This is rather upsetting to myself and to many of the millions of dedicated Galaxy S owners around the world. Of course many would say, “Time to upgrade.” That really isn’t the type of message I want to hear from my OEM or my friends. The Galaxy S is still a great phone with lots of potential. Not everyone bought it on launch day and many may have just picked one up in the last year. Upgrading is not an option.
There is still the potential for custom ICS ROM’s at least. If you were hoping for ICS, that will be your only option at this point. With CM9 denouncing the Vibrant, that leaves the work to KANG’s and developers like Onecosmic and Neobuddy89. There are others out there of course. We recommend that if you have no intention of getting a new device soon, you start reading up on root and custom ROMs.
Is anyone out there at all surprised that Samsung has no plans to offer anything to the Galaxy S? Does this leave a bad taste in your mouth or was it just wishful thinking to begin with?
Source: Androidos.in
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Yeah that’s about what we have all come to expect from them at this point. It’s not like they are HTC or something. Anyone who has followed the goings on of Android over the past few years knows Samsung devices only get 6-9 months of support at best. I’m really surprosed people still buy their handsets knowing this.
Boo hoo, people need to stop whining about phone updates. If you really care that much, take the 2-3 hours to learn everything you need and just do a custom rom install. I have a Galaxy S Vibrant from Tmobile and i already have Ice Cream Sandwich on it. People buy $60000 cars and dont expect the dealship to upgrade the engine the next year for free, why are cell phones so magical that you require the original manufacturer to upgrade and fix for you?
I agree with you Curtis. It would just be nice to see an OEM do more with what they have out and not make excuses on why they “Can’t” when we know they can, they just don’t want to remove TouchWiz. I am on and off ICS all the time. It is nearly stable enough for my daily driver, but with CES around the corner, needed to swap back to something else for a bit. I just hate seeing other OEMs say they will make updates to older devices and one device that should easily be in the list get the boot. I mean isn’t the Nexus S almost identical to the Galaxy S. Except no TouchWiz.
Because a cell phone operating system is nothing like a car engine. If you want to compare similar products then compare it to a piece of software which came out at version 1 and instead of upgrading it to version 2 which its capable of the OEM releases a new software which does the same exact job but better with less bugs in order to force you to buy the new software..
The Galaxy S line fully supports ICS and it there is absolutely NO reason to change your phone. Instead Samsung should stick behind their product and update the OC to ICS..but then they wouldnt be able to force you to keep buying phones!!!
So with cell phones and manufacturers there is EVERY expectation for them to magically upgrade and support their products!!! You just dont release a product and then drop support for it to force people to buy your new line….to even think that is insane!!
Your a car is differnt than a phone, but also costs 100x a phone’s price and people still wont expect a free oil change 6 months later. And you are still avoiding the point that Ice Cream Sandwich is ALREADY ON THE VIBRANT. Take the time to learn about the device you are spending hundreds of dollars and signing yourself to for 2 years. Dont blame Samsung because they are not investing money in something they stopped selling years ago. What other products do we expect that from?
Curtis….you fail again…
ICS is not OFFICIALLY on the vibrant…I know more about this phone than you will ever know about spelling and using metaphors in your life…there are only beta versions of ICS from developers, NOT from Samsung..They are still buggy in several ways and the whole topic was about OFFICIAL support from Samsung..but somehow you missed the point…
You think you nailed it by comparing the Vibrant getting ICS with a free oil change? You are not even close…I already gave you an example of a comparison which would come closer to reality but I guess that was too complicated for you to understand, Companies cannot just release a product and drop support for it…no product in the market is meant to be released and then not supported even years after its release..NO product!! The Vibrant is no exception. Ill try with a simpler example which maybe even you can understand…its like going for an oil change on your car 2 years later and being informed that your car manufacturer doesn’t make that oil any more because they made a new car which does the exact same thing but this one uses different oil…so now you have to buy the new car. Does that sound fair to you?
Im not expecting you to understand or admit you are wrong (hint: you are). Years of helping people out on forums have taught me one thing..trolls will be trolls…I still enjoy annoying them though..I hope this post achieved its purpose..which I will get to enjoy when you reply
. Good day.
ICS is not OFFICIALLY on the vibrant…I know more about this phone than you will ever know about spelling and using metaphors in your life…
“ICS is not OFFICIALLY on the vibrant”
-Who cares? A ’67 Mustang never OFFICIALLY supported cd players but I can still install on in my car instead waiting for Ford to do it for me.
“…I know more about this phone than you will ever know about spelling and using metaphors in your life…”
-How do you know this? You couldn’t possibly make a call like that with the information I have provided you. Oh you couldn’t, that’s right, you are just a cocky know-it-all who uses the anonymity of the internet to be far more confrontational then you would ever be to my face.
“They are still buggy in several ways and the whole topic was about OFFICIAL support from Samsung..but somehow you missed the point…”
– No, I think you must have missed the point where I told people to stop whining about a software update they can do themselves not being handed out by a company nearly 2 years after the release of product they no longer sell. And yes I think I am in a better position to comment on the Vibrant’s ICS than you, and while its not perfect (what is?), i would still rate it better that the eclair build that was originally on the phone and good enough for most people’s everyday use.
“You think you nailed it by comparing the Vibrant getting ICS with a free oil change? You are not even close…I already gave you an example of a comparison which would come closer to reality”
-Actually no, you gave me a hypothetical
“compare it to a piece of software which came out at version 1 and instead of upgrading it to version 2 which its capable of the OEM releases a new software which does the same exact job but better with less bugs in order to force you to buy the new software..”,
not an example.
Also you missed (big surprise) the point I was trying to make. People can spend 100x what a Galaxy S costs, and not expect a free oil change. Those same people (you specifically) will spend a fraction of that price, on a phone, and expect a company to devote hundreds of man hours and thousands of dollars, that could be used on new products, to support a nearly 2 year old one, for free.
NO COMPANY DOES THAT. You think the G2 or the Droid 2 are getting ICS? You think the Evo is? Not even the Nexus 1 is getting it.
Give me an example of another industry doing what you expect Samsung to do, if you are so much better at examples than me.
I think that goes to make my point even better, you couldn’t even come up with a real example of another industry practicing what you expect from Samsung, because its unreasonable.
“Companies cannot just release a product and drop support for it…no product in the market is meant to be released and then not supported even years after its release..NO product!! The Vibrant is no exception.”
– Yes they can, they can do whatever they want. Samsung never promised Ice Cream Sandwich. No one bought a Galaxy S with the understanding that it will be upgraded by Samsung to Android 4.0.
“its like going for an oil change on your car 2 years later and being informed that your car manufacturer doesn’t make that oil any more because they made a new car which does the exact same thing but this one uses different oil”
-The only way that example would be comparable to this situation is if you as a car owner could instead of going to the dealer for your magic oil, spend 15 minutes and do it yourself, for free, as opposed to bitching about it.
“so now you have to buy the new car. Does that sound fair to you?”
– Nobody has to buy a new phone, a froyo Galaxy S is still a nice phone.
“Im not expecting you to understand or admit you are wrong (hint: you are). Years of helping people out on forums have taught me one thing..trolls will be trolls…I still enjoy annoying them though..I hope this post achieved its purpose..which I will get to enjoy when you reply
. Good day.”
-Wow, all your smug self loving is almost dripping out of my monitor. You should probably go clean up, I bet you made a mess in you pants while typing that sentence and thinking of yourself.
Well, the Galaxy S was released somewhere around mid-2010. It has been upgraded from 2.1 to 2.2 then to 2.2.1 and then to 2.3.x. Took them some time but still it’s not so bad. You can’t expect it to be supported forever.
And all those who have just bought it? Well, you’ve bought an old phone – just face the fact and stop crying. It’s still a nice phone, even with 2.3.x.
Very well put.
Sadly not all Galaxy S variants received 2.3.X. We can blame Samsung or we can blame the carriers. What ever the case may be. It is an older phone and it did only recently get pulled from sales channels. Doesn’t mean people didn’t get talked into because of a special promo, to clear inventory, or false promises of updates by sales reps. I think people just expected a device that sold into the millions would have a little bit more support and life left in it from the manufacturer. Any Android enthusiast that has been around the block over the last 3 years should know better. A device has, what seems, about a 6 month shelf life before support is canned in most cases. Not all cases of course.
Personally, I never buy a new phone unless I know a few things before hand.
1. Is there root and CWM recovery available
2. Is there a dedicated team of devs working on the device (more than one)
3. Is rooting and flashing an easy process or a pain in the neck.
The Vibrant had all of it when it came out and continues to have a great following of dev support. At least for another 6 months or so. It sold like hotcakes and there are too many of them out there in the wild for it to just ‘disappear’.
You can look at the XDA forums for the Vibrant and there are still plenty of people working on it. You can look at the forums for the Sensation and development is being tore up. You look at the forums for the HTC Amaze, it’s nearly dead. So to me, buying an Amaze is out of the question. Doesn’t matter what HTC tells me they are going to do since the devs have always and will always continue to do it better.
I would say the biggest issues ride on the shoulders of the consumers. But sadly, the average consumers don’t know what the hell they are buying or where to even begin. What we need are easier to understand tools, a better location for information than XDA and RootzWiki. Make gaining root, installing a custom recovery and flashing a ROM absolutely painless and part of every Android users daily life. If and when that can happen, no one will care what the manufacturer does. People will buy new devices based on what the community is doing with it. In order for that to happen though, we need all the manufacturers on board with unlocked bootloaders like HTC is attempting to do.
The real issue as we all know is that Samsung does not support their product line with upgrades to ICS in order to promote the sales of new phones…The galaxy S series works great with ICS as those of us who have tested custom roms..know already. If Samsung upgraded their Galaxy S series to ICS people would stick with their old phone for much longer…as THEY SHOULD!!!
Thats is the root of all the “whining” as some may say…and it is well justified. A company cannot just release products and keep dropping support for them to promote their newer line..which is what Samsung did again last year when they were holding out on 2.2 in order to promote the “upgraded” 4g Vibrant..which was basically another vibrant with less memory and a front facing camera…
I love Samsung products but hate their policies!!!
Sticking with Nexus from here on out, granted my carrier keeps getting it.
Millions of these devices sold and strong demand for an upgrade that the OEM is not supporting. Rather than complain, someone should be making a business out of this. Not everyone wants to learn to rom and root but many would happily pay a few bucks to have someone do it for them.
Also people are missing a huge issue here, it wouldnt be a galaxy series phone if it doesnt have touch wiz. Samsung is a corperation and is very concerned with brand recognition. Yes the hard in a NexusS is nearly identical to other Galaxy phones
Sorry i accidentally posted before i was finished.
Also people are missing a huge issue here, it wouldnt be a galaxy series phone if it doesnt have touch wiz. Samsung is a corperation and is very concerned with brand recognition. Yes the hardware in a Nexus S is nearly identical to other Galaxy phones, this is evidenced by the fact that my Vibrant runs ICS swimmingly, but the software is the difference. The reason my phone is a Galaxy S and not a Nexus S is touch wiz. If you didn’t want touch wiz you shouldn’t have bought a Galaxy S phone.
Regardless of whether one can cook their own rom, they shouldn’t have to. Less than 24 months from shelf date is not really asking a whole hell of a lot. Keep in mind not all variants were released at the same time or to all carriers. Everybody’s entitled to their opinion, and most would love to upgrade every 6-9mo, but there is really no excuse for OEMs (with buku $ and development teams) to not provide continued OTAs of a free open source OS; especially if it is such a simple task that a 10yo could compile it on a decade old pc.
Just be prepared to continue hearing people whine, b**ch, and complain about fragmentation as long as companies like Samsung ignore the solutions that are provided…..Or was I the only person who heard Google screaming from the rooftops that ICS was meant to do just that?
Not surprised at all Samsung is not updating the Galaxy S II series to ICS. I was surprised when I read the rumors that they were. ICS is going to be the new niche to sell phones for them and other OEMs until the next OS update. They probably figure if you have one of the older GSII variants you’re due for an upgrade soon, and if you have one of the newer variants, you’re probably not going to buy a new phone anytime soon, and their next flagship phone should appeal to you next year. It sucks, but profits are all companies really care about. Samsung is just one of those companies that believes as long as their phones have the right appeal people will keep buying them…and so far they seem to be doing pretty well.
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