ASUS has stated that they will be releasing Android 4.1 Jelly Bean updates to the Transformer Pad, Transformer Pad Prime, and Transformer Pad Infinity. The timeline? “In the coming months.” Though, it’s nice to see some manufacturers promising updates in a much more timely manner, it would be doubly nice to actually see those updates without a vague “coming months.” What also is of note is that there isn’t direct mention of the ASUS EEE Pad Transformer (or just the original Transformer). Sporting the Tegra2 dual-core architecture and at a little more than a year old, it seems odd that it wouldn’t be on the update list.
This has become the frustrating nature of Android updates and manufacturers. Samsung, ASUS, Motorola, HTC, etc. are so quick to tell the consumer that their device doesn’t meet the minimum specifications of a new version of the OS. Considering the development community has had little issue porting ICS to several old devices, I am beginning to think that “doesn’t meet the minimum specifications” really translates to “we don’t want to devote any resources for customer satisfaction.” Having recently seen Jelly Bean running an the Samsung Fascinate, I believe my doubts are justified.
Fortunately, where the OEM’s slack off, the developers step up to the plate. In just a few brief moments, I found some promising Jelly Bean projects for the original Transformer. Browsing the forums of XDA and Rootzwiki yielded a handful of Android 4.1 developments for the TF101. In fact, after I finish writing this article, I may head over and try one out myself. Keep in mind, many of these are nightlies so there will likely be some bugs. If you can deal with that, flash away.