If you’re the proud owner of Motorola’s popular DROID Bionic smartphone then we have some potentially excellent news for you. Apparently multiple reports have been hitting the wires that Motorola and Verizon are finally ready to start the “soak test” for the Bionic’s Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich update — which I’m sure many are impatiently waiting for.
The folks from Droid-Life are reporting that they’ve received multiple emails stating the usual soak test emails from the Motorola feedback network are being sent to Bionic users. What this means is Motorola is rolling the update out to a select few users for a final testing phase before releasing it to the wild.
This is a strategy Motorola’s been using for some time, and appears to be working okay for them. Now that Google has control we were hoping to get some updates in a more timely matter — and hopefully in due time that will be the case. For now however, as long as this soak test goes as planned we can expect Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich to be available here soon.
Motorola recently missed their update timeline, then later revised their update roadmap and listed the Bionic as receiving the ICS update in Q4. With this soak test finally getting started we could be seeing a mid Q4 update for the aging smartphone arrive. It would be pretty impressive if we saw this land for Bionic owners before the end of October, but that is unlikely. More details on the Bionic and the ICS leak is available below. Who’s excited?
[device id=1476]
October is Q4 so this is a Q4 release.
Lets just hope the powers to be at Verizon are happy with this one. Had they been on board with the previous soak tests, Motorola would have been on schedule with “early Q3”
Bring on the Jelly Beanz!
Bring on the Jelly Beanz! We deserve it after this debacle. Jel… ley… Beans… Jel… ley… Beans!
So what! Another soak test and more waiting. All these Bionic owners being led on like a bunch of suckers only to receive an empty apology from some CEO who probably barely knows what the hell going on anyways. He gave everyone a political speech of apology, but didn’t offer compensation for being screwed therefore we all remain screwed. So what, $100 for a trade in? HA! What a load of crapola! This entire dilemma has been one huge joke! Moto is crap and Verizon in the end will have their way, screwing all it’s customers and taking no responsibility.
while i know that a million people have already said we need to get jelly bean as a make up for our infinite waiting….I AGREE BRING ME THE BEAN! Please
too funny. whoever wrote this said we will get it late 3Q. duh thats long gone. i do not believe anything motorola or verizon says. they are just like politicians. show us you really care and are changing and put the damn upgrade out. we have been waiting over one year.
Just got off the phone with Motorola. I’m part of the soak test, which they say is being pushed out next Friday, Oct. 19.
Forget ICS. We’ve waited long enough. We want Jelly Bean
The ICS version .247 has patches that will help speed up the process of transitioning to JB. I would bet we’d receive a JB update by February 2013. I won’t have my Bionic for that long though – I’m going to a new RAZR HD I think..
Except the reported version is 246, which means JB is unlikely.
Im keeping my bionic and unlimited plan and use rediculous amounts of data. I put my phone on the longest hq you tube vids i can find and se until its overt my phone down in another room until its over. Then i do it again. No new phone for me.
And who gets screwed by you Is it motorola?…NO! IS it it Verizon? NO! IT IS EVERYBODY ELSE ON THE NETWORK DUFUS! Please Stop!!
Wow what happened to my paragraph
Are you people really going to fall for this again?
What specifically are you talking about? I’ve gotten the e-mail for the soak test and am participating. I’m expecting the upgrade to go live (for those that are in the soak) on Monday or Tuesday (not on Friday, as another site reported). Generally they don’t take long between when they send the initial e-mail and when the soak actually goes live.
On top of that, after the soak is live, we’ll have probably two or three days to test the software (I believe it’s the leaked version .247), and then if there are no issues, it will go live to all Bionic owners. I don’t expect any issues, as I was just using the .232 leak and it’s perfectly stable (I even was running at 1.2Ghz), so we should be good to get it by the end of next week if not early the following week.
I spoke to an engineer at Motorola today and they said it will push out Friday, Oct. 19, not Monday or Tuesday.
Moto has been coming out with updates and Verizon has been shooting it down.
Why I blame Verizon is they shot down the .903 update, they approved .905. The difference between these updates was .905 had more bloatware added.
Hey folks I have a Droid Bionic, Galaxy S3 (ICS) and Nexus 7 (Jellybean). To be honest, you won’t see a significant difference with ICS versus Jellybean. Jellybean seems to be just the polished off version of Ice Cream Sandwich. However, going from Gingerbread to ICS is already a fabulous upgrade.
I am running the .232 leak, and have experienced little problems, less in fact than .905 .
My theory is Verizon was shooting down the update regardless of how stable the update is. Why I think this is because they were waiting for the new Razr phones to come out, and wait for the frustrated bionic, and Razr owners (because they are waiting for major patches) to say screw it and buy a new phone.
All they had to do was say no, while Moto got the blame.
I think things would be better if the Android manufacturers cut out Verizon of the update process like apple does with iTunes. I think we would have been running .232 and onward a long time ago if the updates were not done through the carriers.
Motorola and Verizon have screwed Bionic owners too often for me to get excited about another promised upgrade. It’s probably another lie
Yeah! F$#@!!!! Motorola and Google. Learn how to treat your customers right!!! Let’s say, like, Samsung! Goodbye, Motorola. Never again….
I’m with you. Saying good bye to android and motorola.
I’ve had this phone for a year and I don’t have a problem with it. Grow up.
I am confused as to why I bought the Bionic. I have been waiting forever for ICS.
Don’t get me wrong, I love this device, but where did Motorola and Google go for support?
I believe hype had something to do with my purchase but damn, they left us early adopters in the cold. I still feel screwed somehow.
Why name it a Bionic if we can’t build it better, faster, stronger?
I’m probably going to switch out my Bionic for a note 2 anyway. I figure jelly bean is a year off
Some very astute observers have said that, by going with .246, Verizon is making it unlikely that the Bionic will ever get Jelly Bean before the device’s EOL.
Last Moto device for me, ever. 🙁
I will believe it when I see it.
Hey Motorola. I promise to buy another motorola phone…… Well it will be after I give Samsung a try….. Hold on new update, make that after I give samsung and HTC a try….. Hold on I have some more info, Lets shoot for 2017. Sound familiar?
I’m fine with it. It’s not like updating to Android 4 is going to change my life.
I want to by a tablet. Is the Fire HD any good…like for apps and browsing? Or…do I need to consider spending more? Also…hoping for some awesome Black Friday Deals. Any and all comments welcome!
Had a Bionic from the start. Couldn’t take it anymore, so I was able to convince Verizon to send me a Galaxy Nexus as a replacement. Couldn’t be happier. Motorola never again.
I will never buy a Motorola product ever again. Very disappointed with their hush hush attitude and putting Bionic users in the back of the line. Samsung Galaxy is one of the best if not the best smartphones out on the market, never had a problem with a Samsung product. As soon as I am eligible for an upgrade, goodbye Motorola forever.
Totally unconcerned by any news that ICS is coming to the bionic soon. It has been let down after letdown. I’m running the leaked rom and i think i will stay that way for the rest of the life of the phone probably. Jelly bean is the only update that would excite me and I wont hold my breath for that either.
If the Mayans were right we may not see ICS either.
You know i’ve called Motorola and oct 12th has passed no update they r stringing along while other phones r coming out either push the update quite adding new phones and fix this situation. Because i’m going to nag Motorola bet on that……
My best bet is too move on from Motorola can’t keep there promises
My best bet is too move on from Motorola can’t keep there promises
Also why? Not give us jelly bean
My cuz got a samsug galaxy all i’m going to get that it is all some goodbye Motorola u lie about update and come out with new phones Hahaha I going to share all over fb see how u like that
My bionic updated last night. My husbands and moms did not.