4.2 KitKat update for the Galaxy S3 to all four carriers in the United States back in May. We even see the KitKat update head north and land at a few carriers up there. Most of the rest of the world however, has yet to see any sign of KitKat for their 4G Galaxy S3 (GT-I9305). We’ve even looked at some carriers’ software update schedules and none of them have given us any indication that an update is coming soon. Those carriers even have update schedules posted that go through September.

Many Galaxy S3 users still waiting for the KitKat update

A customer in the Vodafone Spain forums asked about this update and they were actually given an answer in the thread. Alberto from Vodafone Spain tells the customer that “they have not officially confirmed or denied the KitKat update for the Galaxy S3″. They continued for a little while and then said “for now, the latest version available for the Galaxy S3 is Android 4.3″.

You can take this as a piece of good or bad information. It’s great that Samsung hasn’t shut the door completely on the S3 (yet). This means there is a possibility that the update is currently being worked on and that it will be released soon. Then again, this doesn’t tell us anything that we haven’t heard already. We already knew that there wasn’t any new information out there. We have to give Vodafone Spain some credit though. They could have easily just ignored this question, but they stood up and talked to their customers about it.

This is really all we want as a Smartphone customer. We want our carriers and our Smartphone manufacturers to talk to us and tell us what is going on. All of this silence from Samsung is only going to cause idle speculation and false hope. Even if Samsung told us that it would be 6+ months until we saw an Android 4.4.2 KitKat update for the Galaxy S3, at least it would be something. As much as Samsung thinks this silence is better for them than disappointing news, it’s only going to cause some grief between those of us that are looking for information about the Android update.

It’s going to cause those customers to think long and hard about whether or not the sacrifice of Android updates (and transparency) are more important than the customizations of TouchWiz. Sooner or later, stock Android (and even an OEM skin like Motorola’s or HTC’s) will catch up to where TouchWiz is today. Let’s just hope that Android optimizations stay on track and it doesn’t get as bloated (performance-wise) as TouchWiz is right now. If not, then the casual Android customer will continue to give Samsung their money.