New OTA Update for International Galaxy S III Removes Universal Search

Following updates for the U.S.-based AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon Wireless models of the flagship Galaxy S III smartphone, Samsung is also rolling out the same update to the international edition of the Galaxy S III for GSM networks. The update, which actually doesn’t add any new functionality or bug fixes to the smartphone, does the job of removing features from the phone. The update, which is rolling out right now, removes the universal search capabilities on the international GSM edition of the Galaxy S III.

As Samsung was under hot waters in the U.S. with the Google-branded Galaxy Nexus smartphone and had lost a patent case against Apple over universal search, the company has been proactive about removing the dubious feature from its Galaxy S III smartphone. According to Samsung in the past, the South Korean Android smartphone manufacturer is taking the initiative to do this and is not currently compelled to remove the feature by any court order or legal injunction.

In a report posted on Android Central, the 27 MB over-the-air software update is identified as a stability update by Samsung.

The new version — XXBLG6 — is a relatively recent build, having been cooked just a few days ago on Jul. 20. A new baseband version, XXLG6, is also included, but we haven’t noticed any other changes thus far.

It’s unclear if Samsung’s latest moves will appease lawyers in Cupertino, California. In the less than two months that the Galaxy S III has been available on sale worldwide, Samsung had released numbers recently claiming that it had shipped 10 million devices of its flagship smartphone.