The story behind the 'Samsung doesn't want you to have Froyo' thing ...

[Kyle Gibb]

I really like to hope that Samsung (and other manufacturers) are not this stupid.

 

[Beezzy]

Idk why anyone thought this would be different than any other Samsung phone. Samsung has always been known for not updating their phones. The Omnia, Behold II, and now the Galaxy S line. If anyone thinks the Galaxy Tab will get 3.0 Honeycomb is an idiot! HTC and Moto phones are the only phones with somesort of update future. The fact that mid range LG phones have 2.2 shows how much Samsung is horrible at pushing updates.

Sent from my DROID2 using Tapatalk

 

[Ronindan]

I have been saying this same thing for months, they are holding back this update in the US that they have released in every other place ONLY for marketing! They dont want to release 2.2 because its not going to be the magic pill that fixes the GPS problems, so people will scream loudly. See right now many are giving them the benefit of the doubt that they may be able to fix it, they cant, the GPS in the erealy galaxy S designs have a weak antenna.

They didnt release Froyo before Christmas to keep negative press down about the GPS still being broken and to see more products including tablets. They arent releasing it now in order to maximize the profit on upcoming products. They are lying to us constantly. My wife has a Nexus S and it runs G-bread beautifully. We should have Friggin G-bread on every Galaxy S device, the simple fact is they are NOT that different but the carriers and Samsung are purposely withholding this to maximize profits and to hell with us who have already invested.

You cannot tell me since the Galaxy S line was released in mid 2010 that they could not have Froyo ready to roll. Its utter BS.

I am not sure how witholding an os upgrade for a particular country is going to help Samsung with their marketing efforts. I mean if they are afraid or are worried about the gps issues why even release the gps fix at all.

 

[Kevin OQuinn]

The fact that this is even a story is enough to make me not want anymore samsung phones, nexus or not. But products get dropped from support all the time. If that's what's happening I wish they would just come out and say it.

Personally I think they should push froyo or then stop. Galaxy s2 coming out soon, after that you won't see it for sure.

 

[cesarb]

Seems like everything that samsung touches is extremely successful and then they just forget about it.... What a fail.... Man am I glad I have a nexus... Its a shame that you samsung owners have this problem... That phone still has a lot of potential...

Sent from my Nexus One using Tapatalk

 

[ls377]

I think there's two sides to this coin. Yes, Samsung dropped the ball with the update. These phones should have (IMO) launched with Froyo, and if they had problems with an update, then it's their fault for creating hardware so different from the HTC and Moto phones. The carriers, however, are the ones holding it up at this point.

As for this rumor, there's too many holes in it. Almost every non-US Galaxy S has Froyo, and the Euro version has had it for a few months. Why wouldn't Samsung hold them up, too? And why would Samsung ask the carriers to hold off on the update, and then throw them under the bus by blaming them for holding it up? There's no way they would risk that, since the carriers are Samsung's customers.

If Samsung "asked" T-mobile to hold off on the update, then why did T-mobile agree? This sounds like an employee trying to push the blame off of T-mobile.

 

[thebizz]

I don't see why so many people are having a hard time seeing this. Yes Samsung can build froyo for the vibrant bit how much would it change from the vibrant to vibrant 4g ? Ril added support for the ffc that's like nothing. Let's stop kidding ourselves Samsung would rather sale you a new phone with very few changes than continue to support your device

 

[emuneee]

This whole update issue for the US Galaxy S devices is startling enough for me to never ever purchase another Samsung product ever again.

Just to clear up some common misconceptions. Samsung adds all the bloatware during R&D using the operator's requirements. The device/firmware then goes through operator certification. If it passes, its up the operator to release the update, if not, it goes back to the manufacturer for fixes.

 

[Ronindan]

This whole update issue for the US Galaxy S devices is startling enough for me to never ever purchase another Samsung product ever again.

Just to clear up some common misconceptions. Samsung adds all the bloatware during R&D using the operator's requirements. The device/firmware then goes through operator certification. If it passes, its up the operator to release the update, if not, it goes back to the manufacturer for fixes.

Samsung has to add all the bloatware (including the carriers) to froyo. However if Samsung is coming out with bad code, then all of the carriers that Samsung work with would have rejected Samsung's code. But that is not the case, there was only one bad release (Bell's), after which Samsung released froyo again after a couple of weeks.

To me the bloatware is the cause of the delay. You have to spend time configuring, testing and re-testing each app. Even if the end user does not use the app itself. The carriers still wants to make sure they work in the random chance that the customer will use the app.

 

[Jerry Hildenbrand]

.... My wife has a Nexus S and it runs G-bread beautifully. We should have Friggin G-bread on every Galaxy S device, the simple fact is they are NOT that different but the carriers and Samsung are purposely withholding this to maximize profits and to hell with us who have already invested....

The only thing the same is the CPU and the screen. By that logic, Gingerbread should work on the iPhone 4 and the Droid Incredible, because it works on the Nexus S. The people who have ported GB to other devices have worked very hard to do so, including the few GB development ROMs for the Galaxy S phones.

I don't see why so many people are having a hard time seeing this. Yes Samsung can build froyo for the vibrant bit how much would it change from the vibrant to vibrant 4g ? Ril added support for the ffc that's like nothing. Let's stop kidding ourselves Samsung would rather sale you a new phone with very few changes than continue to support your device

And new SoC, and digitizer, and radio, and, and, and.... Android isn't plug and play

 

[fwdixon]

Keep in mind that at this point, about the only carriers that don't have an ETA on Froyo are the Big 4 in the US. Even the minor carriers are putting rollout dates, and outside the US it's already out.

The common theme here isn't samsung or even the US, but rather the Big 4. The Vibrant/Telus Fascinate are very similar HW-wise to the I9000, 2 out of 3 of those have official 2.2 out.

I'm inclined to believe the issue is with the major carriers and their crap they put on the phones, not samsung.

Oh, and the GPS is easily fixed by a firmware update. So again I put the bulk of the blame on the carriers.

 

[heredavid]

Chicken and Egg kind of thing...

I have two points and a viewpoint, Point One: It does not matter if both or just either are the ones not allowing, I use the word allowing as that is all it is, the GalaxyS to have the latest Android OS. What does matter is that Samsung repeatedly made statements that updates to fix all the issues AND the updating of the OS would be forthcoming over six months ago therefore it is and honor thing. Point two: Both Samsung and T-mobile (as we are only talking about the Vibrant, yet is also the same for the other carriers) by not standing up with respect of their customers and honor of their words and deeds, by making a full disclosure of the facts are at fault. If T-mobile shows its customers respect they would make a statement as to what they have/or are doing to update AND WHEN if they are going to do so. The same goes for Samsung, yet neither have done therefore sadly they BOTH are the problem.

Better yet, a road map of each devices, before going on sale, as to what version is current and SPECIFIC dates ?IF? any updates are to be forthcoming. If they miss that date the phone is returned for any current and any future phone within a set time frame of say six months with no costs to the customer. Would be nice if some politician needed to get elected (re-elected) would put forth such a bill. The public airwaves really do not belong to companies rather are owned by the people (elected politicians decide how to regulate) and NOT THE COMPANIES. If they cannot be fair and honorable than it is time to regulate this! The free market place is only free IF your behave honorably, otherwise, it needs to be regulated. Enough is enough!

 

[ls377]

I have two points and a viewpoint, Point One: It does not matter if both or just either are the ones not allowing, I use the word allowing as that is all it is, the GalaxyS to have the latest Android OS. What does matter is that Samsung repeatedly made statements that updates to fix all the issues AND the updating of the OS would be forthcoming over six months ago therefore it is and honor thing. Point two: Both Samsung and T-mobile (as we are only talking about the Vibrant, yet is also the same for the other carriers) by not standing up with respect of their customers and honor of their words and deeds, by making a full disclosure of the facts are at fault. If T-mobile shows its customers respect they would make a statement as to what they have/or are doing to update AND WHEN if they are going to do so. The same goes for Samsung, yet neither have done therefore sadly they BOTH are the problem.

Better yet, a road map of each devices, before going on sale, as to what version is current and SPECIFIC dates ?IF? any updates are to be forthcoming. If they miss that date the phone is returned for any current and any future phone within a set time frame of say six months with no costs to the customer. Would be nice if some politician needed to get elected (re-elected) would put forth such a bill. The public airwaves really do not belong to companies rather are owned by the people (elected politicians decide how to regulate) and NOT THE COMPANIES. If they cannot be fair and honorable than it is time to regulate this! The free market place is only free IF your behave honorably, otherwise, it needs to be regulated. Enough is enough!

As if the PR wasn't bad enough. If they set a timeline and didn't meet it, things would be worse then they are now (and people other than us would care). Same thing if they rushed an update and started bricking phones or broke something. They don't do it so there isn't as much pressure to get the update ready.

 

[MegaSoundwave76]

Agreed. To many holes in this issue. I think all the carriers and the bloatware that were installed on the phones are the big issues here. I never really heard of any of the Euro Galaxy S phones having any GPS issues. I remember when the wife got herself a brand spanking new Palm Pre Plus from Verizon Wireless and her navigation didn't work. Turned out that the VZ Location services was messing with Google services and vice versa. I just upgraded my phone from the HTC Droid Eris to the Samsung Fascinate and the Fascinate had a pretty darn weird GPS issue also. Looking at location settings and comparing the Fascinate to the Eris, I saw that the Fascinate has "VZW Location Service" and it was defaulted to on when I received the phone. My Eris never gave me navigation issues (once I had the Eclair update) and it never had the VZW Location Service option installed (running stock, HTC Sense, no customer roms, no rooting, etc.). I don't know why but all the bloated software they put on the Galaxy S phones, including the Carriers, made it into this issue. I'm pretty happy with the Fascinate myself, but I can totally understand the frustration of my fellow Galaxy S owners.

 

[ls377]

Agreed. To many holes in this issue. I think all the carriers and the bloatware that were installed on the phones are the big issues here. I never really heard of any of the Euro Galaxy S phones having any GPS issues. I remember when the wife got herself a brand spanking new Palm Pre Plus from Verizon Wireless and her navigation didn't work. Turned out that the VZ Location services was messing with Google services and vice versa. I just upgraded my phone from the HTC Droid Eris to the Samsung Fascinate and the Fascinate had a pretty darn weird GPS issue also. Looking at location settings and comparing the Fascinate to the Eris, I saw that the Fascinate has "VZW Location Service" and it was defaulted to on when I received the phone. My Eris never gave me navigation issues (once I had the Eclair update) and it never had the VZW Location Service option installed (running stock, HTC Sense, no customer roms, no rooting, etc.). I don't know why but all the bloated software they put on the Galaxy S phones, including the Carriers, made it into this issue. I'm pretty happy with the Fascinate myself, but I can totally understand the frustration of my fellow Galaxy S owners.

If I remember right, the Pre Plus was locked to Verizon's Location services, so no other app could use GPS. The Fascinate isn't and all the Galaxy S phones seem to have the problem. But it's interesting that the Fascinate had that and the Eris didn't.

 

[Chris Kerrigan]

The VZW Location Services is something Verizon started once they began putting bloat on phones. Both the OG Droid and Eris were relatively bloat free.

 

[thebizz]

From what I understood it the vibrant plus didn't have the samoled + social I can see for the new radio but come on a kernel and ril I understand android isn't plug and play their is alot of back end things that most wont see

 

[Daedalus]

I am not sure what to believe anymore. But I will say this for the last 7 years I never had an issue with T-Mobile till I got a Samsung Phone. Samsung has made repetitive promises that froyo was going to be release for our devices, so far this has not come to be. This will most likely my last Samsung phone I purchase and it will have an impact on any future purchases of different product lines. Yes I know that my decisions not to purchase their products even when I am doing Purchases for my work will not impact their bottom line but if more people end up boycotting Samsung maybe their will learn that that they are in a service industry and yes the people can voice their opinions with their dollar.

 

[DroidXcon]

I am not sure what to believe anymore. But I will say this for the last 7 years I never had an issue with T-Mobile till I got a Samsung Phone. Samsung has made repetitive promises that froyo was going to be release for our devices, so far this has not come to be. This will most likely my last Samsung phone I purchase and it will have an impact on any future purchases of different product lines. Yes I know that my decisions not to purchase their products even when I am doing Purchases for my work will not impact their bottom line but if more people end up boycotting Samsung maybe their will learn that that they are in a service industry and yes the people can voice their opinions with their dollar.

what phone were you using those 7 years?

 

[Daedalus]

what phone were you using those 7 years?

I have had 3 Samsung dumb phones then went to the Razor , HTC Dash, BB 8320, BB 8900, MT3G 1.2, then the Vibrant.