Vodafone has made itself a few more internet enemies over the last few days, after rolling out a “branding” update for the Samsung Galaxy S it supplied to its contract customers.
The network has pushed out an update to the Galaxy S phone’s Android 2.1 OS that’s packed with Vodafone-branded features and apps, in a situation that perfectly mirrors that of the HTC Desire branding update nightmare.
Galaxy S owners on Vodafone who applied the latest over-the-air Android update now find themselves with the suite of Vodafone 360 apps on their phones, along with some unremovable game demos and shortcuts to Vodafone services. Which is a very odd thing for the network to do, after HTC Desire owners reacted with MASS FURY over the same situation a handful of weeks previously.
Read a select sample of user anger over on the Vodafone forums. Link via Phandroid.
It’s smooth to use, the 1080p display is sharp, clear and bright, the device is extremely light and thin and therefore very pocketable and portable — much more so than other 5-inch phones we’ve used. And yet… we’re a bit unimpressed by the overall package…
A relatively high-spec smartphone, with a 4.5″ display running at 480 x 854 resolution and powered by a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, plus the Ascend G510 arrives running Android 4.1.1 — albeit potentially hindered by Huawei only sticking 512MB of RAM inside it..
The Panasonic Eluga marks the company’s return to the European mobile phone scene years after several years of absence, and it’s come back to us with a moderately high-spec Android model that features a rather stylish, slim case.
Sony returns with an all-new mobile design for 2012, pairing a dual-core processor with a 720p display. It’s a lovely phone, but is it enough to end our Samsung and HTC obsession?
LG’s updated Prada phone comes with an absolutely crazy black & white theme, but is it just for fashionable suit wearers who want to make themselves look a bit more interesting?
Rik
/ September 21, 2010After the Desire fiasco, surely you would think Vodafone would have learnt their lesson!
Herman
/ September 22, 2010I think the forum topic referred to has been deleted already.
I’m really thinking of just buying a phone and getting a cheap, seperate, plan. Or at least inform about crap like this.
I’m not going into details what they should do to the people who decide to mess up phones with bloatware, but it involves gorillas and rape.
EssexJames
/ September 30, 2010It’s sheer arrogance by Vodafone. They are a carrier, not a phone software designer. There testing is not up to standard of a handset manufacturer from either a functional or non-functional perspective. They force their adverts, splashscreens and apps onto smartphones and then they are surprised when users complain. The tech-savvy people who buy smartphones don’t want Vodafone’s rubbish on their devices. What is really bad is that they’d already tried it before with the HTC Desire and had to back track. I can imagine the conversation over the Galaxy S:
A:”So, we have the update ready for the users, with all the snazzy Vodafone branding and features we think the users will love”.
B: “But we tried this with the HTC and the users didn’t like it. We had to reverse it”
A: “Users will get used to it. We must just stand our ground”
B: “That doesn’t sound very customer-focused”
A: “We need to make more money somehow though”
B: “The users won’t like it”
A: “We won’t tell them in advance – we don’t want them skipping the upgrade”
B: “It sounds dodgy to me”
A: “Welcome to Vodafone”
Kirsty_Vodafone
/ October 14, 2010Hi There
We’re continuing to look into this matter and please rest assured we’re listening to your feedback. Our technical team is now working on a resolution to give Galaxy S users more choice over how they use 360 services, including the option to remove them. This is being looked at as a priority and as soon as we’ve got confirmed details we’ll share them with you.
In the meantime, we can tell you that it’s likely we’ll implement these changes through the forthcoming Android 2.2 update. This may mean there is a slight delay in delivering Android 2.2 to you because, due to the newly planned changes, the current version has to be re-worked and tested but we hope our variant will follow soon after Samsung releases the open market version.
Kirsty
Web Relations Team
Vodafone UK
MrChaz
/ October 15, 2010Or you could not mess with 2.2 and release it.
Then you could do whatever rubbish you want after and people will shout at you less for delaying a release to add bloatware