Samsung Electronics has committed to providing new Tizen TV buyers with seven years’ worth of free operating system upgrades, far exceeding any other TV brand.
The move appears to be an attempt by Samsung to outdo its rival LG Electronics, which last year committed to providing five-years worth of updates to all new LG TVs sold in 2024 and onwards.
When LG decided to commit to providing software updates, it meant Samsung was the only major TV brand that wasn’t promising to update the original software that ships with its TVs. Rival brands such as Sony, Panasonic, Philips and TCL all use third-party operating systems such as Google TV, Android TV and Roku OS, which do receive updates from time-to-time.
Television makers such as Samsung, LG Electronics, Sony and Panasonic have long been criticized for their habit of neglecting to provide software updates for older TV models after they’ve been sold to consumers. Traditionally, these companies have often only ever reserved OS improvements for their newest models, forcing consumers to trade up to get access to the newest features.
While most brands do provide firmware upgrades to address bugs and security issues, they have rarely updated older platforms with new features and functionality. The likes of Google and Roku do introduce very occasional updates to TVs running the Android TV and Roku OS platforms, but they can hardly be described as frequent, and most TVs are neglected once they reach around three or four years old.
That’s why Samsung’s announcement is an encouraging one, as it means anyone who buys a Samsung TV model from 2024 onwards will always have the latest features for at least seven years, which is more or less the average refresh cycle for most consumers.
Samsung Visual Display Business Vice President Yong Seok-woo told The Korea Economic Daily that the decision will help it to increase its market share at the expense of Chinese TV brands.
The company didn’t provide full details of its plans, but TV buyers are likely to receive an upgrade at least once a year, as it’s typically every year that Samsung enhances the Tizen OS platform. It’s expected that the next version of Tizen OS will be announced in January at CES 2025.
The decision will likely help to extend the lifetime of new Smart TVs. One of the problems associated with the lack of updates is that it means certain applications will no longer work on them. For instance, companies like Netflix will require customers to be running a certain version of an operating system, and so its app will not work if the TV cannot be updated. As an example, Netflix recently announced that its streaming app no longer works on 2014 Sony televisions, as these run an older software version that’s unable to support some of the app’s newest features.
Not every company has let down buyers in terms of operating system updates. Apple is perhaps the best example, with the first ever Apple TV device, the Apple TV HD that launched in 2015 still receiving tvOS updates even now.
