Since the great Android 1.6 debacle of the Xperia X10, Sony Ericsson has been very forthcoming about upgrade plans for its Android devices. Since the release of Android 4.0 they have confirmed all 2011 Xperia devices, including the arc, ray, Play and Xperia Mini Pro, will get the bump from Android 2.3 to 4.0.
But people get impatient, and in order to address its userbase’s outstanding concerns, they have detailed in a blog post exactly how they bring a new version of Android to the masses.
Sony Ericsson didn’t have prior access to the Android 4.0 source code, so when it was released on November 14th they got to work adapting to their various models. Because the code was optimized for Texas Instruments chipsets, it fell upon the company to translate much of the Hardware Abstraction Layer to suit Qualcomm’s hardware.
While we don’t yet know how much time it will take to bring the ICS upgrades to market — they still have to be certified and then vetted by the carriers — it’s good to see that the Sony Ericsson is wasting no time at all, and is actually giving back to the Android Open Source Project at the same time.
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