Samsung's business model change could imply three OS upgrades for the Galaxy S10 series

Samsung unveiled the Galaxy S20 phones two days ago. Typically, that would spell the end for production of last year's Galaxy S10 series, but Samsung appears to have changed its business model a bit. Like Apple does, the South Korean company will keep producing the Galaxy S10 phones, and selling them cheaper than launch MSRP.

This has a major implication, of course. Support lifespan. Samsung offers two major OS upgrades to its phones—with an extra year of security patches. Keeping the S10 in production could change things up. Selling the phone brand new on official channels should mean they get three major OS upgrades in total. After all, it would be unfair for new buyers of the S10 series to only get one update (the phones have already received one OS update, to Android 10).

Then again, Samsung provides just one update to a number of its phones, and it wouldn't be surprising for the company to now relegate the S10 series to that category. That would mean that those who bought it last year would get the two major updates as usual, while those who buy it now get just one OS upgrade. 

Samsung has shaved US$150 off the MSRPs of the phones, so the S10e can be had for US$600, the S10 for US$750, and the S10+ for US$849. The iPhone XS Max can be had for about the same price as the S10+ after the price drop, so it's a fair deal. 

It'll also be interesting to see how this change affects the Galaxy S10 series' resale value.

Galaxy S10 on sale now at Amazon
Buy Galaxy S10+ now on Amazon