Samsung and Google’s “Pure Android” Galaxy S4 is a symbolic gesture

Google and Samsung have partnered on an alternate version of the Galaxy S4 which sells for $649 runs the pure stock version of the Android system software according to Google’s specifications instead of Samsung’s litany of changes to the software platform. It’s a distinction most Android users won’t understand, and a price tag which will turn off most of those who do. But the collaboration isn’t aimed at generating sales. Instead it’s a symbolic gesture between the two corporations, paving the way for a more cohesive Android platform future going forward.

 

One of the primary knocks against the Android platform is that its separate system software and hardware vendors make for a fragmented landscape. Google releases new Android OS software updates without regard for when partners like Samsung are launching new Android phones, and in turn those vendors often alter the Android source code so severely that their devices can’t be updated to the next Android OS release. The result is that about three quarters of current Android phones have yet to be upgraded to the latest Android 4.2 system software despite having been available for several months, cutting those users off from newer features even when their hardware was recently acquired. It also resulted in the Galaxy S4 launching with Android 4.2 just a few weeks before Google debuted new Android software features which make the new phone look already obsolete.

The “Stock Android” version of the Galaxy S4 is the first attempt on the part of Samsung and Google to rectify that fragmentation and disorganization. The fact that Samsung’s newest hardware can run the stock Android system software at all is evidence that it’s begun building its hardware to official Android spec, offering hope to Galaxy S4 buyers that their new device will ultimately be compatible with Google’s upcoming Android 4.3 release and beyond.

The eye popping $649 price tag for the stock-Android Galaxy S4 is an unsubsidized price: Google is selling it without a contract and buyers can take it to any carrier they like, for contract-free use. Most American consumers have shown that they prefer to buy their smartphones from carriers with more attractive up-front price tags like $199 even if it locks them into an overpriced contract. As such the vast majority of Galaxy S4 sales will continue to be of the standard Samsung version being sold through U.S. carriers, and not of the expensive alternate purist version released today. But as a symbolic gesture and harbinger of things to come, every Android user stands to benefit from this new S4 variant, even though few will buy it.