When the HTC Flyer launched way back in May, Android 3.0 Honeycomb was in its infancy, which made the Flyer’s smartphone OS easier to swallow. Now that the Honeycomb update is available and Ice Cream Sandwich ROMs are abundant on smartphones, many have wondered if the Flyer would get a similar icy treatment. While there’s no official word, a brief conversation between a French HTC Hub member and customer service indicates that an ICS update is scheduled for the first quarter of this year.

The story goes something like this: the caller was upset at some of the changes made by the Honeycomb upgrade. The customer service representative gave him two options: send the tablet in to HTC to be downgraded to Gingerbread, or wait for the Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade scheduled for the first quarter. I stress that this is the barest sliver of evidence that the Flyer is getting Ice Cream Sandwich: while it’s a solid 7-inch tablet, it’s surely not at the top of HTC’s list of priorities at the moment. I’d venture a guess that if the customer service rep was telling the truth, he or she may have confused the Flyer with HTC’s 10-inch tablet, the Jetstream. Just to emphasize: a mention from a customer service representative is not an official confirmation of anything. 

That said, the Flyer combines some respectable specs with HTC’s reliable hardware, and has earned itself quite a few fans since its release. Whether or not we see an official ICS update and whenever that might be, I suspect that the mod community will have more than a few Ice Cream Sandwich options available very soon. The Flyer and its wireless broadband cousin the HTC EVO View 4G can both be unlocked at the botloader level thanks to HTC’s official tool – that means it’s just a matter of time.

[device id=199] [via AndroidAndMe]