Android 9 Pie will start rolling out to Vivo smartphones in the fourth quarter of the year, the Chinese handset manufacturer confirmed earlier this week. The launch roadmap is hence in line with what Google’s other partners announced over the last several days, with most companies that previously participated in the Android 9 Pie beta now pledging to start deploying the next major operating system upgrade this fall. Vivo didn’t clarify which smartphones will be prioritized for the rollout, though the latest industry speculation points to the unconventional X21 as likely being the first device from the company to receive Android 9 Pie.
In a statement provided to Android Authority, Vivo said it remains adamant to deliver Android 9 Pie to its customers “as soon as possible.” Most other major handset makers are yet to publicly talk about their Android 9 Pie roadmaps, with Essential currently being the only firm to already optimize the new OS build for one of its products as the PH-1 was upgraded to Android 9 Pie on the same day Google brought the software to the stable channel. HMD Global is currently also running an Android Pie beta program for the Nokia 7 Plus, having already suggested the smartphone in question should be updated to a stable version of the software by early fall. Sony and HTC are expected to share more details about their upgrade roadmaps in a matter of weeks as well, as is OnePlus.
With Android 9 Pie marking the full transition to Google’s Project Treble, the reworked framework of the OS that separates its fundamentals from vendor-specific implementations may result in software updates being rolled out to devices in a timelier manner moving forward, provided OEMs opt to take advantage of the feature which was first introduced with Android 8.0 Oreo last year. Google‘s Pixel 3 series of flagships is set to run Android 9 Pie out of the box but may not be the first handset lineup to do so as it isn’t expected to be announced for almost two more months.