A Verizon spokesman told Wireless and Mobile News that an update for the Rezound will not be rolling out over the holiday weekend; he could not confirm a date when the device would get ICS.
Not so lucky are owners of the Razr and Razr Maxx, Motorola’s two super-slim, super lightweight flagship smartphones. Though a popular rumor claimed that both of those phones would be receiving Ice Cream Sandwich on April 4th, but that date has come and gone; on Motorola’s official Twitter account, as spotted by Droid-Life, requests for a definitive release date have been brushed aside with a disappointing PR line: “The DROID RAZR MAXX is receiving ICS but we do not have a release date for you. We’ll share more details soon.”
According to Motorola’s official Ice Cream Sandwich release schedule, both the Droid Razr and Droid Razr Maxx are still in phase 1 of 4 (“Evaluation & Planning”) on the long road to ICS. If that’s accurate, then Motorola still has to develop and test the software, and the mobile carriers have to test the software and give the approval before an update goes out. That could be a while, as American carriers are notoriously slow at testing and approving Android updates.
Also this week: A first look at Ice Cream Sandwich for the hot-selling Samsung Galaxy Note leaked, and early adopters can grab it now. Despite a couple glitches,Engadget’s Zachary Lutz reports that the phablet’s ICS is “in excellent shape.” Samsung has previously said that the Galaxy Note update should be coming in April or May.
And so the Ice Cream Sandwich update train rolls on. Though adoption still sits at just under three percent, early reports from HTC Vivid users who have received their ICS updates show that with Android 4.0, phone performance increased dramaticallyacross almost all metrics. With Ice Cream Sandwich, you’re not just getting Face Unlock: You’re refreshing the power your Android smartphone as well.
As more and more Android smartphones ship with Ice Cream Sandwich pre-installed, and with Android 5.0 Jelly Bean threatening to rear its head any month now, the priority for some manufacturers to update their older handsets with Android 4.0 might be diminishing. But you know whose Ice Cream Sandwich update priorities are not diminishing?
