Drew Blackard, director of product planning for Samsung's mobile business in the U.S., tells CNET that many features not dependent on hardware will make their way to other Samsung devices.
Shara TibkenFormer managing editor
Shara Tibken was a managing editor at CNET News, overseeing a team covering tech policy, EU tech, mobile and the digital divide. She previously covered mobile as a senior reporter at CNET and also wrote for Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal. Shara is a native Midwesterner who still prefers "pop" over "soda."
Drew Blackard, director of product planning for Samsung's mobile business in the U.S., told CNET that many software features will make their way to other Samsung devices such as the Galaxy S3 and Note 2.
"Our hope is to bring anything that's not dependent on hardware to other devices," he said.
Blackard didn't have any details about timing for that but suggested it will be sooner rather than later. For prior releases, the update has hit older phones in about a couple months, he said. And updating the Samsung features isn't dependent on an Android update by Google.
Samsung today launched the Galaxy S4 during an event in New York City's Radio City Music Hall. The device was largely applauded for its new features, though the design itself isn't a huge leap from the S3. Samsung is counting on some of its more innovative software advances to set its device apart from rivals.
However, if users can get many of those features on the Galaxy S3, it may make them more hesitant to fork over the extra cash for the S4.
