If you’ve been keeping up with this epic debacle with T-Mobile and Samsung regarding the Samsung Vibrant, you know that Samsung AND T-Mobile have been accused of holding back a Froyo update from the Vibrant so that they might have better sales of the Vibrant 4G+. These accusations were made by a source inside either Samsung or T-Mobile. The response to this story was a torrent of comments and tweets and all that good stuff on how everyone hated the situation and both companies involved in it. Then it got interesting…
The first big response TODAY (this inside comment came out yesterday) was from a fellow on XDA Developer Forums who said he was initiating a Class-Action Lawsuit against both T-Mobile and Samsung over what he says are unfair and deceptive business practices. After that, there was a sort of response to that (and the Fascinate situation) in the form of a Twitter revolt! This revolt is still going on, of course, and you can find it on Twitter by searching for the hashtag #NeverAgain.
Now here, not a half hour ago, Samsung has responded (to CNET who had asked them for a comment or statement on the situation.) Samsung said thus:
Samsung Mobile does not comment on rumors or speculation. With regard to the Froyo update, we recently issued the following statement: “Samsung feels it is important to make the Android 2.2/Froyo upgrade available only after we feel that we can give the millions of U.S. Galaxy S owners a simple and reliable upgrade experience. Due to the complexity and unique functionality of each Galaxy S device, we are performing additional testing and are working to make the Android 2.2/Froyo upgrade available to all U.S. Galaxy S owners, including the Samsung Vibrant, as soon as possible.
So actually… did they really say anything? Not really. These business types are really really good at covering their butts before they get legal-punched in the jaw, but it seems like they may have been too late, or perhaps even have gone too far this time.
What do you think? Was their response enough to qualm your rage?
This conversation continues in this subject in the Android Community forums:
[Via CNET]
Nope, going to root and ROM my phone this weekend. I was holding out for samsung, but I’m giving up on them
First off, I know for a fact that Samsung is working on 2.2 for the Vibrant. I just flashed KA5 on it and have flashed 5 other 2.2 roms before that. So they are indeed working on the update. Now as to the issues with this phones hardware I must say that the GPS is bad enough to warrent a trade in or upgrade. As for this new phone that Samsung is releasing on T-Mobile how does that hold up the other three carriers? Now don’t take me as defending Samsung, but come on, they are doing this to ALL the carriers even though the other carriers are not receiving new updated device. Now how do I feel directly about this… Well after my blowup, and many others, on T-Mobiles Behold2 debacle you really cannot blame Samsung for wanting to make sure that everything is in perfect order. And yea we American’s can be the worst to complain about something 🙂 so we are being left for last to assure that everything is going to be just right.
I have a sprint samsung transform and we was suppose to also get the grotto 2.2 at the end of December 2010 and nothing has been done yet and no one will give us and dates of when we will get the update and we was promised when we brought this phone.
Samsung update all Galaxy smarthphone version in Brazil today.
I purchase my Vibrant the first week it came out. My black berry broke and I started looking for a new phone, I knew I wanted a Android base phone, and I found the Vibrant. Since then, I got two of my friends to buy this phone, and one of them took advantage of the two for one deal, so in total three phones, or four if you count my phone.
I find it sad that in six month since release, that Samsung is still working on the 2.2 release. Come on 2.3 is coming out soon and we are still waiting for 2.2? But yet they can get the Media Hub running. And the GPS update? It seems like it screwed up my phone.
I’m glad I purchased an Android base phone, but regret this phone. First time and last time I buy a Samsung phone. To think, this series of phones was Samsung first real attempt at entering the market with a smartphone.
Same PR crap they have been saying for a while.
@Reddragon It’s not really about the T-Mobile hearsay, that just caused it to boil over. Most International GalaxyS phones have Froyo, given, our radios are different, but wth? 7 months of promises to upgrade, and they are putting out new devices with Froyo, gingerbread, and even Tablets with Honeycomb in a month or so? Flagship device my butt.
Several other carriers DO have new GalaxyS variants on the horizon…
First it was September, then December… now we’re 1/2 way through January. Sick of waiting. I was holding off, but now I have decided I am going to flash my Vibrant with the Froyo ROM.. at least it will get rid of some of that uninstallable crapware as well.
I’ll be very skeptical before buying another Samsung phone in the future.
well i have to say this to all u samsung android users. when ppl claim that the nexus one phone fail this particular reason is why it didnt. stock android is the answer to all this update problems. to much versions of android out there to worry about. pure google experience phone thats the nexus will always beat other versions of android. invest in a nexus pure google phone and u will not have to worry about any carrier or company holding back updates that google want u to have. trust me its worth it. i know some of u dont want to switch to t-mobile to do so. so if u are on at&t or verizon HTC & MOTOROLA seem to have the best update rating IMO.
The quote about the reliable update for USA has been printed a hundred times per day on the galaxys twitter account (@GalaxySsupport). It is their canned response. The statement is nothing new.
If they can put several new phones out with 2.2 then I don’t see how it could be this hard to push an update… I work for one of the U.S. providers and seeing moto and htc phones get 2.2, even tho a bit buggy at first, it is an achievable task, I hope this is a learning experience for manufactures and providers.
I had just spelled out this scenario in some comments about a week ago. I believe these OEMs and carriers are toying with not doing any updates to keep you buying phones. And they wont change unless we complain. I say a petition needs to be started as well stating that well spend our android dollars only with.companies that have a two year timely upgrade guarantee. If modders can have ROMs out in weeks with all their customizatiins there’s no way in hell the major corps should take this long.
Class action lawsuit won’t get very far unless it’s settled as a nuisance. I can’t imagine a court giving any merit to the expectation that if you bought a phone with Android 2.1 on it that you’d be guaranteed an upgrade to 2.2 unless you have some contract language in your purchase.
I don’t recall being guaranteed **any** software updates when I’ve purchased any smartphone, be it Apple or Android, HTC or Samsung. Does it say anywhere in the purchase agreement or carrier service contract that your particular device is guaranteed to get future OS upgrades? I didn’t see it in mine…
Just stop buying Samsung products. They’ll get the point and change, or they’ll go out of business, or more likely, the MILLIONS of non-geek, non-blog, non-ROM flashing, non-AndroidCommunity member owners of the Vibrant who are having blissfully ignorant happy lives with their 2.1 phones will just keep buying and keep Samsung won’t notice the difference.
The advertising about it being fully upgradable to android 2.2 is their contact with us that is why I bought it in the first place in august the samsung site stated that it was fully upgradable and would receive the upgrade soon so rather than wait I bought based on their advertising on their site. If it weren’t for that advertising making it appear that the vibrant was going to continue to be a competitive product it would have been very close to being considered out moded by the new android 2.2 devices coming out.
that comment had been released months before the lawsuit came into existence.
Thank Samsung for making me a better consumer. I now know that I did not due sufficient research before buying the Vibrant. If I had spent some time online I would have known that Samsung’s mission statement is Yesterday’s Software Tomorrow. Thanks Samsung and T-Mobile for the teaching moment.
I own a Galaxy S for regional carrier US Cellular. It’s branded name is the Mesmerize, and it’s very much the same as the Fascinate. As per the US Cellular website, and the sales-floor people in the US Cellular corporate store, the phone would be gettin Froyo by the end of December. I purchased my phone a month ago, thinkin that with 2.3 on the horizon, surely 2.2 would be available on their “flagship” product.
Well, I too think Samsung’s promise is “yesterday’s software tomorrow”, une where it showed the websitless you have a Nexus S which uses vanilla Android.
How I wish that they would deliver on their promise; had I known they wouldn’t be timely with the update I would’ve gone with a different phone, probably the LG Optimus U.. Samsung AND my carrier promised an upgrade as part of the sales pitch; when i made it known my concern for the fact it was running outdated nearly year old software I was steered toward the upgrade path being end of December or earlier..
Now we are finding out that every other SGS device has gotten 2.2, and despite the sales pitch, we are still waiting. And the worst part is the fact XDA-Dev peeps can come up with 2.2 and even 2.3 variants that are good enough for daily use with FAR less resources available. If someone can do it in spare time, without proper source nor full proprietary knowledge of every bit of the phone, why can’t the manufacturer? Of course since I am using the smallest-released of the SGS devices in the US, the resources devoted by XDA devs are fewer than for any other device which makes me that much dependent upon Samsung for my update since even if I wanted to root and update, I CAN’T!
They have been able to do it time and time again in
country after country.. reliably enough that I don’t hear as many complaints as I do from those of us without the updates. This is ridiculous. If companies want to withhold updates, they should unlock the bootloader and let us do whatever we wish without voiding our warranty. That would take culpability for updates out of their hands. The braindead of the world who don’t know what they are missing in 2.2/2.3 wouldn’t care, and the rest of us would be happier than ever.
If 2.2 does hit but 2.3 never does, this will be the last Samsung phone I ever buy. Samsung has 2nd gen SGS coming within a few months, and my 2nd line is due for an upgrade within 6.. I’ll be looking elsewhere for my next Tegra 2 “super phone”-courtesy this learning experience provided by Samsung.
Just got off the phone with tmobile rep on sunday january 16th, at 540 CST. rep stated that the update for the vibrant will start being sent out jan 17th and should be completed by the 31st. I’m going to call again and see if another rep tells me the same thing.
I want my update just like everyone else, especially when all hear is about how new apps require froyo or how your will achieve eternal enlightenment with froyo. But in all honesty, the Vibrant is a kick-ss piece of gear and works great for me. I’ve noticed the occasional glitch with my GPS and the way samsung/tmobile have hdandled this update situation is unacceptable and we should all be compensated in some way shape or form, but its not necessarily going to stop me from buying Samsung. I love my vibrant and its easily the best/ most complete fone i have ever owned (was a blackberry user for 8yrs)
If the rumors are true, my issue is with TMobile for promising us proper service and now trying to force Samsung to change their agreement. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not giving Samsung a free pass here but it seems like US carriers always have some issue that we consumers are forced to deal with, be it taxes and fees or shoddy reception. I don’t hear people in Canada or the UK complaining as much as we do…my 2 cents
Samsung made the the Nexus S phone and it has Gingerbread already on it. They know EXACTLY how to make the Galaxy phones work with Froyo and Gingerbread. Why don’t they do it? One of the best(or maybe the worst) phone companies out there and they can’t figure this out by now? The innovators can’t fix a software update? I think they are messing with all their customers. They already have our money.
Just wait until you find out there has been a hardware bug all along and that is why the update has been stopped several times.
Samsung has been purposely deceiving about this. What is worse is that Verizon and AT&T who do have the leverage to push for the release has held back. Is it that they have been told about it and made some sweetheart deal?