Updating Android phones to latest firmware is a pain in the a**, not because it is difficult but the carriers make a very big fuss out of it. Having an unlocked phone is a great way to get the latest updates as soon as the manufacturer pushes it out but on the other hand a carrier branded variant is just a headache that never goes away. Carriers take more than 6 months to push out latest updates to their phones and sometimes even more than a year.
Well, do you remember the DROID Bionic on Verizon Wireless? If you do then you’ll also remember that this semi-flagship Motorola phone is still stuck at old Gingerbread OS while the Android world has moved on to Jelly Bean OS. However, the year old DROID Bionic will be getting the Android Ice Cream Sandwich OS soon according to a latest leaked ROM for the phone. This looks like the final build for the device.
The Bionic has all the necessary specs needed to run the latest iterations of Android OS but Verizon has much better things to do than upgrading their devices. Motorola promised way back that the ICS update will be pushed out to the Bionic in Q3 this yet but that boat has already sailed, maybe because Motorola was busy updating their flagship RAZR devices. Although, this recent leaked ICS ROM for the Bionic suggests that an update is in the pipeline and will hit the device pretty soon. If this leak is a final version of the build then we’ll see a soak test begin very soon and if all the testing phase goes smoothly, you’ll have the chance to taste some ICS love on your DROID Bionic. (If you haven’t already flashed a custom ROM)
This is only drawback with Android platform that Carriers control the updates for their variants. Google has to take some steps in this regard and ensure that all Android devices receive their updates in timely fashion. What do you think?