Today Samsung UK officially responded to requests for an official statement saying the following:
"As we are currently investigating the reported issues with Galaxy S3 4.3 Jelly Bean update, the upgrading service has been temporarily suspended. We are committed to providing customers with the best possible mobile experience, and will ensure to resume the upgrading service at the earliest possibility."
So, the Galaxy S III update has been pulled from Kies and the OTA service has been suspended. We hope Samsung resolves this issues quickly and resumes the update rollout shortly. The Galaxy S III skipped Android 4.2.2 and its owners are waiting a year to get a newer Android version since the official 4.1 Jelly Bean ROM was released in 2012.
It looks like Samsung may have skipped properly testing the Android 4.3 update for the Galaxy S III in a bid to get it out there as soon as possible. The update, which started rolling out to unlocked international variants of the S III today and to Vodafone-branded handsets a few days ago, is causing all sorts of issues for users, and as a result Samsung might have pulled the plug and paused its rollout.
The issues the Android 4.3 update has introduced are pretty major, including reduced battery life, app crashes, inconsistent Wi-Fi connections, laggy performance, and even complete lockups of the device on the lockscreen that can only be solved by pulling out and reinserting of the battery. The folks over at Phones Review report that the update was initially available on their UK handset, but after ignoring it and attempting to update the next day, their S III simply said the latest updates were installed, which is a pretty good indication that the update might have been pulled by Samsung, and the Note II update might be put on hold as well, considering how similar it is to the S III in both software and hardware.
