With devices like smartphones and tablets ranking high on everyone's holiday wishlist, the popular Samsung Galaxy S3 smartphone is bound to get plenty of attention. One of the factors that may come into play is when deciding to purchase the smartphone is whether the device is up to date, so here's how Android Jelly Bean is making its way across Galaxy S3s.
In the United States, many customers have carrier-locked Galaxy S3s, which means they have to wait longer than their unlocked counterparts for an Android upgrade. Sprint was the first carrier to release Android 4.1.1 for its Galaxy S3 owners at the end of October. Carrier T-Mobile is the only other wireless provider to have released Android 4.1.1 for its Galaxy S3, doing so only a few days ago.
The nation's two biggest carriers, AT&T and Verizon, have yet to roll out Jelly Bean for their Galaxy S3 owner but are expected to do so in the near future. A couple firmware leaks indicate that Verizon is close to having a final Jelly Bean build ready, and AT&T is even rumored to release Android 4.1.2 for its Galaxy S3.
As of now, there is no word on a U.S. Cellular Galaxy S3 Jelly Bean update.
International customers began getting their Jelly Bean almost a full month before U.S. consumers did. For a list of which countries have an official Jelly Bean upgrade available, check out a YouMobile updated list.
Google has already released Android 4.2, so the timing of the Android 4.1 upgrades are slightly disappointing. Samsung is expected to release Android 4.1.2 in December and Android 4.2 in Q1 2013 for the Galaxy S3, but just keep in mind that if you have a Galaxy S3 tied down to a U.S. carrier, the waits will be longer.