Last month, Google announced that it would sell a stock version of Samsung's Galaxy S 4 handset in its Play store. The news opened up another way for developers to create applications with a handset that the average consumer was actually using (even if those developers grumbled at the $649 price). But since the handset isn't a part of Google's Nexus program, it may not receive the same timely software updates as the company's other developer hardware.
Anandtech's Brian Klug discovered that both the Google Editions of the HTC One and the Samsung Galaxy S 4 will not receive software updates directly from Google because they're not running pure Android Open Source Project (AOSP) software, but instead a combination of the OEM kernel and the stock Android skin. As a result, the Google Play edition devices may not receive new Android versions as quickly as standard Nexus devices.
We've confirmed with Google that the company is in fact working closely with both manufacturers to release software updates for each phone, and that Google and the OEMs will release their respective updates after a new version of Android is released. Backing up this information is AOSP Engineer Jean-Baptise Queru, who posted on Google Groups that the source files for both the Galaxy S 4 and One won't be directly available through the Android Open Source Project like the Nexus devices. Klug added that HTC will offer the option for users to flash the GPe ROM on the Google Edition One devices.
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from Ars Technica http://arstechnica.com
