Class action suit hits Samsung, T-Mo on Vibrant

A class action lawsuit was filed late Thursday by an XDA-Developers forum member over Samsung's allegedly intentional delays of Android 2.2 upgrades for the Vibrant. The complaint accuses both of violating the Uniform Deceptive Trade Practices Act for promising an update in the short term but delaying to the point where the Vibrant 4G would ship with the OS already onboard. The two companies hadn't lived up to promised fixes and was saving them for a new model, the new plaintiff said.

Aside from being locked out of recent features, the earlier attempted GPS fix hadn't fully solved the problems with poor positioning. Reliability and other bugs also persisted in the current Android 2.1 build. Samsung had promised 2.2 for all Galaxy S variants in the US in the "near future" on launch in June but hasn't rolled out any of them in the country, instead pushing updates in Canada, Europe and other countries.

Customer representatives have even been combative when asked about the problems, the forum member said.

Neither Samsung nor T-Mobile has commented on the lawsuit.

If certified as a class action case, the suit could bring the issue of Android fragmentation to a head. Samsung has historically been slow to push Android updates and has often, if informally, been accused of deliberately withholding updates in hopes of driving early hardware replacements. Phones like T-Mobile's Behold II were denied upgrades past 1.6 for supposedly insufficient specifications despite comparable phones getting 2.1.

At least some of the delay comes from Samsung's insistence on a custom interface and apps that prevent it from simply providing a straightforward upgrade. The Vibrant's equivalent with a pure version of Android, the Nexus S, has already had a minor update and should get any releases from Google as soon as they're available.

Google has repeatedly tried to deny any splintering effect in Android but has also made false statements about users having access to the same apps across versions. Without 2.2, the Vibrant can't use all of Google's Voice Actions as well as many of Google's own apps. Some third-party apps likewise require the new features.

By Electronista Staff