[Poll Results!] What should be Samsung’s strategy for Android?
Samsung is the biggest Android smartphone vendor on the planet and has been for many years. Perhaps that why many fans and enthusiasts, in particular, were disappointed to know that there’s not going to be an Android P beta for the Galaxy S9 even though Google has opened up the beta program to devices from the likes of Xiaomi and Nokia.
Android and Samsung have done a lot for each other over the past few years. Samsung wouldn’t be where it is today in the smartphone market without Android and Android wouldn’t be such a popular mobile OS if it weren’t for Samsung. As it stands, though, some fans think that Samsung still leaves a lot to be desired in the software department.
Samsung Experience, the company’s custom skin, has come a long way and it offers features that you won’t find in stock Android or on any other device. The question is, though, as it enough in the increasingly competitive smartphone market? Some key manufacturers are now adopting stock Android because many users are beginning to value faster platform and security updates over third-party features and interfaces.
Should Samsung keep its head down and remain focused on Samsung Experience or should it start phasing it out gradually in favor of stock Android as well, yielding us handsets similar to the Galaxy S4 Google Play Edition?
Or should the company try to strike a balance between the two and offer some devices with stock Android to appeal to those who want it? The nuclear option would be to ditch Android altogether and go for something new but with Tizen essentially dead in the water, it’s impossible that this is something Samsung would be willing to do.
Vote below and let us know your thoughts on this in the comments section.
Poll Results: This poll has yielded an interesting result. The majority (36%) of those who participated believe that Samsung should try to strike a balance between its custom skin and stock Android. Interestingly, 34% of the respondents feel that Samsung should start focusing on stock Android.
With users’ frustration due to Samsung’s update schedule knowing no bounds, it’s possible that many just want a switch to stock Android hoping that it would bring them faster updates. Only 26 percent believe that Samsung should remain fully focused on Samsung Experience. Do you agree with the majority? Discuss in the comments below.
- Try to strike a balance between the two 36%, 1341 vote1341 vote 36%1341 vote - 36% of all votes
- Start focusing on stock Android 34%, 1279 votes1279 votes 34%1279 votes - 34% of all votes
- Remain focused on Samsung Experience 26%, 968 votes968 votes 26%968 votes - 26% of all votes
- Ditch Android completely in favor of something else 5%, 181 vote181 vote 5%181 vote - 5% of all votes
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Great with these types of polls – if only Samsung would care!!
back in the day before Verizon and at&t screwed we the people from rooting phones, samsung was absolute beasts running aokp, paranoid android and cyangenmod. No phone compares hardwarewise to galaxy phone. Samsung needs partner with one these android offerings and build samsung experience into the os.
samsung will not do or follow what ever the customers say… They have their own attitude to do… Once we bought then Samsung S9 0r S9+ then finished. Most importantly Android P will the his samsung devices ON or After August particularly very close to the release of NOte 9. then only Note 9 customer can be cheated…. See it not false. It is true even if you want check these browse yourself, out of close observation I say this…
Fast updates…
Stop releasing unnecessary mid and low range phones and focus and support the ones already released better and for longer time, simple.
Now coming A6, A6+, J4 and J6, seriously?
Samsung should make efforts to work on their Tizen OS and bring it to mainstream devices. They have the capabilities. Just look at how well the Tizen Gear S3 works. I know it will have a small number of apps but Samsung will have a full control over its development. People buy Samsung mainly for the hardware they offer. How about beginning with development of top 1000 apps from the google app store and develop them for tizen and then bring in developers to work on more apps in the future. Their own software and own hardware will only make… Read more »
That “balance” between the two will only push Samsung into a more and more awkward position. Either Samsung’s own strategy or Google’s Android strategy can’t be achieved – they’re totally different in directions anyway. It just can’t be a long-term plan. I think it’s time for Samsung to decide – to adopt their own version of OS or be an OEM of Google completely.
Flagship major update for minimum 3 years and up to date software updates for starters
Sumsung software is the best one in android world. Sumsung experience & sumsung launcher is modern one. Weather widget is beautiful & performance is better than natvie andriod.
Only Samsung Experience.
Samsung’s UI alone is miles ahead in terms of its modern and sleek design. Stock android has a sloppy/childlike interface. But I guess that boils down to preference.
I just don’t understand a lot of people who clamor for stock Android. Just get a darn Pixel! The rest of us realize that Samsung experience is years ahead of stock Android in terms of features and is also much more intuitive and customizable than stock Android. For example most of the new features in Android oreo were already in Samsung experience for years and updating my Note 8 from Nougat to Oreo really added no value. I would have been fine with just timely security updates. If you have such a big problem with Samsung experience and love stock… Read more »
Dear Stondec, I think you are missing the point here. Stock Android is becoming really really good, even feature wise. I agree that Samsung has more features but I personally do not use them all. Like for instance that deep learning stuff just announced, it has to be seen if Samsung will incorporate that. Samsung has the tendency to leave very good things out of their OS which are in Android. Back in the days, TouchWiz made stock Android really better. Now I’m not so sure anymore. Tell me how Samsung Experience is miles ahead, I really wanna see what… Read more »
Hi Martin. I agree with what Stondec said because… i like the design more….google material design looks a bit odd to me. + i think everything is more userfriendly + i really don.t know why but samsung experience is just the full package… i tried to use my girlfriends iphone for a day… everything was ok…but then i needed something…and i realized..oh my S8 would do that so easy. But i think that after s2 s3 s4 s6 s7edge and now s8+ i think the samsung UI just completes me and my usage behaviour everytime. Still haven.t find any other… Read more »
Well one example is just yesterday Google introduced android p, with that the feature that when you turn the volume up and down, you can decide if it’s the ringing or the media you turn up and down. This feature samsung added several months ago/1 year ago.
As Stondec mentioned stock android adds almost no value for Samsung Experience because samsung already have these features months/years before google adds them.
True.
Google’s deep learning is not OS based, its Google Services based. its the ASSISTANT that is learning, not the OS. Google assistant is getting all these updates and I have said it before – they are limiting it to the US and maybe one other country. Google have a lot of explaining to do because its ridiculous that even an OS update won’t give you all its ‘features’ because its Google Play Services location based. as for this discussion on SE vs Stock. they would make A LOT of people happy reintroducing the Google Play Editions. focus on SE for… Read more »
They shouldn’t ditch the samsung experience as it is one of the most complete versions of all OS. The performance and battery life have imporved very much in my s8+ with the oreo update. But still they should try to improve more as it is a lot of room for improvements. The only thing that samsung experience lacks is the fast software updates. Thats the only thing that should improve. Major software udpates should come out quicker. I don.t blame samsung very much for the updates as my s8+ gets monthly updates…now i am on aprill. Thats not bad at… Read more »
Since lollipop Google have been following Samsungs lead. From multi window, multi tasking, vulcan game support, VR support and numerous other capabilities all appeared on Samsung devices before stock. Having stock is like having a new car with no power steering or electric windows. Most of the new stuff on P is already on Samsung phones since Marshmallow and Nougat and even Oreo on Samsung has capabilities missing on P. The Android OS updates are just bringing on board the new stuff from Samsung and LG. It’s a yawnfest watching Google i/o. We have everything already. If you want stock… Read more »
Actually, from Software development point of view, nothing gets done within half a year, so it’s either Google is feeding Samsung ahead features, to keep them using Android – or Google is working with Samsung on Android itself. In most of the cases the so called new features are always exactly one update ahead of Google. It can be coincidence or industrial espionage, but honestly I doubt it, since the new features in the Samsung Experience get implemented perfectly identical – and nobody is sueing anyone for “stealing”, which would happen if that would be the case on the very… Read more »
Oh, and having stock is like having a car which drives you from A to B, but without many fancy features or comfy chairs. Having the Samsung Experience is the super comfortable nice car, made of glass 🙂 The first bump in the road you hit, and it will shatter to pieces (this can be taken literally for any manufacturer which thinks glass case for durability is good …); or you can just buy a simple car design to cover the shiny glass, just so it does not break 🙂
Get rid of CSCs once and for all, and get rid of all those useless variants of the same phone. I’ll keep using the example of S5 neo that got nougat in the g903w variant but not the g903f (still S5 neo). Not serious enough sammy
They can’t ditch the models as for the US they must use Qualcomm chips because of some patents Qualcomm has for CDMA networking…or something like that
Yeah I know that but they have more than two variants (exynos and Snapdragon) so..
But i totally agree you with the CSC. They should update phones like HTC does …. with region update. Europe…us…asia
They’re not doing terribly in terms of software on its own. I have not had performance issues with my Galaxies since the S6 edge+ Battery is my main concern still. Other features I wrongly accuse Samsung of is actually Google’s. We still don’t have YouTube Red, Full Google Assistant functionality, still don’t have Project Fi! It really baffles me that a company of Google’s calibre STILL restricts its best features to one or two countries. and they then have the audacity to boast about how quick their machine learning and AI is developing – yet they seem unable to release… Read more »
It doesn’t really matter much. Samsung will fail as it continues down the road with planned obsolescence in it’s hardware.
Absolutely no logic to that comment. Lolol