Samsung's former flagship, the Galaxy S3, is reportedly set for retirement this year but prior to its exit it will be bumped up to Jelly Bean 4.2, new reports said.

The development, however, erases the prospect for current GS3 owners to get a taste of higher Android environment as reports last week from South Korea have indicated that Samsung is ending the production of a number of Galaxy models to focus on upcoming units.

Among the major casualties of this surprise Samsung is the GS3. Apparently, handsets that will be discontinued are those not performing, in terms of global sales, to the company's expectations, ETNews said on its report.

Strangely though, the GS3 is far from the category as its numbers indicate that it has clocked more than 40 million in global sales and probably will go down in Samsung history as the best selling Galaxy handset ever.

As if to sweeten its impending departure from active competition, Samsung would want to upgrade users' experience of the GS3, which is made possible by the arrival of Jelly Bean 4.2, said to hit the Android-Samsung update pipeline by July or August, according to Gotta Be Mobile.

Citing fresh reports from Samsung-centric blog site SamMobile, GBM said on its piece that the upcoming will transform the current GS3 and make it a little closer to that of Samsung's new banner mobile phone - the Galaxy S4.

Expected features are the new Lockscreen, the enhanced S-Voice functions with the Voice control plus a host of camera application improvements.

"The update is going to be a sizable one, both pre-release and official, and it should have GS3 owners excited as it's likely going to freshen up a phone that was released all the way back in June of last year," the report added.

As with previous Android update process, unlocked phones will likely get the first taste of this Jelly Bean while GS3s locked with network service providers in the United States, Australia and the UK will have to wait a bit longer.