Samsung: TouchWiz Trumps Ice Cream Sandwich

By  |  Friday, December 23, 2011 at 9:14 pm

Geez, Samsung says that it won’t update its Galaxy S smartphones–like my Verizon Fascinate–to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich:

The company’s argument is that they lack sufficient RAM and ROM to run the new OS alongside TouchWiz and other “experience-enhancing” software. This will come as a massive blow to the great many users of the Galaxy S, who would have rightly expected the 1GHz Hummingbird processor and accompanying memory to be able to handle ICS — it’s the same hardware as you’ll find inside the Nexus S, and that phone is receiving Android 4.0 over the air right now.

I’d gladly give up TouchWiz for Ice Cream Sandwich. In a heartbeat. Would you?

 
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9 Comments For This Post

  1. Thepipe Says:
    December 23rd, 2011 at 9:31 pm

    TouchWiz? Who comes up with these names? What's next, the TouchPoo?

  2. Collins Says:
    December 24th, 2011 at 3:34 am

    I’ve given up on Android a while ago. It’s clear that neither Google nor the OEM’s/ODM’s are interested in supporting their products for more than six months. Cyanogenmod provided quite some relief to the pain, but it’s essentially a third party piece of software that’s not supposed to exist in the first place.

  3. Avro Says:
    December 25th, 2011 at 1:14 pm

    Scamsung?

    Want to see the latest Android phone?

    Don't blink and don't count on an update.

  4. B-Dub Says:
    December 25th, 2011 at 7:15 pm

    I agree with Collins. I like the concept with android being open source, but the phone carries lock the phone down. When I can upgrade, I am going to move to th iPhone because it is a well supported os.

  5. Xyzzy Says:
    December 25th, 2011 at 9:48 pm

    When I did a quick web-search, I found that even though Samsung isn't going to make the effort, the community has, and a ROM upgrade to ICS has already been released for the Galaxy S. That kind of thing is a big part of why I'm going to end up buying an Android phone — if the official source isn't willing to provide a particular functionality, often as not someone else will.

    But hey, I sure won't stop all of the Galaxy S owners that want to dump their phones… The more that do so, the lower the price will go, potentially making a non-ancient Android phone an option for someone like me that otherwise can't afford one.

  6. Trev Says:
    December 26th, 2011 at 11:59 pm

    All this talk is about the Galaxy S, but what about the Galaxy S2?
    From what I can gather, there is no mention of the Galaxy S2 being stuck with TouchWiz; so I can only assume that the S2 is still receiving ICS.

    Does anybody have any more information about ICS upgrade for the S2?

  7. bob smith Says:
    December 27th, 2011 at 6:00 am

    I'm never buying another Samsung product because of just how terrible their software support has been. I owned a Samsung Sync back in the day and I purchased a Galaxy S about a year ago when it was a penny on Amazon. It took them almost a year to put out an official 2.2 update, and I have yet to see 2.3, and it's been released over a year ago.

    Because of this I tell everyone I know, do not but a Samsung phone, it will never receive any future support. .

  8. Ted Says:
    December 27th, 2011 at 12:34 pm

    I have a Samsung Wave with Bada for an OS. What a name for an OS and what a turn off, even though it really not a "bad" OS. Can I have Android put on it? No. When it come to any support for the phone, OS or even there web site is by far the lousiest. Samsung is so busy in making very good product that they haven't the time for giving any support. Stupid or what?

  9. JohnakaRED Says:
    December 31st, 2011 at 9:38 am

    My Samsung Fascinate runs great on ICS —> http://goo.gl/NnKY8

    Then I add Go Launcher EX with the Touchwiz theme & I'm good to go! Or just leave ICS.

    jt1134 I think is the developer that does the CM7 for Fascinate.