Samsung Galaxy S3... will get back it's 'lost' search function !

Samsung Electronics promises to fix the Galaxy S3 search function which was recently removed from the device using a stability update. Samsung rolled out an update on Wednesday to remove the on-device search function.

The smartphone maker disabled the search function on the immensely popular Galaxy S3 smartphones amidst speculations that Apple Inc claimed Samsung had infringed one of it’s US patents covering the local search on a device. However, Samsung has promised to reinstate the feature on all the devices soon with full functionality.

Samsung said, “The most recent software upgrade for the Galaxy S3 in the UK included the inadvertent removal of the universal search function. Samsung will provide the correct software upgrade within the next few days.” Users were not warned before the update was rolled out and when downloaded the update, it swiped out the advanced search function.

Certain reports suggested that Samsung wanted to disable the Google-powered search function only on certain US devices. The update has downgraded the smartphone model though it was deemed as a ‘stability’ update. Though Samsung denied that these were preventive steps to avoid any further patent battles with Apple, the recent spate of inglorious patent battles between the Californian giant and the South Korean phonemaker clearly show patents are involved in the ‘stability’ update.

Samsung has already taken several huge hits last quarter in the patent wars with Apple, the recent one being the European ban on the Galaxy Tab 7.7. What remains to be seen is how soon the advanced search is made available to the users of the fastest selling smartphone?

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