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Matthew Panzarino at The Next Web on Samsung’s refusal to issue Android 4.0 updates to its one-year-old devices:

The problem isn’t Samsung, it’s systemic to Android as a whole. The makers of Android hardware see little benefit in updating even devices that are less than a year old. And, though I think it’s a punk move, I don’t blame them. There is little to no return to be had.

Nobody in the Android ecosystem — not Google, not manufacturers of Android devices, and certainly not the gadget blogs that review and promote them — seems to care about long-term user satisfaction, even when “long-term” is as short as a two-year smartphone contract.

Rich people and gadget bloggers can upgrade their smartphones every 6 months, but what about everyone else? Will most of Android’s userbase feel much loyalty to the platform at their next contract renewal?

And what about tablets, which should probably be expected to have a useful life closer to a computer’s than a phone’s? The original iPad is nearly two years old, runs iOS 5 well, and will probably get a few more significant OS upgrades. The Galaxy Tab is one year old and it can’t run the latest version of Android.