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Is Samsung Blocking Updates To Froyo?
jfruhlinger writes "One of the complaints about Android is its fragmentation; many different versions of the OS are out there in the wild, and often users are held back from upgrading by their hardware or their carrier. But now a disturbing rumor has it that Samsung is strong-arming T-Mobile to prevent an over-the-air upgrade to Android 2.2 (Froyo) for Samsung Vibrant owners. The reason? Samsung wants people to shell out for the new Vibrant 4G — which, other than the fact that it ships running Froyo, is largely identical to the Vibrant."
Reader CWmike contributes an informative link if you'd like to know which Android vendors are actually delivering timely upgrades.
Right, but it can't cut both ways - that argument works, but it counteracts the "fragmentation is not an issue" argument that people like to also air on slashdot (in a 'android can do no wrong' sort of way. (although I agree with your argument)
It's exactly this sort of thing that serves as a good example; there are totally open, upgradable, do-anything-you-like Android phones (I've used one or two and they are very impressive [my main phone is an iPhone 3G]), and there are phones like the one in the article, which is worse off than the supposed "totally locked down" iPhone because it is now clear that the manufacturer wants to artificially stall the phone and keep it in amber, never to be updated to newer versions of Android for no technical reason. Sure you can jailbreak or root it, but I thought the whole point was that you went Android *not* to do that.
It is looking more and more like there are two entirely separate Android markets - the market that is attempting to replicate the iPhone as closely as possible, including its ecosystem (tightly controlled user experience, less user freedom), and then there's the original Android market, with the freedom to do anything you want. Unfortunately the former is more attractive to vendors and carriers