In what’s becoming all too common, the Samsung Galaxy S Gingerbread update is going anything but smoothly. In fact, Google has temporarily suspended the OS upgrade, which Vodafone confirmed this morning.
Google officially introduced Android 2.3 (codenames Gingerbread) all the way back in December. Its release was meant to coincide with the debut of the Nexus S, and since then has been slowly trickling out to other devices. As of the beginning of March, the Android team revealed that Gingerbread users were far and away in the minority, and most users were stuck on Android 2.2. Clearly, Google has had some fragmentation issues when it comes to OS updates, issues it’s at least attempting to circumvent.
But that isn’t to say that this is an Android-specific issue. Samsung is swiftly becoming synonymous with thwarted OS updates. In February, the first Windows Phone 7 update infamously bricked various Samsung devices, and the manufacturers delay in its Froyo update drew some unwanted attention. And now Gingerbread is its latest victim. Google planned to roll the update out to European Galaxy S devices this past weekend, but Vodafone has confirmed that it has now been halted on Google’s end. Vodafone does point out that their own Galaxy S handsets have “no known performance issues” with the Gingerbread update, and that it’s “working with Samsung to reinstate the roll out as soon as possible.”
No word from Google or Samsung on the update fiasco, and you can bet that your Galaxy S Gingerbread update will be delayed.