Samsung has evidenced that it intends to bring a Galaxy phone upgrade program to market, after Apple made its own announcement regarding the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus. We’ve heard very little about the program and still have very little to share, but the good news is that reliable news source Reuters has now picked up the same news and wants to confirm that the new upgrade program is on its way and will likely be announced on February 21st along with the announcement of Samsung’s Galaxy S7 and S7 edge (no S7 edge Plus at the announcement, we’re told).
The news Reuters received is shared from South Korea’s own Electronic Times, which says that the Galaxy Phone Upgrade Program will go live in March, when the Galaxy S7 goes on sale. In 2015 with the Galaxy S6 and S6 edge, Samsung announced both smartphones on March 1st at Mobile World Congress (MWC) and sold them around April 10th and 11th. Sales start about a month after the announcement, so, with a February 21st announcement (as a recent video leaked the date), we can expect South Korea to get sales earlier than they’ll go live in the US — although Samsung has been aiming to do a worldwide release of its flagship smartphones at the same time for all customers worldwide.
We have no details regarding what the Galaxy Phone Upgrade Program will bring to the table and how it will differ from Apple’s Early Upgrade program, but we’ll find out soon. What we know at the least is that the Galaxy S7 will allow customers to upgrade their Galaxy smartphone each year, without the need of signing two-year agreements or installment plans with carriers. The Korean giant will allow customers to bypass carriers in the US, in particular, which will help customers also get access to faster update pushes — since unlocked smartphones get quick updates as compared to the carrier-locked versions, which can take 4 or 5 months to receive an update. Carrier bloatware is another positive reason for Samsung’s Galaxy Phone Upgrade Program, seeing that unlocked smartphones don’t feature pre-installed carrier apps that consume storage space on a device.
