Ice Cream Sandwich Update For Motorola, HTC, Asus Smartphones Get Updated Schedules

Android 4.0, or Ice Cream Sandwich, was announced to the world on October 19, 2011, and became available along with the Galaxy Nexus on December 15, 2011; two months later, only a reported one percent of Android smartphones are running ICS. We're getting a clearer picture of how soon this number will be increasing, however, as several major Android phone manufacturers have updated their Ice Cream Sandwich release schedules -- unfortunately, for many popular Android models, it's looking like a long wait.

MOTOROLA

First, Motorola has posted the updated Ice Cream Sandwich rollout schedule to its online owner's forum, and several of the most popular models don't even have a timeframe for an ICS upgrade. Though Motorola's Xoom tablet already has Android 4.0, other Motorola devices are yet to taste ICS, and may not for a long time. The earliest Android 4.0 update planned for an American Motorola device, for example, will land in July 2012 at the earliest: the Atrix 2, Atrix 4G, Photon 4G, and Motorola Xyboard tablet are all scheduled to receive Motorola's ICS update starting in Q3 2012.

Leading models like the Droid RAZR, Droid RAZR Maxx, Droid Bionic, Droid 3, and Droid X2, meanwhile, are still in what Motorola calls the "Evaluation and Planning phase ("Phase 1 of 4") on the path to Ice Cream Sandwich, and have no real timetable for ICS. After Phase 1 ("Evaluation and Planning") comes "Development," and then "Testing," and then Phase 4, Availability. None of those phases have definite lengths of time attached to them.

For what it's worth, Motorola appears to have fallen behind its own schedule, as a Motorola exec previously said in late 2011, that the Droid Razr -- the manufacturer's top-of-the-line phone -- would get Ice Cream Sandwich in early 2012. It appears that Motorola will miss on that pledge.

You can read more about Motorola's process for developing Ice Cream Sandwich for its smartphones and tablets, along with the updated release schedule, here.

HTC

HTC wrote a note on its official Facebook page to announce that Ice Cream Sandwich would be available for the HTC Sensation, HTC Sensation 4G and HTC Sensation XE in March 2012, with the Sensation XL getting its ICS "soon there after."

A gaggle of other HTC smartphones were name-checked by HTC in the post as well: Android 4.0 for [Deep breath] the HTC Rezound, HTC Vivid, HTC Amaze 4G, HTC EVO 3D, HTC EVO Design 4G, HTC Incredible S, HTC Desire S and HTC Desire HD "will be coming later this year."

HTC had previously said (in November 2011) that the HTC EVO 3D, HTC EVO Design 4G* and HTC Amaze 4G would be available in early 2012. From HTC's updated schedule, it appears the company will miss that deadline.

ASUS

Asus, meanwhile, recently announced that it, too, will miss a proposed deadline for upgrading its Transformer Prime to Ice Cream Sandwich, announcing that its tablet will receive Android 4.0 in February or March. The Transformer Prime was previously expected to get ICS at some point in late January.

In less official news ("This Week In Android Rumors!"), the Samsung Galaxy S II and brand new Galaxy Note have been tipped to receive Android 4.0 in early March, according to a tweet by mobile industry insider Eldar Murtazin. Samsung had scheduled the Galaxy S II and Galaxy Note for a Q1 2012 Ice Cream Sandwich update, so Murtazin's unsourced tweet isn't so far-fetched.

And that's all the pertinent news about Ice Cream Sandwich from the past week! For previous statements from smartphone manufacturers -- including Samsung, Sony, LG, HTC and Motorola -- on when their devices should be getting Ice Cream Sandwich, read our round-up from late December.

UPDATE: HTC has added even more phones that will be getting Ice Cream Sandwich in a post to its Facebook page. No time frame given, but upgrades "are planned" for the HTC Rhyme, HTC Thunderbolt, Droid Incredible 2 and HTC Rezound.

For those of you stuck waiting (or wishing) for your ICS upgrade, here to taunt you are the hottest new features that only the Android elite can enjoy (for now). Check them out in the slideshow (below).