Samsung error removes universal search from the Galaxy S III, not Apple's patent war

Now here’s an interesting thing. A couple of days ago Samsung disabled the Google local search function from the international version of its Galaxy S3 handset, preventing users from being able to search their phone’s apps and contacts. It was believed to have been done as a result of a patent dispute with Apple, and followed the search-on-device disabling update that hit Galaxy Nexuses in the US.

Users were understandably up in arms because they weren’t told that installing the new stability update would remove the universal search feature, and probably a fair few of them felt compelled to join the boycott Apple movement as a result. (Fortunately I didn’t update my S3 so my opinion didn’t change. Not that it would have.)

But today, Samsung admitted that the removal of the search function from the international versions of the smartphone was completely accidental.

"The most recent software upgrade for the Galaxy S3 in the UK included the inadvertent removal of the universal search function", Samsung says in a fairly unapologetic statement. "Samsung will provide the correct software upgrade within the next few days".

Good news for British S3 owners, but really this is a pretty massive cock-up and one that might cause users to have second thoughts about installing any new updates in the future.