The difficulty With Android Updates, Again (Or: Why Samsung Galaxy Phones Are Stuck long ago) [Unconfirmed]

In case you own a Samsung Galaxy Android device, there’s a superb opportunity you’re expecting an update to the second-most-recent release of Android, version 2.2, aka Froyo. It has not arrived! A purported insider explains why . Short version: Money.

As commenter The Samsung Secret tells it on XDA developers , there are a couple of sorts of updates for phones. Namely, critical, maintenance and feature updates. Phonemakers develop and release them, based on a contract they sign with a carrier. Critical updates, resolving a crazy bug are provided to carriers from phonemakers for gratis; maintenance updates, the routine ones, ” have some maintenance fee associated with them” ; and at last, in line with their account, feature updates, which add new things, ” are frequently costly.”

According to him (or her!), Samsung considers major Android updates to be a feature update, and ” requires carriers to pay a per device update fee for each incremental Android update.” (Unlike other major Android phonemakers, who this person says do not charge for Android updates. And indeed, we verified with a prime Android phonemaker that they don’t charge carriers for giant Android releases, so that’s not routine.) Anyway, in keeping with this person, carriers don’t wish to pay for these updates. Or as they put it, ” all U.S. carriers have decided to refuse to pay for the Android 2.2 update, in hopes that the devaluation of the Galaxy S line will cause Samsung to drop their fees and give the update to the carriers.”

It’s worth noting that Samsung’s international Galaxy phones had been updated to 2.2-it’s just america ones which are stuck on 2.1. And they’ve been resoundingly opaque on when the updates are coming.

We’ve reached out to a couple carriers, together with Samsung, for some comment on the allegations, but haven’t heard anything as of press time. If they must something to add, we’ll update. Whatever the case may well be, something’s certainly true: The update to Android 2.2 hasn’t arrived for Samsung phones, although it has for others, and some vocal section of Galaxy owners are commencing to get antsy.

(Be at liberty to make your personal comments concerning the irony of Samsung making the Nexus S , the best device running the latest, best version of Android .) [ XDA developers via Lifehacker ]

Source

This post is tagged: account feature, charge carriers, critical maintenance, critical updates, maintenance fee, maintenance updates, worth noting that