After the initial flurry of announcements in the beginning of the year from various manufacturers regarding the status of updates to their respective lineups in regard to Android 4.0, the first carrier branded phone in the US to receive an official update to Ice Cream Sandwich isn’t even considered a flagship model in the same way that the rest of the 4th quarter 2011 Android smartphone launches were hailed.
AT&T’s HTC Vivid can now be updated to Ice Cream Sandwich via manual update by entering *#*#682#*#* in the Dialer app to trigger an OTA Pull command over the network, which then triggers the download and install process.The reason for the manual pull requirement is due to the changes in memory handling on the Vivid and the differences between Gingerbread and Ice Cream Sandwich.
With the AT&T Vivid now being the first US carrier Android smartphone to be updated to Ice Cream Sandwich, carriers will undoubtedly have to accelerate their own timeframes for updates to their recent releases, as HTC previously announced the Ice Cream Sandwich update lineup this week, which includes the Vivid and the rest of its current lineup in the following phones, with the caveat that update availability would be carrier dependent and that HTC could not give firm dates on when updates for specific phones would be available:
- DROID Incredible 2 by HTC
- HTC Amaze 4G
- HTC Desire S
- HTC Desire HD
- HTC EVO 3D
- HTC EVO Design 4G
- HTC Incredible S
- HTC Sensation
- HTC Sensation XL
- HTC Sensation 4G
- HTC Sensation XE
- HTC Raider
- HTC Rezound
- HTC Rhyme
- HTC Thunderbolt
Interestingly, despite the discovery of the manual update for the Vivid 4G, both AT&T and HTC have yet to officially confirm the existence of the update, though it should be said that update staging is dependent on region and location and may not be immediately available when attempting to update, which means that AT&T is actively staggering the update in order to ensure a smooth delivery by the time that the update is officially announced sometime this month.
