8 replies to this topic

[KkSCchaos]

Following on from the official announcement of Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) on SE's Xperia 2011 range, we now are starting to see a couple of rumours fly when we will get the newest version of Android will hit our handsets.

The first date came from SE Italy, via a reply on their Facebook page by Maurizio De Palma, the Head of Marketing for SE Italy, saying that the update should arrive by March 2012. As pointed out by our source, this would normally be within the release of a flagship phone (at this time of writing, expected to be the much rumoured Xperia Nozomi) based on the past two years (Xperia X10 and Xperia Arc)

However, just to throw another spanner into the works, a Sony employee has tweeted some comments about Ice Cream Sandwich and suggests a date of the first week of January 2012, but finds it rather confusing with the March date being mentioned. He also said that SE are working on a "skinless" version of ICS and that there is a chance of getting Android 2.3.4 to the X10 etc Personally though I wouldn't get your hopes up about the latter.

It is nice to see some rumours about when we will get the update. However I would still prefer an official announcement, and it kept to.

The fact that the Sony employee is talking about a "skinless version of ICS" does puzzle me though. Recently I brought the Xperia Pro, and, going through the (generic) user guide for Android 2.3.4, it seems to match it pretty much apart from the Facebook Inside Xperia. I can't honestly see SE ditching Facebook Inside Xperia, unless Google have forced them to. Anyway, speaking of the Xperia Pro, I will be posting a review of it soon.

As for the current rumoured dates; lets take those as a pinch of salt. I can't see SE giving away ICS for its current platform before its even released its new range yet, with we hope ICS on it already. I suspect the update will be delivered in late Q1 or early Q2. That's not to say that I wouldn't mind having it in January or March though.

Source for the January date: XperiaBlog

From Unofficial Sony Ericsson Blog: http://blog.se-nse.net/se-android-4-0-ice-cream-sandwich-date-rumours-begin/

[Theonewithideas]

What does "skinless" mean? No Sony Ericsson finishing touches?

Anyway, if I hope but doubt that it will come in January, since that thing with releasing phones in March.

[KkSCchaos]

Have you even looked at the source of that phrase (which is a link)? It basically means no SE branding on it. As I said in the article, I find that rather hard to believe as well. FIX gone for one, boot animation disappeared? Cant see all manufactures doing that, let alone SE (or Sony even).

Still, I wait to be corrected

ICS coming out in January? Would mean no point in releasing Nozomi if thats getting ICS from release as all 2011 models will have ICS. Worth it? Probably not!

Look at when they released the Xperia Pro to Europe (in fact last I heard there are still some countries waiting for its release!): those devices had 2.3.4 on it but 2.3.4 came out a couple of weeks later for the other devices. Reason: Marketing. Marketing puts ICS to be released after the release of Nozomi. Wouldnt want to expect anything until then unless the source is from SE themselves in the form of official announcements.

[shapeshifter]

http://forum.xda-dev...d.php?t=1363983
what do they mean by- 'UI style is a preview of Sony Ericsson's ICS theme!'

[KkSCchaos]

shapeshifter, on 29 November 2011 - 10:17 AM, said:

http://forum.xda-dev...d.php?t=1363983
what do they mean by- 'UI style is a preview of Sony Ericsson's ICS theme!'

To me all they are trying to do is big up their app. I doubt SE would leak just the track ID app (or any app) for that matter). What they might do though is tease us with some screenshots of the home screen etc

[anaksim]

KkSCchaos, on 29 November 2011 - 12:59 PM, said:

To me all they are trying to do is big up their app. I doubt SE would leak just the track ID app (or any app) for that matter). What they might do though is tease us with some screenshots of the home screen etc

Well, but with all honesty, that UI style is rather sexy if not a little bit iOS-ish
I'd rather see SE come with their own tweaked ICS style (hopefully a-la that app's UI) than the plain stock ICS.

[Kaosblade]

Sony Ericsson android handsets without their own touched up UI? Yeeaah right !

[Theonewithideas]

ICS default isn't bad either, but Xperia UI, well... Google translate couldn't translate it for me

Anyway, agreed on both. It does look sexy, but I can't find the reason of this being the original app.

Tried it, and it's kinda sluggish compared to original.
Actually, very laggish. Does it even work for you guys?

I get "Error. Try again later [4008]"

Edited by Theonewithideas, 01 December 2011 - 07:08 PM.

[shapeshifter]

I also get same error, its original app, the links, license info etc everything is there, and also notice the ICS-ish blue color, maybe it works laggy because it is compiled for ICS which uses gpu accelerated grahics rendering in user interface by the way, I didnt found it laggy, works well on my devica