You are very right about it being the original delay. However, after 2 months one would think they would have gotten the Razr's ICS bugs fixed (and could it be that the Razr's ICS bugs were caused by things Verizon required?) as well as the Bionic's ICS finished. And with several successful leaks that so many of you praise, and I believe you all about how good they are, it seems as if it's ready to go as far as being stable.
While I know I could be completely wrong, I can't help believe that now that Google owns Motorola's mobile division that they may very well be trying to use that increased strength to get Verizon to change some things, like getting rid of included bloatware or making it so we can uninstall it and not being required for an update. I think the fact that the ICS leaks allow freezing of bloatware is one indication that this is a real possibility cause I can't believe Verizon likes that idea.
As far as JB, I actually am optomistic that once Google gets Verizon to approve ICS on the Bionic we won't have to wait long on JB. I think Google wants to end the fragmentation of Android and what better way to set the example than on their own phones.
You might be on to something there about the freezing of VZW apps and whatnot. I know that some but not all of the VZW apps are easily frozen, but there is also that stupid CallerID thing that cannot be frozen unless you run the app and decline to use it - at which point it freezes itself. Backup Assistant is another - 1 module can be frozen but the other two cannot. (I am not counting rooted methods of freezing because with root damn near anything is freezable).
You would think I'm changing the subject every time this is brought up wildkitten, I have heard these rumors but would think the negotiations of two major companies (if they exist on these issues) wouldn't hold hostage the bionic OTA. Moto and Verizon are still adding new phones all the time.
If any of this ever was a leak, it's a well placed one by someone with a purpose.
I owuld put a lot more stock in these rumors than you think.
+500 to John!!
Like I said, I could be completely wrong, just seems weird that our ICS hasn't been released yet with all these versions of leaks that seem to work so well, as well as the Razr's ICS fix being delayed as well. I was thinking of what many have said about the ability to freeze bloatware in ICS and Verizon maybe not liking it and both are sticking to their positions.
See what I wrote above. But there is more to it than that. We're so far behind the curve that the Moto Devs are working hard to bring us ahead of hte game with this latest leak.
The big deal for me is that Bionic has always been marketed by both Verizon and Motorola as ICS ready or ICS compatible giving a perception that it would get ICS sooner rather than later, and here we are over a year later. No such promises were made about Jelly Bean.
There were plenty of computers that were labeled as Vista ready back in the day. I do
not want a repeat of that (kind of a) fiasco lol.
But, yeah, I feel your pain. If I had not been brave enough to jump on new leaks like I was, I'd be one pretty frustrated brown smurf right now....
In the ten years that I have had Verizon smartphones, one thing stands true. They are the slowest on updates of all the carriers, but they do release eventually.
I had a Samsung i500 that was out of off the radar for years. I only used it as a world phone occasionally. One day magically there was a new update for it. Of course, like many Samsung phones, this update bricked it, but the point is that some phones get updates long after they aren't "officially" supported anymore.
More recently, the Motorola DROID (OG) also got an update a full 2 years after release.
To be honest Thom, I haven't seen any whining or complaining about getting or not getting JB. I've seen people talk about whether we will or not and be hopeful we will and speculate if we will go straight to JB, but that is far from whining and complaining.
I myself hope we get JB. Let's be honest, the Bionic can more than support it hardware wise. I also believe Google needs to be very proactive with the phones that are the product of the company they now own (Motorola) because of the fragmentation in the Android community and needs to be a leader showing that hey, if a phone can support it, put it on there.
Of course it's tougher for Google because each manufacturer has to present an OS build to the carrier for approval, something Apple doesn't have to do, and there are many many manufacturers whereas no one but Apple does iOS.
But while I (and others) wish for JB, no one was promised JB on the Bionic. I was however promised ICS for the Bionic and will complain about not getting it, but as I said before, speculating and wishing for JB isn't complaining.
While that is a logical conclusion, there has been plenty of whining about not getting JB, mainly b/c it has taken this long to get ICS....
That's a good point about Motorola and Google. Also Blur has become a pretty lightweight platform so I would guess most of it revolves around getting the hardware to play nice with Android AOSP. We can only hope that Moto phones will someday be Nexus rated.
Let me put it this way: Blur is so lightweight on my phone in the ICS leaks that I haven't put a ROM on here since the first ICS leak was released. I've even tried Nova Launcher (Prime) and LPP (Premium) and even Apex launcher (Premium) - non of them are as fast and as nice as stock Blur. Of course, since with ICS I can create groups of apps on the fly, it's a lot easier to maintain access to apps I use all the time by way of groups in the dock *AND* the "frequently used" folder in Blur. Anything else I just search for.
So I'm predicting the week of October 22 for ICS ota and it's my belief that it'll be 247. That build came out of nowhere and surprised a bunch of people. Kudos for moto on it though as it's one less update we'll have to wait for later. I'd expect to see jb in January sometime. The thing people don't get is that moto unified the ics builds across the razr d4 and bionic. This makes future updates far easier. JB won't be such a clustermess as ics has been. Hang in there... We're almost there.
I'm betting tha we see JB leaks right after Thanksgiving. And I say .247 is not final b/c the patches were written by a dev in Kor and need to be edited for CDT.
Based on my reading of other forums to doubt Sam is folly (and can lead to a katana strike). He has a real handle on this subject but I do hope he is being conservative on the release date for ICS. A week earlier would be much better.
Lew
He's been wrong before lol.... Insider info is only as good as the companies making the decisions....and they can change their minds in 2.3 nanoseconds.
