Samsung committed to upgrading the Behold II to Android 2.0. Now the company says it will only upgrade the phone to Android 1.6. Users are responding by preparing a class action lawsuit.
Earlier today a protest started with petitions and promises of forming a lawsuit if Samsung does not make good on its commitment.
Late today, Samsung posted a comment stating that they will upgrade the device to Android 1.6, but not 2.0 or higher. The company noted that this will deliver missing features such as Google Maps Navigation. However, it may be cold comfort for those that were promised the bug fixes and performance improvements that Android 2.0 delivers.
Samsung has not explained why the Behold II is not upgradable to Android 2.0. Even the T-Mobile G1, the first Android device to be launched in the United States, has been upgraded to Android 2.1. Google has gone on-record stating only that the G1 cannot be upgraded to Android 2.2, leaving it doubtable that Samsung is technically correct in their latest statement.
T-Mobile, the carrier for the Behold II in the United States, has not commented on the situation.
T Mobile keeps on choosing the wrong kind of handsets. The G1 does work with 2.1 I know.. I have one.. T Mobile should hire CyanogenMod who does wonders with Android. Thanks to him a G1 runs better with Android 2.1 than with 1.6 from T Mob, it runs faster and probably will deliver Froyo before T Mobile gets things right.
Whom ever is running the Android division for T Mobile is doing a HORRIBLE JOB. You will keep loosing customers, including my self if you guys don t offer something as good as an Incredible. The N1 is nice but the Incredible is nicer! And T Mob does not offer the N1 .. Google does.
A Garmin phone for 200 dollars… who wants it? the G1 with Android navigation in 40 of the continental US has worked wonders for me. Even when there was connection issues. Only once did it fail… and that was near Milford PA, yet it recovered faster than Sprint / ATT or Verizon so why would a Garmin phone with 1.6 seem interesting… its outdated, like the Behold. At least the My Touch Slide will go to 2.2. Its smooth but feels cheap in the plastic box, nothing like an Incredible or an iPhone.
T Mobile, you have a great network, great plans but HORRIBLE phones, make a difference and get your act together. If you buy phones from Samsung, make sure they commit cause for them BADA is a priority Android is not. With Sprint Samsung offers 2.1 with out live wallpapers, crippled again, like the behold. ITS A HUGE NONO to BUY Samsung Android phones, users beware.
T-Mobile unfortunately can’t hire anyone to make ROMs. It would transfer the liability for bugs from the manufacturer to the carrier… they don’t want that.
All T-Mobile can do is demand Samsung make up for this, somehow. If there is a technical problem with Samsung keeping their Android 2.0 promise, T-Mobile will likely have to setup some kind of trade-in program with Samsung… or risk a court ordering them to do that later on (with an expensive lawyer bill tacked on).
what are these companies thinking? First they verizon and att raise their etf to an outragous amount then verizon announces they will be getting away from unlimited plans and now this? Cmon fcc, do something. Maybe not about the unlimited plan but at least do something to try to protect the consumer.
Chris,
“T-Mobile unfortunately can’t hire anyone to make ROMs. It would transfer the liability for bugs from the manufacturer to the carrier.” I almost positive that the same clauses that indemnify companies like Dell and HP from lawsuits surrounding bugs in Microsoft windows also apply here. Your going to tell me that if T-Mobile said to Samsung, here is our Q&A Engineer who is very familiar with the Android OS and we would like him to oversee the configuration and customization of the operating environment for this device. The same support channels that currently exist for the Android platform would still be utilized to reproduce, diagnose and correct issues. I am a Microsoft Gold Partner and I am also a Lenovo Partner. I have a client that wants their laptops to arrive preconfigured for there environment. I order the laptops from Lenovo and use Lenovo tools to customize the Thinkpads including the built in recovery options. When the end user gets the notebook and they run through the OOBX it asks them a different set of configuration questions then the retail OOBX. This was not an easy configuration to get setup and working as flawlessly as it does now. Assistance came from the client, IBM, and Microsoft.
Doesn’t work that way when firmware is involved, sorry. Android uses open source licenses that bind all the code together. Dell and HP are using closed source licenses that provide the manufacturer with indemnity. Once the user opens the packaging and accepts the EULA, the manufacturer is protected.
People wonder why carriers and manufacturers liked Windows Mobile so much… this is one of the many reasons why. It took Apple’s exhibition of their epic fail to evolve before competition shook the fear out of the industry.
But don’t expect a carrier to cook firmware any time soon.
[…] timely updates. The manufacturer was forced to respond when an online petition campaign to file a class action lawsuit last month garnered significant media attention and led to an update to Android 1.6 instead of the […]
This whack ass phone has over damn near 268 problems and I named maybe all of them to Samsung a few months ago. They said they were looking into it, but looks like they lied AGAIN. It was a lie and a waste of money and they did nothing about it but give us 1.6 which mainly just changed the keyboard, everything that was wrong before is still there. I felt they could’ve atleast given new phones to people who bought the phone before the OTA upgrade. They got away with it and its wrong. Im still dealing with the problems of this phone even as I type this. Something needs to be done about this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
[…] is the most notorious of Android manufacturers for failing to make good on upgrades. The Samsung Behold II was stuck at Android 1.6 after being promised Android 2.0. The original Galaxy S line was briefly promised Android 4.0, […]