That means ~10 million people who bought the phone are going to be stuck on the outdated version 2.3 Gingerbread (or 2.2 Froyo in many cases) until they decide to drop more cash on a new phone.

via How Samsung Just Screwed Over About 10 Million Of Its Android Phone Customers – Business Insider.

It’s pointless to support old hardware on phones.  I wonder why this is even an issue?

This is an interesting point I didn’t know and relates to computer architecture.

It also demonstrates the inherent problem in Android phone manufacturers customizing the OS to the point where you can barely recognize Google’s original intentions for design and functionality. Those skins are such a tax on a phone’s hardware that it cripples functionality and makes it so all but the newest phones miss out on updates. So far, Samsung only guarantees Ice Cream Sandwich for its Galaxy S II phones. The Nexus S, which is also made by Samsung and shares similar hardware specs as many Galaxy S phones, will get the Ice Cream Sandwich update, but only because it uses a pure version of Android without the TouchWiz skin. Motorola only guarantees it for its latest Droid Razr. And HTC will issue Ice Cream Sandwich for the Rezoundsome time next year.