Originally slated to arrive in late December, the Rogers Galaxy Note update has been delayed four times and is now listed on the company’s site as “Pending software submission from device manufacturer.” The TELUS version of the Galaxy Note is slated to be updated in April, citing “Manufacturer testing.” Bell has been mum on the update as well.
What exactly is happening here? While much of the blame has been pointed at the carriers — the recipients of the most negative press when a manufacturer delays an update — it appears that Samsung is the culpable party here. The company updated its international variant months ago, but the North American GSM version has been left stagnant on Ice Cream Sandwich since July.
It’s important to, ahem, note that the AT&T variant of the Galaxy Note i717 still hasn’t been updated to Jelly Bean, either. With AT&T being a much larger market than all of Canada’s carriers combined, it’s more than likely Samsung is waiting until that variant is certified to be updated before sending it our way. While Rogers and TELUS have been inconsistent in their messaging, attempting to balance expectations with the hard truth that there just isn’t a software update to push out, Samsung has been silent on this issue.
A comment posted on Samsung Mobile Canada’s Facebook wall and came back with a fairly standard response:
Unfortunately, we haven’t been provided with any new information about Jelly Bean coming to the GALAXY Note. We know that you have been patiently waiting for this update and we’ll, of course, get any new details we receive to you as quick as we can.
In the interest of not wanting to lead you a stray, we can’t commit to the mid-March launch date that they are communicating. We’re sorry if you feel like you are receiving inconsistent information but until we have a exact date locked down we don’t want to get anyone’s hopes up.
It looks like even Samsung Canada has no idea when the Galaxy Note update will be available. Either the company is having trouble migrating its Nature UX experience to the original hardware or it is focusing its energies elsewhere. Either way, don’t expect the Jelly Bean update for your Galaxy Note any time soon: “we don’t want to get anyone’s hopes up.”
