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Galaxy S and Galaxy Tab Won't Get Android 4.0

Posted by Soulskill on from the won't-fit-on-triangular-tablets-anyway dept.

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."

36 of 333 comments (clear)

  1. No *official* port. by sethstorm · · 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.

    --
    Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
    1. Re:No *official* port. by Grave · · 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.

    2. Re:No *official* port. by Feyr · · 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

    3. Re:No *official* port. by h4rr4r · · 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.

    4. Re:No *official* port. by Threni · · Score: 4, Informative

      Android is open source. Google is in no position to demand anyone does anything.

    5. Re:No *official* port. by h4rr4r · · 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.

    6. Re:No *official* port. by shellbeach · · 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.

    7. Re:No *official* port. by thegarbz · · Score: 4, 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.

    8. Re:No *official* port. by chrb · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Funny, you should say that, I have a friend who has been working in Korea with one of the managers of the Galaxy S project. He said that the S was actually a beta but Samsung went to market with it. His exact words were "Wait for the S2. That is the real Galaxy!"

    9. Re:No *official* port. by Galestar · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Reminds me of the Duck/Battle Chess story. I'm not sure where I first read this, but it goes a little something like this;


      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."

      --
      AccountKiller
    10. Re:No *official* port. by Tangential · · 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.

      --
      Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of congress. But then I repeat myself. -- Mark Twain
  2. In other words ... by olsmeister · · Score: 4, Funny

    upgrade your old phone, sheeple.

    1. Re:In other words ... by DrGamez · · Score: 5, Insightful

      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? Might as well call them dummy poo-poo heads.

    2. Re:In other words ... by Dan+East · · Score: 4, 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.

      --
      Better known as 318230.
  3. This is why you buy a vanilla device by h4rr4r · · 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.

  4. Galaxy S i9000 Got Two Full OS updates by teh31337one · · Score: 5, Interesting

    From Éclair to Froyo to Gingerbread, and went through a total of 7 relatively major update

    That's all I expected from the phone when I got it, tbh.

    1. Re:Galaxy S i9000 Got Two Full OS updates by CharlyFoxtrot · · Score: 5, Informative

      But on the whole support by Android devices of new version of the software is atrocious :

      "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."

      --
      If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error.
    2. Re:Galaxy S i9000 Got Two Full OS updates by CharlyFoxtrot · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It's a security issue now that these things are basically networked computers that are up and connected 100% of the time.

      --
      If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error.
  5. That's a big reason why I don't buy Android by wisebabo · · 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.

    1. Re:That's a big reason why I don't buy Android by h4rr4r · · Score: 4, 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.

    2. Re:That's a big reason why I don't buy Android by Moridineas · · Score: 4, 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.

    3. Re:That's a big reason why I don't buy Android by nahdude812 · · 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).

      --
      Slay a dragon... over lunch!
    4. Re:That's a big reason why I don't buy Android by h4rr4r · · Score: 4, 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.

    5. Re:That's a big reason why I don't buy Android by CrackedButter · · 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'!

      --
      Jonathanjk.com
    6. Re:That's a big reason why I don't buy Android by h4rr4r · · Score: 4, 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.

  6. Worst Product Name Ever by Jah-Wren+Ryel · · 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.

    --
    When information is power, privacy is freedom.
  7. They are right by stoanhart · · 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.

    1. Re:They are right by dingen · · 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.

      --
      Pretty good is actually pretty bad.
  8. Galaxy S was released in June 2010 by jmcbain · · Score: 4, Informative

    The Galaxy S, which is the subject of this article, was released in June 2010. The original iPhone was released in 2007.

  9. Samsung are being shortsighted here by bogaboga · · Score: 4, 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, 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.

  10. Galaxy S was released in 2010, iPhone 3G in 2008 by jmcbain · · Score: 4, Informative

    The iPhone 3G was released in July 2008 and discontinued in June 2010. Its successor, the 3Gs was released in June 2009 and is still being sold; it can run iOS 5 except for Siri, which is an iPhone 4s feature. The Galaxy S, which is the subject of this article was release in June 2010.

  11. Simple solution by erroneus · · Score: 4, Funny

    Remove Carrier IQ from the phones to free up memory resources!

  12. Already exists by Chemisor · · Score: 4, Informative

    Get yours here. I'm sure there are others, but this is the one I found first.

  13. Phone should last as long as contract by devleopard · · 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.

    --
    The best thing about a boolean is even if you are wrong, you are only off by a bit.
  14. Will never again buy Samsung by geek · · 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.

  15. That's the excuse, but the reason is ... by Jerry · · 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.

    --

    Running with Linux for over 20 years!