Galaxy S and Galaxy Tab Won't Get Android 4.0 333
bonch writes "Samsung has announced that the Galaxy S smartphone, which sold 10 million last year, and the Galaxy Tab tablet won't be receiving the Android 4.0 update, known as 'Ice Cream Sandwich.' Samsung claims the devices lack enough RAM and ROM to run Android 4.0 alongside TouchWiz and other custom 'experience-enhancing' software. Note that the Galaxy S runs the same hardware as the Nexus S, which is already receiving the Android 4.0 update."
No *official* port. (Score:5, Insightful)
Unless there is an effort to actively block the porting of 4.0 to these devices, there is likely to be an unofficial port.
Re:No *official* port. (Score:5, Insightful)
CyanogenMod 9 will almost certainly make it to most of the Galaxy S/Tab devices that have CM7 support. The main problem is that there is not enough storage space to have ICS with Touchwiz--on a custom/AOSP ROM, that's a non-issue.
Re:No *official* port. (Score:5, Interesting)
The correct answer is then to drop touchwiz. I really wish google would demand that these frontends be nothing more than an apk if you want to use their trademarks.
Re:No *official* port. (Score:4, Informative)
Android is open source. Google is in no position to demand anyone does anything.
Re:No *official* port. (Score:5, Informative)
To use the trademarks and get access to the market you need Google's blessing. They can easily demand stuff like this.
Re:No *official* port. (Score:4, Insightful)
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What would be the ramifications of that? HTC offers a customized front end on all of their Android phones, Samsung on all but their Nexus, I believe, and so on, These manufacturers are doing this because they wish to differentiate their products from the pack, and they will not stop doing it. So these phones would not be considered "Android", and the iPhone would then be not only the leading smartphone, it would be the leading smartphone OS. I do not think any Android supporter wants that.
Perhaps it is
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Because you obviously don't understand the point of Android. Only reason Android was developed was Google was deathly afraid that Apple would cut them out of iOS and therefore, cut them out of big mobile space share. Google is about selling ads to consumers and generating data on said consumers to generate better targeted Ads so they can charge advertising premium. As long as hardware manf continue to put Google Services on their phones and not HORRIBLY screw up the experience, Google could care less about
Re:No *official* port. (Score:5, Interesting)
Because you obviously don't understand the point of Android. Only reason Android was developed was Google was deathly afraid that Apple would cut them out of iOS and therefore, cut them out of big mobile space share.
Google purchased (not created) Android in 2005. The work on the product had actually been started by Android, inc in 2003.
The first iPhone didn't released until 2007 and featured Google prominently.
To have already figured out that Apple might cut them out of iOS in 2005 is astounding. If this is correct, then they have amazing foresight.
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I don't see a problem with Google demanding handset makers demand less.
If they must write craplets at least make them easy for users to remove.
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But the suite of google apps aren't (maps, gmail, access to the market, etc). Google has tons of leverage.
I think the obvious solution here is to put in a simple skinning API and let the devs go nuts with it. Sense, TW, etc would just be apk's that skin the GUI elements. End users should be able to disable this if they wish.
Google could use its muscle to make this happen. Shame they won't. In the meantime, the released stats show a big move from android to iphone because people seem to prefer Apple's way
Re:No *official* port. (Score:5, Insightful)
The correct answer is then to drop touchwiz. I really wish google would demand that these frontends be nothing more than an apk if you want to use their trademarks.
Unfortunately, I suspect that the ability for companies to "brand" their phone OSes is the secret to Android's success. Samsung, HTC, Motorola, etc, all feel that they can add in some unique special sauce that makes consumers flock to their brands. (They're wrong, of course; but marketing dudes are a bit strange in the head sometimes ...) There's probably a lot of pressure on Google from hardware manufacturers to preserve this "freedom".
Customers, OTOH, could always choose a Nexus phone if they cared about it; not only do you get the pure AOSP experience, but you also get the guaranteed permanent ability to unlock the bootloader and gain root access out of the box. Having personally moved to a Nexus S after an HTC Desire, there's no way I'd ever go with any phone other than a Nexus again.
Re:No *official* port. (Score:5, Interesting)
This started as a piece of Interplay corporate lore. It was well known that producers (a game industry position, roughly equivalent to PMs) had to make a change to everything that was done. The assumption was that subconsciously they felt that if they didn’t, they weren’t adding value.
The artist working on the queen animations for Battle Chess was aware of this tendency, and came up with an innovative solution. He did the animations for the queen the way that he felt would be best, with one addition: he gave the queen a pet duck. He animated this duck through all of the queen’s animations, had it flapping around the corners. He also took great care to make sure that it never overlapped the "actual" animation.
Eventually, it came time for the producer to review the animation set for the queen. The producer sat down and watched all of the animations. When they were done, he turned to the artist and said, "That looks great. Just one thing – get rid of the duck."
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There were 3 problems with Galaxy S, imho. 1) Shitty rfs file system. 2) Shitty GPS. 3) Relatively low RAM. Even the initial builds for Galaxy S were close to maxing out the /system partition space.
Galaxy S II made some good changes to the device. 1GB of RAM, 512MB for the /system partition, and decent GPS. Galaxy S II is everything Galaxy S should have been.
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The difference between Galaxy S and Galaxy S II was truly amazing for me. Gone the RAM problems and GPS problems. Gone the filesystem problems (although supercruio fixed that many many moons ago). It was like a revelation for me, and after I sold my Galaxy S, it cost me only ~£100 :)
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What's the deal with the Galaxy S' shitty GPS? Is that a hardware problem or Samsung software problem? Does Cyanogenmod fix it?
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Hardware issue on Galaxy S. No software fix possible. Using a GPS test app you can only see a small number of satellites in most conditions. Unless you are sitting out in a wide open field on a nice day when there are no sources of interference nearby or high solar activity it will not lock on.
Even the windows in a car will attenuate the GPS signal enough to give you poor performance. Turn it off is the best advice I can give. It will only serve to lower your battery life and frustrate you.
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Why would there be an "AntennaGate"? With Android phones, pretty much and OS feature can be done in non-OS software, so even OS upgrades aren't critical in most cases. Yes, suppliers should keep up with OS updates for a few years, but some don't. Learn which manufacturers to avoid.
Oh, and when "one of the manufacturer's to avoid" happens to be the "best" non-iOS-based product (like the Galaxy series arguably are), then what?
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It's hardware and software. There's an antenna connector which is whacked and causes the GPS to perform poorly, but there's also major software problems.
Ironically enough this is one thing that Cyanogenmod does not fix. Cyanogenmod modems are based on XXJVK which in my opinion had quite poor performing GPS. Roms based on XXJVO modems and after in my opinion seem to perform rather well on the GPS side of things, however I believe the benefits of Cyanogenmod outweigh the downsides of the poor GPS.
This goes do
Re:No *official* port. (Score:5, Interesting)
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It shows that they realised the mistakes they made with the original, and made positive changes. It's not all rosy though. The sound codec for example, isn't as good as the Galaxy S
Re:No *official* port. (Score:5, Informative)
there already IS an unnofficial port, im running a beta of it right now and it's miles ahead of what samsung is providing.
no random crash, or reboot, the status bar doesn't get stuck on top and i can actually answer every calls i receive (unlike the samsung rom which would make the touchscreen totally unresponsive about 25% of the time). to top it off, my battery lasts around 2-3 days instead of the 18 hours i was getting
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Exactly where do I go to get this?
Re:No *official* port. (Score:5, Informative)
xda-developers forums.
If you have previously flashed a rom with clockwork recovery then it's as easy as doing a factory restore and then installing a zip file.
If you haven't previously flashed a third party rom then you have a lot of reading to do on those forums.
Re:No *official* port. (Score:4, Interesting)
There are already a few unofficial ports in advanced beta and threads on XDA developers indicate that everything works just fine. .
While I am somewhat disappointed by Samsung's lack of commitment to provide ongoing support such a successful product I am not sure this makes any difference really. Users who are not hacking their phones probably don't want such a radical upgrade. Users who are into hacking will get it unofficially.
Already exists (Score:5, Informative)
Get yours here [theandroidsoul.com]. I'm sure there are others, but this is the one I found first.
In other words ... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:In other words ... (Score:5, Insightful)
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Every time I see the word sheeple I honestly cannot take the person seriously. I understand it's a fun and descriptive word but it's embarrassing to use is it not?
No.
No, you dummy poo-poo head.
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Yeah, but the word "sheeple" tends only to be used by people sitting on the outside insulting the mainstream - and in my experience, those who want to be so radically out there, don't think about what they're saying and just pick up on a tired cliche. And "sheeple" is most definitely not just a tired cliche but also distressingly adolescent. It's as if in lieu of a sane argument you call an otherwise unrelated group of people "sheeple" and then walk away with folded arms and smug grin thinking you've won th
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Re:In other words ... (Score:5, Interesting)
In other words, blame Samsung either way you want to look at it - because they're too lazy / incompetent to do it, or because they preload so much proprietary bloatware on the device that it can't do much more than stock. HTC is just as bad, with background processes like Stock Updates using 20 MB of RAM (even if the widget isn't even being used) that can't be killed or disabled without rooting the device.
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Wait, are they saying the Galaxy Tab or Galaxy Tab 10.1 won't get it? Because the 10.1 has only been out for 6 mont--oh I see what you're doing there.
This is why you buy a vanilla device (Score:5, Interesting)
If you want upgrades don't get a phone with these extras on top. Touchwiz, Sense and Blur all suck and all prevent phones from being updated. Vote with your dollars.
I will be getting a Galaxy Nexus as soon as it is 199 or below, I won't pay more for a phone on contract.
You don't have to buy vanilla to get upgrades (Score:2)
Some of us do like these UIs. I happen to like Sense, and that's why I bought my Inspire 4G (aka Desire HD). :)
It's running a ROM (RCMix3D Runny 4.0) that is Android 2.3.5 (which is later than official for my phone) and retains Sense 3.5 (which is also later than official).
I could have easily picked a ROM without Sense as well, like MIUI or Cm7, etc.
And yeah, there's people working to port ICS to the Desire HD line, too. Haven't decided if I want it, yet.
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I mostly hate it because just about all the non-stock UIs break other functionality. Sense used to break apps that depended on contacts being "contacts" not "people". The blur email clients suck, they don't let you tell it to always download whole emails. You have to press some button to get the rest of the email.
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Amazon!
http://wireless.amazon.com/dp/B0061R2A1S [amazon.com]
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If you want upgrades don't get a phone with these extras on top. Touchwiz, Sense and Blur all suck and all prevent phones from being updated. Vote with your dollars.
The phone war is turning out like the PC war of the 90's. Apple is too locked down. Linux is too loose and fragmented, MS treads that fine line between both and cleans up the market. Only with phones, MS have failed to show up so far. Give me a phone with a tight, reliable user interface, and some sort of industry standard external interface, storage and battery and I'm in. Until then I'll be keeping my dollars in my pocket.
Galaxy S i9000 Got Two Full OS updates (Score:5, Interesting)
From Éclair to Froyo to Gingerbread, and went through a total of 7 relatively major update [samsung.com]
That's all I expected from the phone when I got it, tbh.
Link fail (Score:2)
Run a search for i9000 in there >_
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ATT always says there are no upgrades/updates available, so I stopped checking. Samsung should seriously do something about their chain. I can blame one, the other, I wanted to believe it was ATT, but now I think they are both.
But thanks Samsung, now that I know Intel is probably releasing phones with medfield soon
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Well, their update system uses their shitty kies software instead of OTAs. Just root it, stick a custom recovery on, back up your data and flash a gingerbread ROM with ext4 filesystem. There's night and day difference between froyo and gb on it, and the process shouldn't take more than an hour.
Re:Galaxy S i9000 Got Two Full OS updates (Score:5, Informative)
But on the whole support by Android devices of new version of the software is atrocious [theunderstatement.com] :
"7 of the 18 Android phones never ran a current version of the OS.
12 of 18 only ran a current version of the OS for a matter of weeks or less.
10 of 18 were at least two major versions behind well within their two year contract period.
11 of 18 stopped getting any support updates less than a year after release.
13 of 18 stopped getting any support updates before they even stopped selling the device or very shortly thereafter.
15 of 18 don’t run Gingerbread, which shipped in December 2010.
In a few weeks, when Ice Cream Sandwich comes out, every device on here will be another major version behind.
At least 16 of 18 will almost certainly never get Ice Cream Sandwich."
Re:Galaxy S i9000 Got Two Full OS updates (Score:4, Informative)
But many of them will still get security fixes and bug fixes for the version of the OS they are on. Verizon just a few weeks ago released a bugfix update for the original droid.
This is like complaining that your Vista PC is one major version behind, when it is still getting updates and is still useful.
I avoid this on my phone and my computers by running FREE software.
Re:Galaxy S i9000 Got Two Full OS updates (Score:4, Insightful)
If you say so. I don't follow Android as closely because I don't own an Android phone but the stories I've heard tell a different story. Like Samsung skipping updates [userbase.be] (link in dutch, sorry) for the Galaxy S2 in my country (Belgium.) The fact that you getting an upgrade can depend on what country you're in or what carrier you're on at all points to a messed up system IMHO.
Free software is nice but you pay (in time spent) by doing the support yourself. Can be nice if you're so inclined but if I'm going to drop a couple hundred euros on a phone that company better not rely on me doing that.
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Honestly, you might have got me there.
I have a Droid and will be moving to a galaxy nexus when they are cheaper unless an even more FREE(libre, not gratis) device comes out. I would have loved an N9 or something like that but now I would not piss on Nokia if it was on fire.
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It's easy to say, that, but I can list a bunch of devices that have had two full software updates, same as most iPhones. Galaxy S, HTC incredible/evo, Motorla Droid X, SE Xperia X10. All flagship devices, all got 2 software updates.
That chart points out the differences of how software is updated on the platforms, and how fast it is iterated. The android model is not the same as the iPhone model, and to compare it as such is simplistic to say the least. iPhone 3G was unusable after it got updated to iOS 4, a
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He only made the chart for phones that were released up to middle of 2010. I think the phones you mention shipped after. Could be interesting if he updated his chart with more data to see if or how things have evolved since then.
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Besides, does not having the latest version of the OS on your phone suddenly make it horrible? There are many people out there that simply don't care what version of software is on their phone. A friend for example didn't want me to update their ZTE blade to a newer version of CM7 because the version they already had was working fine.
Re:Galaxy S i9000 Got Two Full OS updates (Score:5, Insightful)
It's a security issue now that these things are basically networked computers that are up and connected 100% of the time.
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Dunno, but the European Galaxy S (i9000) was the first non-nexus device to get official gingerbread. Captivate isn't much different from i9000, and there were fully functional (bar GPS) ports of it a few days after release
That's a big reason why I don't buy Android (Score:4, Insightful)
Sorry to be a downer but lets face it, once Samsung or another hardware manufacturer collects your money, you're on your own.
That's a big reason why iOS device owners have ALWAYS ranked their satisfaction much higher than Droid users.
Sorry but that's the truth.
Re:That's a big reason why I don't buy Android (Score:5, Insightful)
So you get updates a tiny bit longer but lose out on a bunch of other stuff. Life is full of tradeoffs. I certainly would not be satisfied with such a device.
Re:That's a big reason why I don't buy Android (Score:4, Informative)
Look at this chart [theunderstatement.com], tiny bit longer doesn't quite cover it. Though of course for some this will be a completely acceptable trade-off it'd be better if most people were on a recent version of the OS just from the security standpoint [cnet.com]. We've already seen with Windows XP what having a large group of outdated computers on a public network does and it's not pretty.
Re:That's a big reason why I don't buy Android (Score:4, Interesting)
That chart hides a little too much information and refers to "current version of the OS" which I think is different from still getting updates. You can be running a version of the OS that isn't the current "major version" but still be receiving security and bug fixes. Also, this is a chart that talks about version numbers, which are arbitrary. If google were to never release another "major version" they would look amazing on this chart. We'd also need to know what enhancements were in each new major version to make an accurate comparison.
Re:That's a big reason why I don't buy Android (Score:5, Insightful)
The ability to run the software I want not what someone else wants. I can replace stock apps, I can and have upgraded the OS without official support. I can also get GPLed software on my phone.
If you want to let someone else control your computing devices that is up to you. To each their own.
Nice trollish response though. Pretty pathetic for someone old enough to have a 6 digit uid.
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There have been plenty of locked-down, market-only Android devices too, by the way. Motorola Backflip and other early AT&T Android devices are proud members of that club.
Re:That's a big reason why I don't buy Android (Score:5, Insightful)
What has anybody done to the source in a meaningful way, other than offer versions of Android for phones it wasn't intended for?
What has anybody done with so much freedom that can make somebody sit back and say 'holy shit I better get myself an android phone, those Apple ones can't do that'!
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Go check out Cyanogenmod then get back to me.
If you love your iphone that is cool, just saying there are tradeoffs in life. I am not pissing on jobs grave or something, get over it.
Re:That's a big reason why I don't buy Android (Score:4, Interesting)
What has anybody done to the source in a meaningful way, other than offer versions of Android which are completely open, provide you with full root access, and allow you to do whatever you want for phones it wasn't intended for?
FTFY. Also you under-estimate just what it is you're saying. I think the single most meaningful thing people can do is offer up updates for obsolete hardware from the latest ASOP tree. This effectively breaks the manufacturer / carrier hold on mobile devices.
This very story is a testament to that. I already run IceCream Sandwich on my Galaxy S, despite the fact it won't ever be released.
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That's a bit overstated - as HTC user I got one or two updates over the first year at least - but I must admit it is a drawback of smartphones in general. You would expect at least security updates from the phone manufacturer (although when using Java, the chance of a non-native app escaping the sandbox or attacking the system should be much lower). I've installed a modded version on my HTC hero, which now runs way better, but I must admit it's a bit large regarding RAM and flash usage. That's one thing, I
Re:That's a big reason why I don't buy Android (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm not really sure to what degree that is true. I won't argue that Apple does not offer better support for older devices than most Android sellers, as I do think that is totally true.
I have a 3gs that is 2.5 years and still fully supported. Still being sold, even!
But I would say that there IS some disgruntlement over older releases running on new harder in the iOS world. iOS5 is worth it for me for the features, but my phone at times lags when it never lagged before. Likewise, when iOS4 came out, many iPhone 3g owners said it slowed down their devices horribly. I even know a couple people who said they upgraded to the iPhone 4s because iOS5 had slowed down their older iPhones to the point they felt it was worth a new phone.
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Likewise, when iOS4 came out, many iPhone 3g owners said it slowed down their devices horribly. I even know a couple people who said they upgraded to the iPhone 4s because iOS5 had slowed down their older iPhones to the point they felt it was worth a new phone.
I had an iPhone 3GS which I upgraded to iOS 5. I didn't even feel any slowdown to speak of until I had re-played Infinity Blade three times and started missing blocks and dodges, although I'm not even sure I can blame that on the iPhone's performance. The only reason I switched to an iPhone 4s was that I ran out of storage space for music and video so I shelled out for a 64GB model
Re:That's a big reason why I don't buy Android (Score:5, Insightful)
Apple does the same thing, except they let you upgrade the core OS version number, you just don't get access to the hottest new wizbang features. For example, Siri won't run on stock iPhone 4 phones even though hackers have proven it's not a hardware restriction.
If you buy Google's flagship devices, they get the OS updates without the handset manufacturers being able to drag their feet to prompt you to buy new instead of upgrade existing.
In cases like the original Galaxy Tab from Samsung, this seems like it's false advertising. When they released this device running Gingerbread, they promised it would get a Honeycomb makeover. When Google was tight-fisted with Honeycomb source saying, "Wait for ICS," Samsung said they'd stick it out for ICS instead. However now that ICS is out, they're going back on their word and apparently OS updates for that brand of tablet are now dead at two versions behind.
This is the reason I've stopped buying Samsung hardware, I can't trust them to honor their word about when they'll upgrade the devices since they often promise to and rarely do. Otherwise I'd own a Galaxy Tab 10.1, it's a pretty slick device; I just don't want a dead-end path on upgrades. I plan to get the Asus Transformer Prime instead when it becomes available (glad I waited, Prime is much better).
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Siri is beta and was once available on the older devices before it was picked up by Apple. Once it is out of beta Apple may very well open it up to iPhone 4 users. There is no technical reason why they can't do it. The beta is allowing them to scale their server side up with 4S owners before a wider release.
Re:That's a big reason why I don't buy Android (Score:5, Insightful)
You can't really believe that. Siri is limited to iPhone4S to sell that phone. Apple loves to claim their devices get updates for so long, but has shown they are no better than anyone else. They will still withhold software to sell hardware. They may let you install it on older phones, once they are sure they got all the sales they will get from it.
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Apple: ...non-English language support is in beta.
Media: Siri is in beta.
Suckers: I'll get Siri on my old iPhone when it comes out of beta!
Re:That's a big reason why I don't buy Android (Score:4, Insightful)
A limited upgrade is better than being told to go pound sand so they are not the same. Also, there is a hardware reason - its Apples servers, you know, the ones that do Siri's legwork? If Apple had made Siri available to all iPhones Siri would have been slow and dull with the servers overloaded. I think you will see Siri rolled down to those other phones once Apple's new server farm goes on line.
If you buy Google's flagship devices you can also expect to pay as much or more as the highest priced iPhone and have less (albeit removable) memory.
Hasbro isn't going to let Asus use the name, "Android Prime".
Galaxy S was released in June 2010 (Score:4, Informative)
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The first generation iPod touch was released over 4 years ago.
The Galaxy S is 1.5 years old, and is still sold in many countries, or was until very recently.
Great comparison you got there.
Galaxy S was released in 2010, iPhone 3G in 2008 (Score:4, Informative)
Re:That's a big reason why I don't buy Android (Score:4, Interesting)
Actually, my iPhone 3GS has been feeling quite a bit snappier since I upgraded it to iOS 5 a few months ago and the new features are nice as well. And that's a phone which was released a year before the Samsung Galaxy S. Thank your for asking.
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Worst Product Name Ever (Score:5, Funny)
TouchWiz? Sounds like a GUI for paedophiles.
How did their marketing department ever let that one out? Its almost as bad as HP using that Gary Glitter song "Touch Me" for their touchscreen PC advertisements.
Write your own OS, that's the power of open source (Score:2)
They are right (Score:5, Interesting)
Regarding this line:
>> "Note that the Galaxy S runs the same hardware as the Nexus S, which is already receiving the Android 4.0 update."
Yes, the Nexus S has ICS; I'm running it on my Nexus S, and it's fantastic. However, you can really, really feel the fact that the phone only has 512 MB of RAM. If you open a memory intensive app (web browser, for example), pretty much everything else gets swapped out; when you next press Home, you have to wait a second or two for the launcher to be restarted, or worse, for the keyboard to load.
Since TouchWiz would add even more bloat, I can totally see how 512 MB just won't cut it.
Re:They are right (Score:5, Insightful)
However, you can really, really feel the fact that the phone only has 512 MB of RAM
I know it's 2011 and the world has moved on since the dark ages of the Commodore 64 and everything, but still a quote like this makes me feel profoundly sad inside.
Why? Should make you happy (Score:4, Insightful)
It is wonderful that technology has progressed so fast. Memory/storage is still the one area that amazes me, despite keeping up on things. My favourite visual example is a tiny little SDHC card sitting next to a VHS tape. The SDHC card holds around the same amount of video as a T-180 VHS tape (about 3 hours) but is full HD, and just minuscule by comparison. In my lifetime we have gone from those massive tapes to that tiny card for home recording. It is a wonderful advance in storage.
So I think it is great that phones have tons of RAM, and use it. Gives us nice, pretty, graphical interfaces with all kinds of features. There is a reason things like the C64 operated from a real basic interface: You didn't want more of the memory being used by the OS than had to, there wasn't much of it. Now we can spend memory on nice things.
All these advances make for a better computing experience. Another one that has happened in my lifetime with regards to media, and also multi-tasking, related to MP3s. I remember in 1995-1996 when I first became aware of MP3s and started messing with them. My system could only handle full 44.1khz stereo playback of MP3s if I dropped to DOS and used Cubic Player. It took 100% of my 486's resources to handle that. In Windows, the overhead from the OS and task switching was too much, I had to drop the playback rate. Now? I can play them using less than 1% of one core in my computer. They are something I can do in the background anytime without thinking about it.
It's progress, and it is great.
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I'm not sad there's 512 MB RAM in a phone, I'm sad that 512 MB in a phone isn't enough to make it perform adequately to be useful. I'm sad that even with 512 MB of RAM in a phone, developers can't get their act together and use that hardware in such a way that a responsive user experience is guaranteed. Of course pretty things are nice, but when they're in the way of decent performance, the priorities are clearly the wrong way around.
Samsung are being shortsighted here (Score:5, Insightful)
I just do not understand how companies like Samsung expect that any publicity from such a move would be positive? I mean, how?
What that would have done is to engage services of folks like these [cyanogenmod.com], who churn out credible software. These folks would do all the heavy lifting for a what is pocket change to Samsung.
Samsung, please be serious.
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Samsung doesn't seem to give a shit about publicity. They want to become another Sony.
I considered buying a Samsung LCD monitor... until I read about the quality of their customer service.
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Then why is this *not* the story? Bad PR? You tell me. Either way, Samsung are being reckless with their "brand" I think. This attitude might bite them in the you know where.
Simple solution (Score:5, Funny)
Remove Carrier IQ from the phones to free up memory resources!
Was planning on buying one (Score:2)
Samsung, drop TouchWiz, it sucks anyway.
Odd story (Score:2)
I can't believe no one else got it. Was this what prompted the announcement?
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Phone should last as long as contract (Score:5, Insightful)
The idea that a carrier can lock me into a device that at some point be a second class citizen while I'm still locked in is unreasonable. Of course, you can still use the device as originally advertised, but that's not the point.
What if Dell or Apple sold you a computer today that couldn't support an OS upgrade in 12 months? (Granted, they don't subsidize but I suspect that in 12-18 months you've hit the break-even on the phone)
Remember that the iPhone 3GS, release 2 1/2 years ago, will run iOS 5.0.
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Dell did do that. They sold Vista PCs that did not support all the windows 7 features, graphics cards were too pathetic. Not sure if you got 7 for free either.
Reason #1 (Score:2)
This is the #1 reason (and really only one necessary) for me to stick with my iOS enabled devices. These devices are only a few months old and cannot be upgraded?! Seriously?! I'm done considering a switch to Android.
Will never again buy Samsung (Score:5, Insightful)
I just ditched my Epic 4G for an iPhone for this exact reason. I was able to root my Epic and put 4.0 on it myself just fine but Samsung refuses to push out software themselves. I will never again buy another Samsung product (I know Apple uses their parts, doesn't matter).
At least my iPhone will get some friggin updates from time to time and not come pre-loaded with CIQ. I was a diehard Android fan but the fragmentation and piss poor support of the handset developers has pushed me over to Apple. Enough is enough with this shit.
Google, Samsung, HTC, Motorola have all fucked their customers enough at this point that I can't imagine a situation in which I would ever hand over my money for one of their products again.
Do customer's care? (Score:2)
I really wish all the manufacturers would simplify their product line up. Too many models to keep track of.
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The average Android phone owner has no idea what phone he has or what version of Android is running on it.
The average Android phone owner has no idea what day of the week it is. ...unless there's a widget for it.
That's the excuse, but the reason is ... (Score:4, Interesting)
that their licensing agreement with Microsoft, as Barnes & Nobel revealed when they refused to sign the NDA, prohibits them from upgrading to more recent versions of Android. This would lock them into an aging release, which would kill their future sales. With no where is to turn, they would be forced to put WinP7 on their hardware, which is the whole purpose of Microsoft's extortion.
In other news, Nokia's Lumina, their smartphone running Win7, was essentially ignored by consumers after its recent release. Microsoft has spent more than $500 Million in branding and marketing of WinP7, but not to worry. They've used worthless IP to extort about that much in "license fees" from vendors putting Android on their hardware.
So give it as an optional update without touchwiz! (Score:2)
And a HUGE number of galaxy S owners do not HAVE carrier bundles installed at all anyway!!
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You're using 'you're' wrong!