Is this phone a turnaround by Samsung?

[jreacher]

If you remember, quite a few websites covering the S4 launch made a brief remark about Samsung appearing to almost deliberately avoid mentioning anything about Google or Android during their presentations. Then a few stories floated around about a Google comment during an interview expressing "concern" about the "Samsung" name overshadowing "Android". This fueled speculation that there was a rift growing between Samsung and Google, along with further speculation about Tizen and a breakaway.

But now Samsung almost out of the blue not only releases this phone but even puts the Google name right on it, and at this year's I/O we find out that Google is making major moves to take more direct control over Android by moving the API's out of the OS and into Google Play Services (for those who haven't been following this, it means Google can now directly make changes to how much of Android works and push it to your phone without the need for manufacturers or carriers). I wish I could be a fly on the wall to hear what kinds of conversations have been taking place recently between these two.

 

[kjnangre]

Samsung created a version of software for the S4 that has a ton of bells of whistles. At their presentation, they wanted to put the focus on their software. Obviously they had worked very hard on it (the hardware changes between SIII and S4 are fairly minor, the big changes was the new Touchwiz features) and they wanted to highlight their work. I don't think Samsung was trying to hide Android, they just wanted to talk about Touchwiz cause it's their software. Sure, the media created a controversy, but that's the media's job.

Now, Google comes along and offers to sell the S4 with stock Android. That just means more sales for Samsung, without doing any extra work at all. Of course they jumped at it.

 

[Ry]

Nope. Its just a way for Samsung to sell you another phone.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Android Central Forums

 

[JHBThree]

I'm not sure Samsung has anything to do with this besides building them. They may have provided various drivers and such, but I wouldn't be surprised if Google did everything else.