Featured: Samsung Changing Their Minds about Galaxy S Android 4.0 Update Already?
It was only a few days ago when Samsung officially stated that they are not going to update their most popular phone model yet – the Galaxy S – to the biggest version of Android since it was born – Ice Cream Sandwich.
Samsung said that the phone can’t handle it and there isn’t enough room, either, which I thought was an outright lie. The biggest evidence for this is that the Nexus S has pretty much the exact hardware as the Galaxy S, and yet it will receive Android 4.0. Plus, Galaxy S models have at least 8 GB of internal storage, which means there’s no way they can’t make room for the new version.
The Nexus One story was different because it only had 512 MB of internal storage and only about 300 MB reserved for the OS. From what I hear Android 4.0 is at least twice as big, so it makes sense that there wasn’t room for it. Although, I wouldn’t put it past the custom ROM developers to make a mini-version of Android 4.0, stripped of all the apps, which you can install afterwards if you want.
So now Samsung is going back on their decision, and they are considering updating Galaxy S with Android 4.0. However, I wouldn’t get my hopes up. First, it’s clear that they intend to do something about it, otherwise they wouldn’t have said anything. Second, it might not be what people expect. They will probably just take some features from Android 4.0, and implement them under-the-hood. You would still see the same old Touchwiz, but you’ll have some new features, and all the API’s that developers needs for their Android 4.0 apps.
This is not going to be ideal, but I doubt Samsung is willing to compromise more than this for now. However, people should make it clear online that they will not tolerate this in the future anymore. Samsung can’t afford to repeat the same mistake with Galaxy S2 and Android 5.0 next fall. They better be ready to update it, and for their sake, they should even announce it as soon as Google releases Android 5.0.
Samsung may want to make new sales by only giving the new versions to the new phones, but I believe that’s very short sighted of them, and all the others, too. If they won’t support their customers, they will have no loyalty towards the company, and will leave them at first sign of trouble, or as soon as someone makes a slightly better phone. Having great support has always been a great strategy for business. Samsung just needs to focus on it more.
Category: androidheadlines.com
I think you’re being too hard on Samsung. Yes: it’s annoying they won’t update the S beyond a so called “Value Pack”, but this full-on slam is not really fair. They’ve already give 2 major updates to the S (shipped with 2.1 and updates to 2.2 and 2.3) so they’re not exactly neglecting their actual costumers, they have made more than what we’re used to see on other manufacturers.
However: approaching this topic from another point of view does make it suck even more: taking SonyEricsson as an example, we’ll see that they have already promised an ICS upgrade to their 2011 line-up of phones, mostly all of which are very similar to the S (hardware-wise, of course). Hell, they have an ICS alpha ready for developers to tinker with. I don’t have a Galaxy S but some of my friends do have one, and I’m willing to help them as much as I can to upgrade them to ICS, using CM, MIUI or some other custom
ROM. It’s not ideal, but this is another way I can help improve Android and the user experience
Well, Ericsson learned the hardway of not updating their phones. Now they will update all they Can, and helping the community as much as they Can. Imho this service to fanboys will probably End when it’s only an Sony brand.