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The Samsung Galaxy Beam had the potential to be a pretty innovative device with it’s built in projector for playing your media nice and big on any surface without the need for TV hookups. To that extent, it accomplished its goal, but its limited distribution gimped the phone from making any sort of larger impact. As it stands the Beam has only been available in Singapore with no plans to release it elsewhere announced. So perhaps it isn’t surprising given the limited market that Samsung has confirmed that the Beam will not receive an upgrade from it’s Android 2.1 roots to Froyo (Android 2.2).
Though it theoretically doesn’t seem like a hard task given the similar hardware between the Beam and Galaxy S, Samsung has stated the “customer base is too small to justify for the allocation of dedicated resources at HQ” to bring Android 2.2 to the handset. It is also being reported that the phone is currently out of stock, hinting that the entire handset may have been nixed altogether from Samsung’s lineup. The road was paved with the best intentions, I guess.
[via UnwiredView]
With such sexy hardware it is a bit of a shame…
It’s Samsung so business as usualy..Great hardware sucky support. Even if the device didn’t have a such a small user base support would still suck.
I’m not convinced any phone Samsung have ever made could qualify as sexy. The projector is neat (although I’m not sure useful) but if this phone is anything like the crappy build quality of the Galaxy then I hope it is discontinued. The internals of a product only take it so far, compared to the Galaxy my HTC Desire feels like it was forged from Dimondium or perhaps Diamondillium (apologies for the obscure Futurama reference).
Not like this one, just Galaxy S is perfect.
I was soooo waiting for this phone!! I’m am not happy with thier choices, especially if they are discontinuing it without even giving the US a chance. =(
Samsung support sucks anyway. Who cares?
It wouldn’t have such a small user base if it was sold in more countries. I was really looking forward to the Beam coming to the UK and into my pocket.
Not selling this phone in the US = FAIL!!!
Well at least this time they were truthful instead of bullshiting everyone saying that it isn’t doable.
Support shouldn’t be based upon the user base though I mean eventually the vibrant is going to be old news in the next few months then they stop supporting? that is bad business.
I guessed that the phone with built-in projector might have an issue with the broadcasting authorities, broadcast media communities and had security concern of social impact, etc. Thus the import is halted which then resulted it not being viable for the Android 2.2 update.
sigh!
@angahsin
Yeah lol, they are now up front about their decisions. I mean lets give them a break they are doing much much better than what their reputation started with.
I’m just glad they are fully supporting the Samsung Galaxy S and all it’s variants. Keep up the good work Sammy! And I can’t wait for it’s dual core Orion chip that’s supposed to be 3 times faster than the current one.
Last time they made a performance promise they lived up to it with the SGS, I can only wait!
i almost had a heart attack before i finished reading the title, i thought it was gonna be about the Galaxy Tab lol. ok im gonna carry on with my life now..
This seems like a really good device and it’s too bad that it will never make it to the america’s.