Why We Aren’t Running a Story on the Claim that Carriers Are Refusing to Pay Samsung for Android 2.2 Updates
For the past two or three days the fine readers of this site have been bombarding us with a link to a certain post on XDA pertaining to the Android 2.2 updates for US Samsung Galaxy S devices. If you want to read it, feel free to head over to XDA’s forums and check it out. It comes from an unconfirmed source posting to a forum of hackers, so excuse us if we don’t take its claims at face value. Had this source approached us or one of the numerous other Android sites with this story and provided some evidence to back up their claims, maybe it would be different.
But we don’t want to run a story on that because this entire Android 2.2/Samsung Galaxy S debacle has all been based around speculation. We as a news source know no more than anyone else out there waiting for the updates, and it is irresponsible of us to run news items that are not based on facts that we can easily prove. That only serves to incite panic and outrage from readers, leading to things as crazy and pointless as a class-action lawsuit.
Whatever is being said about Samsung may very well be true. They may be holding off updates to encourage sales of newer devices. They may be asking carriers for too much money. It could also be that the update process is long and complicated thanks to custom UIs, carrier bloatware, different hardware configurations based on carrier, and varying cellular radios and radio bands. Speculating to the point where we become a crazed internet mob after someone’s head is pointless. It won’t get you the updates any quicker.
So please, we have read the XDA story and have decided we would rather not post about it (take this post as the most you will get). If you wish to continue speculating and pointing fingers, please go ahead and do so in the comments below or over at AndroidForums, just don’t expect us to be too eager to chime in.