Is Samsung More Worried About Deadlines than Reliable Tech
posted Friday May 18, 2018 by Scott Ertz
2018 hasn't been a great year for Samsung. It's not been the PR disaster that was 2016, but it's not been smooth sailing. In 2016, Samsung famously had the Galaxy Note7 devices explode under a variety of scenarios. Even after ending sales, a product recall and "fixing the issue," devices kept sacrificing themselves to the gods of battery technology. The company also had a recall on certain washing machines because the appliances were... wait for it: exploding.
2018 has seen a number of PR issues for the company, but nothing in the realm of product explosions. Instead, the issues facing the company have come from update issues. Early in the year, the company issued the Oreo update for Galaxy S8, S8+ and T-Mobile version of the Note 8 phones, several months after the update was made available on other devices. Shortly after the update was released, it was pulled, because it was causing numerous issues on handsets, but mainly random restarts.
This week, we saw an almost identical story unfold, as Samsung finally began rolling out the Oreo update to the Galaxy S7 and S7Edge phones, months after the S8 problems. Unfortunately, the company had to pull the update because, surprise, the phones in question began random restarts, just like their younger siblings. After 2 days, the update was fixed and re-released to the public.
This is a disturbing trend from one of the largest electronics manufacturers in the world. It feels like Samsung is more interested in responding to negative reports than actually making a product that people need. Being so late to the Android Oreo party was generating negative press for the company. Why would the largest manufacturer of Android phones in the world have so much trouble releasing the latest version of Android to their flagship devices? In an apparent attempt to best the heat, they jumped directly into it, rushing the update without the proper amount of testing, despite months of additional time.
Rushing on their phone updates isn't the only place where they're having problems, either. Samsung was #9 on LAPTOP Mag's Laptop Showdown this year, prompting Sherri to recommend they give up the ghost. While we would never suggest that they give up on building Android phones, we do need them to put more of an effort into supporting the devices that are already in the field. 6 months is too long to wait for an update, and breaking those phones with the update is unacceptable behavior.
