Samsung Galaxy S, Tab: No Android 4.0 for you

Galen

Owners of Samsung's Galaxy S smartphone and the 7-inch Galaxy Tab won't be getting the latest and greatest version of Android.

In a blog posting on a Korean promotional site run by Samsung, the company noted that the two devices would not receive the update to Android 4.0, the most up to date version of Google's mobile operating system.

The reason for that, as The Verge explains, centers around Samsung's use of additional software features on those phones, including TouchWiz, widgets, video calling and carrier software pack-ins. These suck up hardware resources to the point of giving users a less than desirable Android experience, Samsung says.

Sure to make things a bit complicated is that the Galaxy S is a close sibling of Samsung's recently-released Galaxy Nexus--at least on paper. That phone ships with Android 4.0, known more readily as Ice Cream Sandwich.

Announced in October, Ice Cream Sandwich adds a number of new features to devices on the platform, the main one being the unification of the OS for both tablets and smartphones, as well as the addition of software-based buttons that replace the ones that have been physical buttons. As with other major releases of Android, it carries with it particular hardware requirements, leaving a number of older devices stuck on certain versions indefinitely.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57347794-94/samsung-galaxy-s-tab-no-android-4.0-for-you/

Dardania

sounds like a thinly veiled excuse to try get users to upgrade their hardware...

I thought one of the ideas of ICS was that the UI would be standardised & improved, negating the need for Touchwiz on Samsung & Sense on HTC...

Samsung should do like HTC lately, and remove some Sense components to allow original HTC Desire users upgrade to Gingerbread: http://www.engadget.com/2011/08/01/htc-desire-gingerbread-update-available-but-you-have-to-really/

Galen

It is the same old crap with hardware manufacturers - I'm looking forward to what the DarkyROM team and others produce.

Kenno90

Exactly, you'd easily be able to get a custom ROM.

Same with my Desire, they said it can barely support Gingerbread, but now i'm looking at ICS on it :rolleyes:

cgordonfreeman

Already using onecosmics ics 4.0.3 RC1 and I'm loving it. Fair enough it's not official but I don't mind. Super smooth with the hardware acceleration and Nova launcher is even better than stock.

conor.hogan.2

The G1 could get android 2.2 on it, so the galaxy s will get ICS by some or all of the modders.

thomasj

conor.hogan.2 wrote: »

The G1 could get android 2.2 on it, so the galaxy s will get ICS by some or all of the modders.

There might be some hope!
From gsmarena.com

Last week, Samsung announced that the good ol' Galaxy S and P1000 Galaxy Tab 7.0 won't be eligible to get in line for some tasty, official Ice Cream Sandwich update. As a result, a lot of people were infuriated and wrote Sammy how they really felt about the matter.

And what do you know - it turns out this worked and, according to Korean newspaper Ajnews, Samsung has promised to look into it again and reevaluate both Galaxy S and Tab viability to get Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.

It's still unknown when Samsung will actually come up with a verdict on the future of the two devices, but one thing is certain - the million of Galaxy S users won't take No for an answer. If you are feeling impatient, head over to our blog to see how the Galaxy S runs Ice Cream Sandwich.

thomasj

Update from gsmarena re the galaxy s

Despite Samsung's recent announcement
that it is to reconsider its decision about the Galaxy S ICS update, it appears that the former flagship won't get an official taste of the latest Android ROM.
According to the latest rumor theSamsung I9000 Galaxy S
 will get a Value pack update, instead of the real Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. The value pack update is said to improve the user experience by bringing some of the ICS features to the Gingerbread ROM. Better web browsing, multi-tasking and new widgets were explicitly mentioned, but there's no saying if other apps will be updated as well.
Samsung did a similar
 thing with their low-end Bada phones, Wave525
 and Wave533
, which were deemed unable to run Bada 2.0 and were promised a Value pack update instead.
Obviously, Samsung decided that the I9000 Galaxy S hardware would be unable to provide satisfactory user experience with Android 4.0 ICS and TouchWiz on top. Now that might as well be true, but the Galaxy S is fully capable of running the stock ICS, as proved by the guys over at XDA.
So maybe it would have been best if Samsung released an optional ICS update without the TouchWiz launcher and let people decide which one they prefer, but unfortunately that didn't happen. Of course, you can still have that, but you will have to go the dark ways of manual flashing and voiding your warranty in the process.