After word spread last week that Samsung’s Android 4.0 ICS upgrade list didn’t include an army full of Galaxy S smartphones and tablets, public reaction was pretty much unanimously negative. While Samsung can’t be expected to support older hardware indefinitely, we’re sure it would be hard to find anyone who considers the Galaxy S phones/tablets “outdated”, hardware-wise, in the slightest. But all is (potentially) not lost. A Korean newspaper by the name of AJ News is reporting that due to the negative public response, Samsung will re-evaluate their ICS plans and try to find a way to cram ICS onto the Galaxy S phone/tablet hardware.
We see this as a bittersweet victory for Galaxy S owners. On one hand, Samsung is doing what few Android manufacturers do — upgrade “old” hardware to the latest and greatest version of Android. On the flip side, the Galaxy S phones/tablets will no doubt see some features/eye candy cut from ICS due to limited memory on said devices. Of course, any Android enthusiast will immediately call out any potential memory issues as a moot issue should Samsung give up the horrendous TouchWiz interface. Such skins, as are commonly installed by manufacturers, take up a rather large chunk of memory as well as other system resources. Unfortunately, manufacturers use the skins to differentiate themselves from other competitors, so don’t go expecting Samsung to all of a sudden release a naked Android device.
Samsung hasn’t officially responded to our inquiries yet for more info, but rest assured that we’ll update you as soon as we hear back.
