No Room for Android OS 4.0 on Last Year's Samsung Smartphones

There's bad news for those who bought a Samsung smartphone introduced last year: there will not be an official Android OS 4.0 upgrade for your device. This is because these devices' ROM doesn't have enough room for the new OS and Samsung's TouchWiz.

The ROM (Read Only Memory) is the place where a phone stores its operating system. As Samsung explained in a blog post, when the original Galaxy S was being designed last year the company didn't put in a large enough ROM for both the new version of Google's Android and Samsung's proprietary user interface, TouchWiz.

Some the U.S. might be wondering why they should care about the Galaxy S, a device they've never heard of. That's because this smartphone was released under a number of different names in this country. It was the Samsung Captivate from AT&T, the Samsung Fascinate from Verizon, the Samsung Epic 4G from Sprint, and the Samsung Vibrant from T-Mobile.

An Alternate Solution
For many, the answer to this problem is obvious: get rid of TouchWiz and there'll be room in the Galaxy S's ROM for Android OS 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich). This isn't, however, a solution that appeals to Samsung. That won't stop the community of people who make a hobby of tinkering with Android and releasing versions for unsupported devices, though.

There are just a few Samsung models that won't have to turn to a third party to get their OS 4.0. One for the Nexus S has already started going out (though it has run into problems) and an upgrade for the Galaxy S II will be available next year.

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