Samsung, as with HTC and — until a few months ago — Motorola, is a primarily a hardware company. They only make a buck when that device is purchased by a carrier or individual. Thereafter, every ounce of effort it puts into producing an update for devices already on the market eats into its profit on that sale.For short-term, yes, I agree with his reasoning. Why invest to give customers the best experience when you won't be making any more money off them? Except, when you do, you will. When you take care of customers by providing good after-sales services, they'll become recurring customers. It's called brand loyalty. There's a saying: "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me."
Samsung Won't Update Galaxy S to ICS. Why Not?
Samsung has announced that it will not update the Galaxy S to Android Ice Cream Sandwich. Given the popularity of the device, technology journalists have come out to voice their opinions. Vlad Savov of The Verge expressed his disappointment at Samsung's decision. "As an owner of a Galaxy S, I would feel betrayed. As a technology journalist, I am appalled," he wrote. Those are strong words, but not necessarily off-base. Years back, I had a similar experience with my Symbian-powered Nokia N82. For reasons that remained unknown to me, the Finnish handset manufacturer decided not to deliver an OS update, while another device with an almost identical hardware--but released much later--received one. Let me tell you this, I despise Nokia for that to this day. I was so unhappy that I vowed not to purchase a Nokia device ever again, and that N82 was the last one I owned. With the massive reforms at Nokia, I might give them another chance, but not until I can be sure that a similar situation won't occur again. I wholeheartedly agree with the question posed by Savov's article: "If Samsung doesn't care about customers, how can it hope to keep them?" That's true for any handset manufacturers, not only Samsung. Matthew Panzarino of The Next Web has a different opinion. He concludes that Samsung shouldn't be blamed because Android has problems as a platform. He reasons that Samsung, and other Android partners, have no incentive to deliver OS updates to customers.