Original Galaxy Tab and Galaxy S phones not getting Ice Cream Sandwich, Samsung explains why
Sometimes, carriers and manufacturers just don't pull through for their customers. And when they don't, it's very disappointing and even a bit mean to those customers who purchased products from them. Today, the culprit is Samsung, and the victims are the owners of any phone from the original Galaxy S line and of the original Galaxy Tab.
The worst part of this isn't even the fact that owners of any of the aforementioned devices won't be getting an official ICS ROM. The worst part is Samsung's explanation. The company posted a post on its Korean Samsung Tomorrow blog that details its decision.
The gist of the post is that the original Galaxy Tab and Galaxy S phones simply cannot run Ice Cream Sandwich with TouchWiz efficiently enough to warrant an official update. And yes, you read that right: TouchWiz is bogging down the phones.
The phones are certainly capable of running stock ICS, but Samsung obviously can't bring itself to push an update for any of its phones without slapping on TouchWiz. Oh, and by the way, the Nexus S has practically the same insides as the Galaxy S phones. The hardware can handle stock software; Samsung just has an ego issue and won't do it.
If you're a serious Android fan, you probably don't care. You'll simply root your device and flash an ICS ROM, anyway. But it just goes to show you that manufacturers are contributing to Android fragmentation: the Galaxy S line is only a little over one year old.
[Samsung Tomorrow (Korean)]