Samsung Galaxy S and Galaxy Tab owners have been on a bit of a rollercoaster the past couple of weeks. First, Samsung said that neither device would be updated to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich due to hardware limitations like a lack of RAM and ROM. Then the hopes of those users were raised a bit when a report surfaced claiming that Samsung was reevaluating its upgrade plans and would look into ways to make an ICS update happen. Most recently the situation went slightly downhill, though, as rumors about a "Value Pack" being in the works for the Galaxy S that would bring some ICS tweaks and goodies to the device in lieu of an actual update to Android 4.0. Unfortunately, things are now pretty much back where they started, as a Samsung spokesperson has told The Next Web that the company won't be releasing the update due to the hardware specs of the older Galaxy devices. The spokesperson explained that the products "are limited to and fully optimised for the Gingerbread experience."
This news is definitely kind of a bummer for all of you Galaxy S and Tab folk out there, but it's good that we've gotten word on the matter from a Samsung representative. As I said in a previous post, though, with around 20 million Galaxy S devices (and probably quite a few Tabs as well) out in the wild, the Android community will likely be cooking up some goodies for both devices. We'll continue to keep an eye on the situation in case this rollercoaster ride continues, but you Galaxy S and Tab folk hungry for an Ice Cream Sandwich would probably be wise to begin your custom ROM hunt.
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