Samsung backtracks on Value Pack for Galaxy S and Galaxy Tab [UPDATE]

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Bad news, Galaxy S and Galaxy Tab owners: The Next Web reports that Samsung has abandoned even the trifling “Value Pack” you might have gotten in lieu of a real Ice Cream Sandwich update.  The Value Pack had been rumored from the South Korean manufacturer after customer outcry at the news that there was no planned upgrade to Android 4.0. Ladies and gentlemen, ready your torches and pitchforks.

Further consternating owners of the original Galaxy devices was the fact that Samsung seemed to reject the update because the older hardware couldn’t handle both Ice Cream Sandwich and the company’s custom TouchWiz interface. The RAM and storage space on the Galaxy S and Galaxy Tab simply isn’t enough to accommodate the large size and power requirements of the new operating system along with Samsung’s customised UI and widgets. Of course, the hardware itself is more than capable of handling ICS alone, as custom ROMs and Google’s official update to the similarly-equiped Nexus S prove. The alternative of upgrading to ICS without TouchWiz does not seem to have occurred to Samsung.

Android devices that are abandoned for major software releases in less than two years are unfortunately common. Perhaps this shouldn’t be so (especially considering that in the United States, manufacturers and carriers make huge profits by saddling customers with 2-year contracts) but it is. No doubt there will be some consumer reaction akin to what we’ve already seen with the Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime. Failing a user-centric revalation at Samsung, there’s always custom ROMs, though perhaps users shouldn’t be forced to void there warranties just to run the current version of Android.

Update: Here’s Samsung’s exact words, via Business Insider:

A full update to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich for the GALAXY Tab(7-inch) and GALAXY S is not practicable due to hardware limitations.

Well, there you have it.

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  • Paul Werner

    They mean due to limitations placed by their own software taking up the space. As usual, devs on sites like XDA outshine the manufacturers. Glad I switched to Legendary 2.2 and switched the partition to MTD (yaffs2). I currently have 202 apps total installed with TouchWiz and still have 311MB total internal storage. Can’t wait till the ICS ROMs start coming this way

  • Anonymous

    I guess this also includes the Droid Charge, since it has the same CPU, GPU, and RAM. Totally unacceptable, Samsung.

  • Samizad

    perhaps, at the very least, samsung could provide support to third party developers to develop drivers. Let them take it from there.

  • http://profiles.google.com/surakmn Greg Prince

    For what percent of users is this actually an issue?  I like the Samsung interface, my Galaxy S runs well on 2.X, and long before it affects my ability to run applications I need I will have updated to a newer handset that runs ICS natively.  

  • Notagain

    and some other phones with 600mhz and 256mb ram allready run another latest os.
    Something is really messed up here…

  • ozoneocean

    There were no limitations in regards to the original Tab, it could obviously easily manage both ICS and Touchwiz. The real issues obviously a cost benefit one- Samsung simply don’t think it’s worth their time and money anymore given it’s an older product that didn’t sell nearly as well as later models, of which their are plenty. They’d prefer you to upgrade, hence the rather moronic lie.