Phones with custom U/I skins like Samsung’s touchwiz and HTC Sense take longer to upgrade because they have to customize it to work their U/I. Nexus phones are pure Android and easier to update.
It goes through not only Samsung but also the carrier, so official updates take longer because of that vs. a Nexus device which is directly from Google so it can update sooner. My Galaxy Note from AT&T still doesn't have an official update out for Ice Cream Sandwich (it's gotten pathetically sad at this point now with Jelly Bean out). AT&T is holding it up for some reason, I have no clue why.
This is not what apple or google consider incrimental update. Even though its just a .1 added it adds new features. Its just as big of an upgrade as ios5 to iOS 6. Android incremental updates are not key note worthy and are just automaticlly pushed to phones. For android 4.0.1 to 4.0.2 is incremental.
No the Samsung galaxy 3 has nothing to do with Google. Android is open source... That means ANYONE can use Google's os and do WHATEVER they want with it besides selling the os itself. Samsung created their own phone with their own version of android and it is up to Samsung to create an update and the carrier approving it. Google has no say
It will get jb... infact it will get it in a matter of weeks... but not through Samsung but through a custom ROM such as aokp or cm9.
It is not as incremental as 4.0.1 to 4.0.2 to 4.0.3 to 4.0.4. Its an update with new features similar to ios5 to ios6
In other news, though the fate of mobile Flash was already decided, there's definitely a few more nails for the coffin with Jelly Bean: http://blogs.adobe.com/flashplayer/2012/06/flash-player-and-android-update.html Guess Adobe isn't kidding. Feature changes are pretty widespread between them both, calling them 'similar' is a little too general. Regardless, the point to the post I quoted is they both do the same day updates and the delayed updates, neither one is not really something that is a unique trait of either OS.
Just think of it like this: Google wants to put out their own phone (Nexus), they just so happen to ask Samsung to make it for them. Samsung wants to put out their own phone (S3), they just happen to put Android on it. As said previously JB Roms should be out soon but they will very likely miss a lot of the S3 special functions like calling a contact immediately when you put it up to your ear. Someone correct me if I'm wrong on that point. So decide if you want to trade in Samsung stuff for JB stuff. BTW there is a rumor that the US S3's went w/ 2gb of ram in anticipation of JB, but I'm not really buying it.
touchwiz added a lot of nice little cute features to ics like nfc sharing with pictures and videos, s voice, and all the sensor related features but what stock jellybean provides has more pwoerful useful features with a prettier ui, Its safe to say now that Google Now and its voice search destroys s voice. NFC sharing in jb is now expanded to pictures and videos and there a lot of new ui/ease of use enchantments springled through out such as the notification pull down is A LOT more robust now. It seems these custom overlays Samsung, HTC, Motorola etc are putting on ics and latter phones are pointless. It used to be that Android was not aesthetically pleasing stock with no customization. It made sense for the third party manufactures to jazz up android back then but ics/jb is better looking than any of these custom overlays. Touch wiz looks like a fisher price toy and HTC designers make the ugliest looking icons. It seems to me the only reason they do these custom skins is just to differentiate between different brands.
