[Epic 4G General] heathmcabee:
Seith Weintraub over at Fortune Magazine published a really great article today in response to Apple Fan Boy MG Siegler’s article about IOS updates. Now of course most of you know even though Mr. Paris Lemon is a deep mac boy we have a overall Tech Crunch Fans. However, MG or (Lemon if that’s what you prefer to call him) said that 90% of IOS users were on the most updated version of IOS and Android users, aboud .4% had a chance of being on the latest version. Seth, quick to help us out, pointed out that 90% of Android users are on 2.XX while 52% are on 2.2, yes we know that 2.3 is out now.

Everyone is also very aware of all the name calling, insult throwing, accusations and blowback Samsung is receiving because they are holding back an Android 2.2 upgrade on all 4 US major carrier Galaxy S devices just because they have the Samsung Vibrant 4G coming out in a few weeks on T-Mobile. That’s right the Verizon Fascinate, the Sprint Epic 4G and the AT&T Captivate are all being held back simply because of the T-Mobile device.. right? OF COURSE NOT!

Most of the other Galaxy S variants in every other country in the world have already received an upgrade to 2.2 via KIES or by way of an OTA through their carrier. The first thing we need to know in America is that Kies is not readily available to us. This is by way of the CARRIER and not Samsung.

The second thing you need to take into consideration, kind of like Android as a whole, is that a lot of the Samsung Galaxy S’ were acutally sold OUTSIDE of the United States. So to me the logic that Samsung only cares about the bottom line can be debated by the argument than why did all the other countries get the update quicker.

Hopefully you’re following me so far and the rest of this will just end up pissing people off.

- Many of the people whining about Samsung updates and bashing Samsung in general don’t own a Samsung phone. Or don’t use one on a regular basis. Remeber according to Andy Ruben we are activating 300,000 Android devices per day. A lot of those are for normal consumer people. The bulk of the readers of the tech blog readers, writers and community aren’t normal “consumers”. The normal consumers get upset when they start hearing about these updates through their tech savvy friends and then feel slighted.

- Most of the Samsung Galaxy S variants came with Android 2.1 in a modified form with touchwiz on top, couple that with the hardware (superAMOLED screen, 1ghz hummingbird processor) etc and the proprietary social hub, media hub etc, that actual normal consumers are taking advantage of you still have a pretty darn good, up to date device. We aren’t talking Sony Xperia here that released with 1.6 we’re talking about a version of 2.1 that was fancy schmancy at the time. Add to that the fact that both the Fascinate and the Epic 4G included Mobile Hotspot (one of the key features from 2.2) and what out of this world, oh my god my phone is so outdated, feature are the general public Samsung customers missing?

- The next thing we have to realize is the way America works. There is a lot more bureacracy from the government and carrier politics from our wireless carriers than most other countries. There is a lot of red tape for everything that happens in the wireless industry on the carrier/manufacturer side than any other country in the world. Take kies for instance if America had access to kies everyone with a Samsung Galaxy S phone would be upgraded.

Now take your active Android Evangelists, ones with a passionate heart and a vested interest in Android who actually own a Samsung Galaxy S phone. Your @theandroidgirl and @raywalters for instance, these people, among countless others who are on twitter and podcasts and were big enough believers to purchase a Samsung Galaxy S variant, and who may have partially based their decision on the fact that Samsung did say (at least at IFA) that we would see Froyo by the end of 2010, these people have legitimate complaints to the source.

Of course its also very disheartening that Samsung obviously has the source code for 2.3 as it’s running on the Nexus S today. And Gingerbread is a whole different issue.

For our followers on Samsung Galaxy S US Variants, we feel for you but have a challenge:

In the comments below, tell us what you are looking for out of Froyo that you aren’t getting out of the modified version of 2.1 that’s on your Galaxy S now?

Why should you do this? Take a trip over to samsung.com and you will see that thedroidguy is one of the twitter accounts featured on Samsung’s website. Trust me comments here will be seen by people that matter at Samsung. And for the record, even as someone who genuinely suports Samsung, we are very disappointed in this whole Samsung upgrade mess and definitely feel let down that US users didnt get a Froyo update in 2010. And also for the record as far as the phones I am currently using, my 1st use phone is a Droid Pro, 2nd is a Samsung Nexus S and 3rd is an HTC Desire.

Source: http://thedroidguy.com/2011/01/the-samsung-android-update-debacle-now-hear-this/