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[glynor]

Someone just put up a really interesting, if true, post over on the XDA-Developer's forum which addresses why Samsung hasn't released an update for their Galaxy S phones to FroYo (Android 2.2) in the US, much less one to Gingerbread.  For the FroYo update, it makes very little sense that we are still stuck on Android 2.1 here in the US, since many Galaxy S variants overseas have long had the update installed.  Further, since the internals of the Nexus S are essentially identical to the existing Galaxy S phones, and the Nexus S runs Gingerbread, it would stand to reason that even Gingerbread updates would be a relatively simple matter (though that assumes that the skin they use was designed rationally).

If what this guy reports is true, and it makes very good sense, then the answer is simple.  Money.

To explain the political situation, first, a primer on how phone firmware upgrades work for carriers. When a carrier decides to sell a phone, a contract is usually written between the phone manufacturer and the carrier. In this contract, the cost of updates (to the carrier) is usually outlined. Updates are usually broken into several types: critical updates, maintenance updates, and feature updates. Critical updates are those that resolve a critical bug in the phone, such as the phone overheating. Maintenance updates involve routine updates to resolve bugs and other issues reported by the carrier. Finally, feature updates add some new feature in software that wasn’t present before. Critical updates are usually free, maintenance updates have some maintenance fee associated with them, and feature updates are usually costly.
In the past, most phone updates would mainly consist of critical and maintenance updates. Carriers almost never want to incur the cost of a feature update because it is of little benefit to them, adds little to the device, and involves a lot of testing on the carrier end. Android has changed the playing field, however – since the Android Open Source Project is constantly being updated, and that information being made widely available to the public, there is pressure for the phone to be constantly updated with the latest version of Android. With most manufacturers, such as HTC, Motorola, etc. This is fine and considered a maintenance upgrade. Samsung, however, considers it a feature update, and requires carriers to pay a per device update fee for each incremental Android update.

Now, here’s where the politics come in: most U.S. carriers aren’t very happy with Samsung’s decision to charge for Android updates as feature updates, especially since they are essentially charging for the Android Open Source Project’s efforts, and the effort on Samsung’s end is rather minimal. As a result of perhaps, corporate collusion, all U.S. carriers have decided to refuse to pay for the Android 2.2 update, in hopes that the devaluation of the Galaxy S line will cause Samsung to drop their fees and give the update to the carriers. The situation has panned out differently in other parts of the world, but this is the situation in the United States.

[gvanbrunt]

I know this post is kind of old, but I just saw it now...

I didn't realize there still wasn't an update in the US for Galaxy S. I had mine patched to Froyo last summer so I haven't really cared about carrier upgrades. That phone is a real shame. For such a nice piece of hardware, the software has something to be desired even for the non NA ones. The lag problem was never properly addressed so you have to run a hacked ROM if want to eliminate it. I really don't know why Samsung refuses to get rid of the rds file system that causes it.

I think part of the reason the NA carries might be reluctant to pay for the upgrade is that there are many problems that are still not fixed in the phone. I recently switched to a Nexus S and I can tell you so far the only downside I see is that it doesn't have an SD card slot. Gone are the GPS, lag and other issues.

The other thing is that all the phone makers seem to think they have to create "special" versions of Android. They can't just tweak the setup and drivers for the hardware, they seem to want to try to add their own features etc. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Look at the PC market. No one bothers to try to "hot rod" the included OS anymore. They used to, but it had more problems than gains. They need to start following this model, but I suspect the carriers are opposed as it is "uncharted" territory.

It will be interesting to see where this goes over the next couple of years. My guess is it will be the same as the PC world. They will have more updates, but fewer custom features. The manufacturers will concentrate on making good hardware etc and leave the software to Google.