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We’re well into 2011 by now and most of you US-based Galaxy S owners still have yet to see Froyo. (Officially, anyway.) What the heck is going on with that? Samsung’s Twitter account tweeted that they wanted users to have a simple and reliable upgrade – the type of hesitation you’d expect from Samsung considering past upgrades didn’t go too smoothly for a lot of users of their other phones.
The second line of the tweet states that they “[are] running tests due to complexity [and] unique functionality.” Translation: “Getting around TouchWiz is tougher than we thought it’d be.” That’s not really fair to say, though: European variants have had the upgrade for quite some time. Most will tell you that the carriers are to blame, and a lot of that blame does fall on them. Even Sony Ericsson admitted to as much when they hadn’t committed to a date for the Xperia X10’s Eclair upgrade. It’s entirely possible that Samsung is being treated the same way by all four major carriers.
So they still can’t commit to a date, but I think it’s about time we cut them some slack – at least direct some of your anger toward the carriers.
In lighter news, though, the Nexus S could soon be headed to Europe as a device being named the GT-I90003 has recently been approved by the Global Certification Forum. The Unwired’s Arne Hesse has it from a trusted source of his that this device – unlike the Nexus S released here in the states – would be coming with a Super-LCD display as opposed to a Super AMOLED. Doesn’t sound too farfetch’d considering the Russian version is said to be getting the same treatment. The only thing we’re still waiting for is a release date and pricing, but I’m sure that isn’t long off.
[via Android Police]
FROYO!!!!!!!!!!!!
And all this time I was thinking they were going to skip Froyo and give us Gingerbread, I’ll keep dreaming
Oh, crap :(
Then it better be cheaper, or i’m going mad, very mad
I’ve been saying that all along! It’s not Samsungs fault as much as the carriers. Yet people will continue to bash Samsung just because people like to complain. They don’t realize that Samsung makes some of the best electronics on the planet and in a world of “now now now-gimmie gimmie gimmie”, people would rather whine & complain because they’re not being instantly gratified. As the article notes, I’d much rather wait a few months and get a reliable, stable update, then get one right away that’s full of bugs. (which has happened to countless makes & models of phones….yet you don’t hear people complain about that)
@toast
a few months? The phones have been out for months and froyo was out before many of the phones were released so they had plenty of time to get it and test it so dont say samsung is doing such a great job they suck with updates and hasnt changed in years they have been this way from day 1 with their phones. One of the main reasons i stay away from samsung not to mention the fact they released a phone with faulty hardware(gps)
Can’t wait root can’t wait grab a leak I’ve been on froyo since the dk28 been working perfectly. The freedom of android is there for the impatient but if too afraid to try stop whining and wait or go get an evo! Choices are avaiable but you choose to complain!
If it’s the carrier’s fault, how do you explain that the carriers have all released 2.2 on other devices 3-4 months ago already?
@ToastnJam is completely correct…samsung does make some of the most beautiful and best tech in the world…their phones are no different as they have the best hardware in any phone to date and the best screen on any phone to date…they are not to blame as they released the 2.2 updates for their phones a while ago, and they also released a 2.2.1 update for the galaxy s which makes it an even more amazing phone..samsung is on top of the updates, blame the carriers who have had them for months
I can say that it is highly likely that I will never buy another Samsung phone again.
Toast, I totally agree with your statement but c’mon now It has been around 6 months since they announced both the phone and OS. Every other Android high end device from all other manufacturers have either come stock with Android 2.2 or it has already gotten the update. 2 to 3 months ok, 6 months very unacceptable. I really don’t see why Samsung is SO obsessed with that horrible touch wiz UI, they should let it go and give us stock 2.2. They must have really spent a bunch of money on R&D to give a crap about such about bad User Interface.
Honestly, I like my Captivate… But best tech in the world?
You are kidding, right?
They didn’t release the 2.2 update “a while ago”, the released it weeks ago, months after it was standard on other company’s phones and months after they had promised it would be on everyone’s phone. Not to mention the Galaxy S *still* has GPS issues even with Froyo, and the endless parade of auto-shutdown issues.
The Galaxy S “flagship” line of phones is 2 OS reversions behind in at least one major market, will very likely never see Gingerbread, and is plagued by a depressing number of hardware and software issues.
And before you go blaming the carriers you might want to ask yourself why so many other companies manage to get Froyo out on those same carriers but Samsung still hasn’t?
Why do they think we don’t deserve SAMOLED?
I blame both Samsung and the carriers. Samsung, while putting out A-quality hardware, has a history of not supporting their products once released. This includes firmware updates and the like. They released this product which has become a huge success for them and put them atop the Android manufacturers at least in the US. They don’t care about what happens next: we bought the phones and that’s their bottom line. With a traditional hardware company like Samsung, who produces TV and other things, they release a product, you use it until you are ready for a new one. I’ll go so far as to say they have no idea how to support a product that needs constant updating.
On the other side of it all is the carriers who do their own harm. They load their handsets up with all of their crapware and then find it doesn’t work with the updates that Samsung gives them. They in turn reject the update and tell them “Sorry, try again”. It turns out being a lot of time spent and wasted in software development for Samsung, who would rather pour resources into hardware.
Put it all together and you have what’s known as a crap sandwich covered in puke. And the customer gets screwed once again. I’m a Vibrant owner who is upset that the Nexus S is 90 percent the same exact phone, yet they have 2.3 and we can’t even get 2.2. What the hell?
doesn’t matter I can’t throw my money towarda htc fast enough for my next upgrade. Greatfully I upgrade every year thanks
to sprint. Only have to have epic 4g until november. So long samsung first it was the instinct now this epic. Never again.
the Bell Canada froyo update is working great on my vibrant for several weeks now and it speeds the phone up quite a bit (but GPS is still weak) a few new features like auto rotate is added as one of the pull down menue items. It must be a carrier issue with specific carries trying to cram all their garbage into it.
Open the Market and if you see a Verizon, T-Mobile, or other carriers tab there, it’s not likely Samsung’s fault. Carriers get in the way too much.
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What I would love to see are stock phones released and if you want Sense, Blur, or whatever Samsung calls theirs, you download it as a custom home app. Plenty of home customization apps to choose from (using ADW now), why not use one of those instead of getting in the way of updates and progess.
ok. I have a Galaxy S. I love it. I loved it with 2.1 and I love it more with 2.2 (Wifi calling is nice)
But lets be honest. Did you buy this phone because it would have 2.2 eventually? Did you like it before the talk of 2.2 started? If they had said at the beginning that they would never update it to 2.2 officially, would you have still bought it?
Truth is, most of you would have bought it anyway. Why? Because it’s a very nice phone. Best there was at the time and still the best in my opinion.
If you guys are as hardcore about your version of android as you make out, root it and install a 2.2 Rom. Not only do you get what you’ve been complaining about getting for months, but in most cases you get a cleaner version. There is stock versions of 2.2 for the Vibrant available. With and without TW. What are you waiting for?
To be honest, there doesn’t seem to be that much difference in 2.1 vs. 2.2 except the wifi calling (TMO Only I think)Most will not know the difference except the number change.
Stop bashing. If you need that next best version of Android, the simple thing to do is buy the phone that has the version you want.
So the part where they say Touch Wiz if tougher than they thought is the carriers fault right. Because T mobile, AT&T, Sprint and Verizon conspired to make a proprietary interface to screw with people on purpose. I guess the Behold 2 was also the carriers fault.
I am SOO done with custom UIs! I got the Nexus S. Not only did it come with 2.3, it has already been bumped to 2.3.1! I bet we’ll continue to see quick upgrades to this Samsung phone and that will give some evidence that it’s not Samsung itself, but their UI and the carriers that are to blame.
In other news, Motorola Milestone is waiting as well.
Screw you sprint and your crapware. Give us Vanilla Android with maybe a few of your bloatware apps and stop delaying software upgrades.
Root and install Nero V3…took 30 minutes with me re-installing apps b/c I cleared the cache/data. SO MUCH BETTER without touchwiz.
The only thing I’m waiting for is completion of the Nexus S gingerbread ROM port started by supercurio on the XDA forums. Sure, Samsung and T-Mobile can do what they want, when they want to do it because it doesn’t matter much to me anymore.
I’ll be upgrading to vanilla gingerbread when the XDA guys are finished. If Samsung/T-Mobile push their OTA before the XDA guys release then I suppose I’ll have Froyo for a while until the gingerbread ROM is finalized.
If I ever buy another Samsung product, it’ll be after it has been out long enough for the community to have taken the development lead.
doesant slcd completley kill the point of the nexus (S)?
ive had a leaked version of 2.2 on my captivate for months now…2.2.1 was released weeks ago for the galaxy s i9000…and
hummingbird 1GHz+SGX540+superamoled+512mbram+16GBstorage+bluetooth 3.0=best hardware in a phone currently available…please tell me what phone has better hardware?? and dont say oh well it doesnt have 2.2..because it does, its available, carriers havent released it yet…i have it one my phone.
Sorry I believe that this article is another bunch of crap information that either made up or their source is not accurate.
It is Samsung’s deal not the carriers…. I can see it now….. The big 4 carriers call each other up and get together somewhere in a big room and have a pact that none of them will accept the update for the Galaxy line of phones until they all agree.
That is complete crap!!! This is all Samsung’s fault and if you all think that this delayed by the carriers you are not thinking right!
That just does not make sense…. Besides it is not just the big 4 in the states…. There are other countries with other carriers that have not received the update on their Galaxy S phones.
I do not know where the author of this article is getting their information but it seems very inaccurate to me! I have been in the development process for 10 years with one of the largest companies in the world and that is not how it works people!
Samsung would probably have a lab where there would be a development team consisting of devs and testers and this lab might have what is called a Faraday cage where no signal can get in or out where they test the signals and other stuff of all the carriers…. That same lab would probably have all the carriers tower boxes as well.
The OS would be tested thoroughly by this supposedly great development team (hopefully they didn’t hire from the bottom of the barrel) on devices that the the carries had agreed would be brought to market ahead of time.
They would meet in a room discussing the daily bugs from testing the day before which would be tracked and decide what the severity and cost to fix them would be in the time that they had left before shipping the final product.
The problem is that Samsung must have one major hurtle that they cannot get past. It would have to be a major issue to delay shipping….. The severity of the bug would have to be so great that they would not ship this product on time!
fauxhawk70,
EXACTLY.
Anyone who says it’s not samsung isn’t thinking logically at all.
If it’s NOT Samsung, how do you explain that AT&T, Sprint, Verizon and T-Mobile ALL don’t have 2.2 for Galaxy S devices, BUT have released 2.2 for many other devices 3-4 months ago?!
Please explain that one.
Well I tend to think it’s a carrier issue. I too live in Canada and upgraded to Froyo as soon as Bell released it. I read that it was yanked because of issues, of which I had none (unless you call increased speed an issue). I don’t really know if it was yanked by Bell because the other day I connected my phone via Kies and it notified me that there was a firmware upgrade! Somewhat surprised (and afraid that it would downgrade me back to 2.1) I did the upgrade. IT was only a minor upgrade but it went smoothly and my Galaxy S continues to please and amaze me.
This makes me believe that it is the US carriers that are causing the delay. What else can it be?
Samsung really needs to peruse the XDA Captivate and Vibrant forums and hire some of the devs. Been using Froyo on my Captivate for months and the latest roms are all very stable and 100x faster than stock Eclair.
samsung sucks 2.2 is old news lol like over the summer old now its january and your still talking about itlol wow who to blame I think its you dumbasses for buying the peices of shit. GOT FLASH?
Tmo just sent me 2 new HTC mytouch 4g free to replace me and my wife’s vibrants to make up for no 2.2.
This is complete garbage. come out with the freaking update already. My coworker already filed a complaint with the BBB with sprint. Take that.
I bought my Vibrant the day it was released, waiting waiting waiting…. Tired of waiting so I googled a great tutorial & http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCDsAHfoVwc just updated my Vibrant to Axura 2.2.5.7 and all I can say is WOW!!! Super fast and I finally can watch the TV shows I want with flash support…
Ok, so once Samsung releases the regular 2.2 for the “unmolested” versions of their phones, who exactly writes the “carrier” versions? Something tells me it isn’t the carriers themselves. Sure they have input and “requirements” but I suspect it is still up to Samsung to write it all and get it to work before handing over to the carrier to distribute, yes? If so, Samsung is to blame if they can’t get it to play nice and meet carrier specs.
the carrier’s fault? i have the fascinate. liked the design over the droid x. however, everysingle phone (excluding the LG ally which apparently is on the way) has froyo. ugly duckling fascinate….i blame touch wiz, which is i got launcher pro
I don’t care who is to blame. I have both the Evo and the Epic and keep the Evo in a drawer even though it has Froyo. Sure I would like to have it. But come on…
It is Samsung-not the carriers. Samsung has not released it in the US yet, for those living outside the US.
Samsung is the company and they can get around with updates. They can put update froyo captivate updates to help developers… After this fiasco I am not buying Samsung or recommending Samsung..
Testing my @ss.. the gps was not working with eclair and I dont expect the froyo release to be fully working until I go to XDA to tweak it.. If they cannot upgrade a simple phone what we can expect from tvs or other electronics..Keep the articles coming .. we are angry..
Weak Samsung, very weak.
Did yall know that the Droid X with verizon already got their 2.3 gingerbread update 2 weeks ago? I do blame the carriers they realize how much money they are getting from holding back on the OTA 2.2 for the Galaxy S series for all carriers so they are going to wait til it is too late for you to return the phone to give you the update 6 months later. Samsung released the update to the carriers 6 months ago and the carriers gotta test the update to make sure it does not remove their preloaded apps. I’m really not pressed about this update because I have already rooted my phone and had the 2.2 update on my vibrant 2 months ago and now I am ready to put the 2.3 update on my phone screw the carriers and do it yourself. Root your phone and update the OS yourself.
The carriers do this because the 2.3 gingerbread is coming to everyone in 1 month but carriers want full control on when the phones get the upgrades and so if they spread out the update times you will have to keep your phone longer so when your contract is up you will upgrade and miss out on all the new stuff
I dont believe a WORD Samsung says and I will never buy another Samsung product for as long as I live.
the only thing they’re good at is broken promises.
We in the UK, and Europe have had the 2.2.1 update from Samsung for weeks now. The update has been rolled out to most carriers too. Sounds like the carriers in the States could have problems
Haven’t they been testing the Froyo update for months already, and didn’t they already know about the complexities and uniqueness of each US carrier’s Galaxy S device? What’s taking so long? If I’m not mistaken, other regions of the world have received Froyo updates, but here in the US, we’re still waiting. That suggests to me that the US carriers are at least partly to blame for us not getting our Froyo updates. I think Samsung still needs to share the blame though, since they are responsible for producing the updates. However, the lack of an update isn’t bothering me quite as much as the lack of communication from either Samsung or Sprint as to exactly what’s going on, why, and how much longer we’ll have to wait. If I could get some real information, it would be easier to be more patient because I’d have some idea of what they’re actually working on and why. As it is, the vague respones to the effects of “we’re still testing” and the update’s “coming soon”, are not particularly informative, and this is what tries my patience — the lack of clear information.
That is what people don’t get this phone IS NOT A SIMPLE PHONE! maybe to use it it possibly is but to dev for it takes some time! I have no clue how long it takes to iron out all the kinks for a phone with a non-stock UI but something tells me its not gonna be 2-3months after the device has released and then to go back and forth adding whatever these carriers want just adds at least 1 month to that time. Fix 1 thing next thing you know 10 other things are broken. Maybe Samsung doesn’t have a big mobile development division that they can use to waste updating everyone to the most current Android OS. Also that reminds me updates were not this frequent before android, they used to be yearly at the most or AS IS sales. All these people complain about something that normally doesn’t happen anywhere else. When you buy a car are you expected to get a free upgrade to next years model? no. When you buy a TV same question with the same answer of which is no. When you buy a COMPUTER you don’t buy it expecting it to get free upgrades to the next version so why is android different? is it because the life of a phone device is 6 months? Cell phones too are AS IS sales as everything else. Why do people not understand this? The only support for anything is when they are buggy and needs fixing. Now I know a lot of you are gonna say my GPS is broken on my samsung well that certainly means its a defective hardware and normally that is why you call up your phone manufacturer and tell them about it, you have 1 years warranty that says they will replace your device with a non defective one why not use it? Do people not know of this or what? I swear people expect too much from these companies.
I can’t understand why all you Galaxy S people are bitching so much. The Galaxy S phone is a POS. It too plasticky, has GPS issue and only a copy of another nameless phone. You get what you pay for so bad luck. Should bought a different handset..plenty to choose from.
I think it’s the carriers’ fault as well. Apart from the fact that carriers would want Froyo to work with their respective crap-/bloat-ware, if you are paranoid or cynical, you could suspect the following:
1. carriers want Froyo tweaked to stop the tethering and wifi hotspot functionality (or to allow carriers to charge for it);
2. Microsoft is paying Verizon to hold off Froyo for as long as possible, because of the Bing search deal. With Froyo, users can install the Google search bar/app directly from Market. Even Verizon said so, when they were trying to reassure their users that the Bing lockdown wasn’t that big a deal. In addition, I think the Froyo browser settings also give you the option to choose which search engine to use. Once you have that, people aren’t tied to Bing so much, except maybe for the hardware search button, hence the delay in upgrading to Froyo?
3. Alternatively to 2. above, maybe Verizon wants these things crippled in their version of the Galaxy phone.
4. maybe other key business partners of the various carriers are asking for similar things to be done. Say, one of the carrier’s GPS Navigation partner asks that Google’s new Maps version 5 be crippled somehow?
Well then I think Samsung needs to get on the carriers asses cause I was going to hold on the HTC 4g phones for the samsung one on Verizon, but now Im thinking in order to get any kind of upgrade, I will have to go HTC.
I have had a fascinate for several months(don’t use it as my daily driver anymore, use my stock DX, and MIUI DInc
asqwerth,
WRONG!
1) HTC Incredible and Motorola Droid X would have needed the same thing. Those both have had Froyo for 3-4 months already.
2) See #1
3) See #1
4) See #1
It’s Samsung. No way to logically think otherwise at this point.
Please explain to me how the Incredible and Droid X have had froyo for 3-4 moths, yet no US Galaxy S has it? How can that be the carriers’ fault?
Why are my posts that are critical of Samsung being deleted? What kind of blog is this?!
Nevermind, I see my last post now.
If it is the carriers fault, why do none of the other companies have this issue constantly, across the board? Glad I didn’t wait for one of these cheap plastic pieces of crap.
upgrade from 2.1 to 2.2 over-the-air is device dependant. Some devices, yes. some other devices, no. it is the device software, nothing to do with carrier.
Coming soon like the behold 2 right?
Forget about updates from scamscum . Just more lies to be expected from such a worthless company, that is a typical family run korean business. That’s what happens when family members with no talent or skills are promoted to the highest level of incompetence.
It would have been interesting to see what HTC could have done with hummingbird processors and samoled.
Even with froyo the phone will still suck do to the manufacturers defects like lag gps and constant reboots and fc.
I should have known better since most Korean products are all substandard and lack support just look at their cars.
For a while, they weren’t just saying “We hope to provide a reliable upgrade” but “upgrade experience.” Internationally, there were complaints about updates being done with Kies (not available in the US, we get “Kies Mini”) or dodgy OTA updates. These issues may not be fully ironed out. I think that might be a bigger part of the explanation.
The few times I’ve tried to use Kies Mini, I have to disable the Android USB Device, unplug and plug my phone again and wait for it the phone screen to stop saying “Initializing” and start saying “Connected,” then I enable the device, start Kies Mini and this recognizes my phone and says the firmware is up to date.
Nisme, Stfu. It is Samsung-not the carriers. Samsung has not released it in the US yet, for those living outside the US, stop posting that you believe otherwise. Don’t have a clue.
I waited and waited…and stopped waiting. Just root your phone and install nero. It’s fast and flawless. And it’s froyo in all it’s glory. Just do it. Odin, z4root, and titanium backup. The one good thing about samsung being so slow is that so many android users have learned to get the most of their phones without samsung. I knew nothing before I started. Sent from my nero froyo vibrant.
@ Scotto : The Nexus S will receive fast updates because it’s also made by Google, don’t forget that. Samsung it’s responsible for all the delays in their other phones. Google doesn’t want their name to be trashed because of delay of updates, and it’s a pure Google Android experience, so of course, it will get updates fast.
@ asqwerth
Bing? on a Google made operating system, are you fucking kidding me? no way! never.
I have a 2.2 for like 2 months now on the captivate and i have absolutely NO problems… Google it and you can find an update…. the captivate is an amazing phone and with 2.2 it is even better… now just waiting for the 2.3