Samsung Won't Be Forced To Update Old Smartphones (bbc.com)

Samsung will not be forced to update the software on its mobile phones for years after their release, after it won a court case in the Netherlands. From a report: A consumer association had argued that Samsung should update its phones for at least four years after they go on sale. Regular software updates can address security problems but older models do not typically receive all the latest updates. However, the court rejected the association's claims.

Samsung produces some of the world's best-selling mobile phones running Google's Android operating system. Google regularly produces software updates that address newly discovered security flaws, and offers these to phone manufacturers such as Samsung. It is often up to the phone manufacturer to distribute the update to its customers. Consumer group Consumentenbond said Samsung was not distributing updates in a "timely" manner. Samsung said it guaranteed consumers in the Netherlands would get software updates for two years after a handset first went on sale in the country. The court ruled in Samsung's favour and said the claims made by Consumentenbond were "inadmissible" because they related to "future acts."

Comments

In a related story

[dan325]

consumers won't be forced to buy Samsung phones

Re:In a related story

[Anonymous Coward]

consumers won't be forced to buy Samsung phones

Pretty much this.

One of the huge problems with Android is how heavily fragmented it is with every company making their own flavor to drive you to their own revenue streams and app stores ... and the complete lottery if you'll get updates or not. I originally bought a Nexus tablet, but Google seems to have given up on the idea of a clean version of a tablet which has the core Android and nothing else. I'm hard pressed to think of what I'd replace it with these days.

Samsung in particular has always struck me as one of the worst ones in terms of once it's out the door they no longer give a damn about supporting it.

Now that Samsung has basically said in court they will give limited support, they're permanently off my list.

Sadly, the rest of the Android ecosystem seems no better -- between malware, spyware, shitty phones, and lack of extended support, I'm not sure why I'd bother with it any more.

Say what you will about Apple, but at least they provide longer and more consistent support for devices.

In terms of device support, updates, and not being locked into someone's ecosystem, I increasingly see Android as a failure because it's not living up to the promises.

Samsung? They'll never get a dime from me.

More planned obsolescence, more e-waste

[Rick Schumann]

Of course they don't want to update anything. How are they supposed to convince you that your 1-year-old phone is now outdated garbage and that you must buy a new one if you don't want to be left behind? Never mind that the old phones end up crunched into little toxic bits and shipped off by the tonne to some asian country to be 'recycled' (as if !) only this fiscal quarters' profits matter; the environment is someone else's problem.

Re:More planned obsolescence, more e-waste

[Anonymous Coward]

The non-replaceable battery will convince you in a year or so that your phone is now garbage. No marketing necessary!

Re:More planned obsolescence, more e-waste

[AmiMoJo]

Will they still might be forced to offer updates. The court ruled that they can't be sued over future actions, but in a year or two they will be past actions and could be dragged back to court.

Re: More planned obsolescence, more e-waste

[cyber-vandal]

Lineage OS fits the bill to some degree - a Google free Android. It runs very nicely on my Note 2

Re:More planned obsolescence, more e-waste

[BronsCon]

Don't expect to see anything like that coming from the US Congress.

Doesn't matter, if the EU does it they'll have to put in the work anyway. At that point, advertising 4 year support in the US becomes free marketing.

Re: More planned obsolescence, more e-waste

[Trogre]

There's so much wrong with that comment I don't know where to begin.

Any old unsupported Android phone or tablet from 2011 can still update apps from the Play Store over WiFi. That's not the problem.

System updates are exactly what we're talking about here and, despite your misguided comment, they are "that important".

Re: More planned obsolescence, more e-waste

[easyTree]

Only 4GB though!?!?! and 64GB storage? wth

The how about...

[YuppieScum]

...requiring all packaging and marketing materials to state "This device will not receive security updates after [date]"

Re:The how about...

[Xenx]

The problem with that, it implies they'll get them before that date but without any actual guarantee. Given Samsung's current trends, they most definitely wouldn't. I say that as someone using Samsung phones.

Re:The how about...

[Teun]

That's the strange thing with this ruling, it says 2 years as of time of introduction.
But EU law stipulates a warranty for at least two years as of time of sale, that is different!
Also, EU law says warranty has to be longer for expensive items and the top line phones are in that category.

Now we only have to agree software (security) updates are part of the warranty.
I expect a new court case.

Re:Four years is old?

[darkain]

Any version of Android prior to 4.4.x lacks support for TLS 1.1 / 1.2 - without these, you cannot access PCI DSS compliant web site. Have fun with that!

Need an Android update like Windows update.

[Utopia]

It is not just Samsung other manufacturers are in the same boat. The Motorola G4 Plus for example was sold with the promise that it will get Oreo in a future update. It yet to see an OS update 9 months after release. In a few months, Google will release the next version of Android. At this point it looks Lenovo/Motorola has played a bait and switch.

While desktop OS support multiple 10-year old hardwares it a pity that Google has not been able to come up with a update mechanism which can support phone older than 2 years. Whatever updates Google provides is limited to a few devices, My 4-year old Android non-Google phone is still very capable and meets my needs but the fact that it has no security updates scares me.

Re:Need an Android update like Windows update.

[Zuriel]

They've actually got that update mechanism now. Sort of.

Android 8.0 includes Project Treble, which splits the low level device code and the higher level OS code, so you should be able to just drop the latest vanilla Android OS onto any device that launched with Android 8.0.

That makes it easier and cheaper for manufacturers to continue to support devices, since they can just drop their latest and greatest OS image on top of the device specific low level code. Or if they don't do it, custom ROM makers will.

Android has TLS support in 4.1

[rsilvergun]

it's just turned off by default. See here.

Re:Or required to run Samsung software...

[rtb61]

Now that points to the second suit, which Samsung have just stitched themselves up with. No longer going to upgrade the phone, then by law pretty much you have to give customers full access to the phone as an option so they can update it themselves and now Samsung does not have a leg to stand on. They will have to provide root access to no longer upgraded phones upon owner request, likely having to supply software to do it.