Samsung Galaxy S is one of the most popular Android devices ever launched and most definitely one of the most successful Samsung models ever. The model was a best seller in both its original shape as well as carrier variants worldwide (and in the U.S. as T-Mobile Vibrant, AT&T Captivate, Verizon Fascinate, Sprint Epic 4G).

One of the Galaxy S' biggest flaws was that it was launched with Android 2.1 Éclair back in June 29, 2010, a time when Android 2.2 Froyo was already one month out (being launched on May 22, 2010). The lack of a software refresh, till recently, made the Samsung Galaxy S lose even more ground as it has started receiving Froyo updates just recently, six months after the Froyo launch and 5 months after the device launch. This didn't affect sales though as everyone knew there will eventually be a Froyo update.

But Samsung has another Android flagship model now and it's running Google's latest and greatest: the Gingerbread powered Nexus S. It will be available starting December 16 in the U.S., December 20 in the UK and at the beginning of next year in other regions.

Updating the Samsung Galaxy S to Gingerbread would be possible since the two devices have very close internals. But updating millions of Galaxy S handsets to Gingerbread would also mean exactly that many less Nexus S phones sold. No company wishes to shoot itself in the foot and this is reason number one we think Samsung will never update the Galaxy S to Android 2.3.

Reason number two is more of a custom since it's highly unlikely you'd ever find a device that received two waves of different OS version updates. Every handset has a life cycle and even if the hardware would be up to the task, in the fast paced tech world we live in, gadgets are easily struck by obsolescence. Manufacturers move on to newer models and so do the carriers and the end consumers.

Reason number three is Samsung's own stuttering. The Korean manufacturer seems (plays the) undecided about the update while simply declaring that they will "review the possibility of implementation of such new version to the existing Samsung products". Of course they wouldn't say "Samsung Galaxy S will not get Gingerbread" as it will definitely hurt future, short-term sales for worldwide Galaxy S devices. By the time they'll announce or imply that there will be no such update, the Galaxy S would have long generated expected numbers and sold units and the Nexus S would have established itself on the market.

The above, all combined, lead us into believing that there will never be a Samsung Galaxy S Gingerbread update. We dare Samsung to prove us wrong as they'll make millions of customers happy but somehow we don't think they will.

Update: Samsung took the first step in proving us wrong via its Indian subsidiary twitter account, stating that "Gingerbeard will be available for GalaxyS users". There's a long road from here to the actual roll-out so let's wait and see if our post changes anything.

Update 2: And the tweet got pulled which could mean one out of two things: either "where there's smoke there must be fire" or "it will never happen".

Source: Twitter — pulled