AT&T’s first two LTE smartphones both run Android Gingerbread, but they’ve got the unfortunate luck of being released just a few weeks before Ice Cream Sandwich lands on the Galaxy Nexus. AT&T has confirmed that both the HTC Vivid and the Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket will be updated to Android 4.0 eventually. No specifics were mentioned, but a nebulous “early 2012” should see the rollouts begin.

The news isn’t altogether surprising, since both phones offer high-end hardware and have a place of distinction in AT&T’s lineup. AT&T doesn’t want the prospect of handsets stuck on outdated software (for too long, anyway) to deter sales, set to begin this Sunday. Even so, the confirmation is appreciated – all too often Android enthusiasts are left to wonder about this sort of thing.

If the timeframe seems long, it’s probably because both Samsung and HTC need to integrate their custom user interfaces with Ice Cream Sandwich. HTC is quoting a Q1 timeframe for the ICS update to the Rezound on Verizon. Both TouchWiz and Sense are pretty extensive modifications of Android’s base code, so the wait could be a long one for almost all of each manufacturer’s phones.

For a better look at each of these new phone,s check out our hands-on coverage of the HTC Vivid and the Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket.

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7 COMMENTS

  1. Looked at both of them at the at&t store. I liked the HTC better and have a feeling they are going to update to ICS first. Still waiting on gingerbread for my infuse. Samsung can forget about me buying another one of their phones. Tomorrow I am purchasing the vivid.

  2. had a look at both and liked skyrocket .. it is awesome with the hardware it supports. Have purchased it and samsung being leader and fast performer expecting ICS to be on skyrocket at the earliest.

  3. So here we are well into Q2 of 2012 and no ICS for the Skyrocket except a couple of leaks which are too buggy to use as a daily driver. I should have known better than to trust AT&T and Samsung to roll out an important update in a timely manner since they have to spend so much additional time crapping up ICS with Touchwiz and carrier bloat before they release it.

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