Here’s how Samsung screwed up its Galaxy Upcycling program
Samsung first introduced its Galaxy upcycling program in 2017, envisioning a world where old phones were being used for other purposes for various reasons. Initial efforts showed use cases like a bitcoin mining rig made from 40 Galaxy S5 phones and an old tablet turned into an Ubuntu laptop.
Unfortunately, the last Galaxy upcycling initiative announced earlier this year is far more humble. With Samsung, all you can do is turn an old device into a sound detector (e.g. a baby monitor) or a Smart Home Control Hub. Now the DIY repair website iFixit has described where Samsung went wrong (h / t: Ars Technica).
iFixit announced that it has partnered with Samsung to reveal the upcycling project back in 2017, a few months after learning of the initiative. The team then tested an early version of the software and waited for the final product to be shipped. Unfortunately, according to iFixit, the Korean manufacturer muted the radio from then on.
Read more: Here’s what Android Authority readers are doing with their old phones
“The actual software was never released. The Samsung team finally stopped sending our emails. Friends within the company told us that the management was not enthusiastic about a project for which there was no clear product commitment or no clear sales plan, ”the website says. In other words, it appears that the project was scaled back dramatically because Samsung couldn’t find a way to make money from it.
The iFixit team also believed that the oldest phone supported in the current Galaxy upcycling program is the 2018 Galaxy S9. It primarily defeats the purpose of an upcycling program when the actual old hardware is unsupported. After all, the S9 will still be a solid, usable phone in 2021.
iFixit also said that the original program would have allowed users to unlock their phones’ bootloaders, paving the way for various custom ROMs and operating systems to be installed on these devices. Unfortunately, the current upcycling initiative doesn’t allow tinkering of this kind, as it’s essentially an app-driven affair. Allowing users to install their own operating system / custom ROM and extend the life of their old phone presumably went against the company’s goal of selling more new phones.
