The Android 5.0 update began rolling out to Samsung’s Galaxy S5 in Spain this week, after it had initially launched in Poland and South Korea earlier this month. Samsung has so far committed to updating several devices in “early 2015”: the Galaxy S5 LTE-A, Galaxy S4, Note 4 and Note 3.
Further details have now emerged about the Lollipop rollout in the US, as someone claiming to be a Samsung employee has shared some information on Reddit. Posting under the username ‘SamsungRep2015’, the person has been verified by a Reddit moderator, and wrote:
"I am employed by Samsung, and today they sent out an email to all stores in preparation for the new quarter and the new year. In that email, they said that we need to start preparing our devices for the Lollipop update, and gave instructions on how to prepare.”
According to the post – which, in the comments, the user says relates specifically to the US rollout – “S5’s are getting the most attention for the update and will be the first target for launch, followed by the Note 4 and Edge. After that, they are expecting the Note 3 and S4 to be the next wave, and then after that attention will turn to tablets.”
There’s no exact timeframe for the US rollout yet, although according to the rep, Samsung"s advice is to tell customers that the Android 5.0 Lollipop update is “coming soon”.
As BGR noted, the rep also hinted that Samsung might be increasing pressure on carriers to push the update out more quickly than they usually do – mobile operators are notorious for dragging their feet when it comes to rolling out updates. “I don’t have information on carrier specific tweaks,” the user noted, “other than Samsung is whipping carriers and getting directly involved to ship updates after.”
A few weeks ago, a video leaked, revealing Samsung’s implementation of Android 5.0 Lollipop – including its own TouchWiz additions – running on the Galaxy Note 4.