As I’ve mentioned ad-nauseum in my cellphone reviews, I’m not a huge fan of device manufacturers’ “skinning” of operating systems. While much of that can be chalked up to personal taste, there’s also the demonstrated fact that they directly impact future updates. Sony’s RachelUI kept the Xperia x10 from getting Android 2.3.4 (Gingerbread) until fairly recently. In an amusing turn of events, Dell just pushed the Gingerbread update out for the Dell Streak — a device that is beyond discontinued: Dell has actually just recently canceled the entire product line. The hold up? Likely Dell’s hideous StageUI skin.
And to add insult to injury, they're leaving the 7" model un-upgraded and ugly.
We’re now seeing reports that Samsung will be shooting their fans in the foot. The original Galaxy Tab and the insanely popular Samsung Galaxy S won’t have Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich, known affectionately as ICS). What makes this all the more frustrating is that the Galaxy S’s un-skinned sibling, The Nexus S, is currently getting ICS as an over-the-air update.
Tasty looking, ain't it?
The reason isn’t hardware, but software. The Nexus S gives you a pure, unskinned Android experience. The Galaxy S and Tab, however, are skinned up via TouchWiz. Samsung tries to justify this by saying the Galaxy has to deal with carrier services and whatnot, but that’s simply bull.
Basically, Samsung and other providers are making people choose between keeping their phone and having an old OS, upgrading their handset, or learning how to install a custom Android distribution like Cyanogen. People like myself are always down for option three, but that’s not really something the average user is into.
Sure, it’s not the end of the world, but it’s frustrating to see perfectly good hardware crippled by something so arbitrary.
I totally agree, and it’s one of the things that drive me mad about Android. What’s more, at least in Europe the skinning goes beyond manufacturers and affects even the same devices sold from different carriers. My sister got herself Vodafone customized HTC Wildfire, and yes, it sure isn’t the fastest, most featured packed device out there, but the HTC-Vodafone customized Froyo UI simply made the device crawl and battery drain while the phone was idle was insane.
After installing her a custom distribution (basically the one that came with the retail non-carrier customized version of the HTC Wildfire) the device started working like a charm.
As for myself, yes, iOS may have it’s annoying Apple crafted limitations, but for me they’re a fair trade off in exchange of its unparalelled user experience and lack of manufacturer/carrier “brilliant” add-ons