This software upgrade is immediately available across all South African mobile operators. The Korean tech giant stated that the preferable upgrade method is via Kies (Samsung’s Mobile PC Client), but FOTA (Firmware Over-the-Air)can be used as an alternative update method, by downloading the firmware upgrade over the air directly from your smartphone.

Thanks to Project Butter, Jelly Bean makes Android devices even snappier and more responsive
as it adds triple buffering in the graphics pipeline. This results in more consistency when it comes to graphics rendering, making the UI transitions from scrolling to animations smoother.  

Another new UI element within Jelly Bean is the enhanced homescreen that will automatically adapts to fit a user’s content (app shortcuts, folders and widgets). Jelly Bean introduces improved application widgets that can automatically resize, based on where a user places them on the homescreen, their size, as well as the amount of room available on the homescreen. Users will also be able to remove apps and widgets from the homescreen simply by ‘flicking’ them off the screen.

“In essence, Jelly Bean is the fastest and smoothest version of Android yet – improving on the simplicity and beauty of Android 4.0,” said Craige Fleischer, director of Mobile Communications at Samsung Electronics SA.

“We understand that all our Android upgrades are highly anticipated and in great demand locally – especially as they enhance our customers experience with their Galaxy devices and so we are pleased to announce this availability.”

In related news, the latest research from market research firm Strategy Analytics recently revealed that the Galaxy S3 managed to overtake Apple’s iPhone 4S (review) as the world’s best selling smartphone model within Q3 2012.