Twitter is a great way for companies to interact with customers, and in some cases are an easy way for companies to leak some news without a press release. Today Motorola’s official Twitter account informed a customer, and the rest of the world, that it will release Ice Cream Sandwich devices just six weeks after the software is released. One of the drawbacks of getting information from a tweet is the lack of information provided, so we aren’t able to learn any other details from the tweet in question.
The part of the tweet that has caught our attention is the fact that Motorola will be releasing new devices, and did not say updating old ones. The original question was asking when the Motorola Atrix will be updated to ICS, but the topic of upgrading was not mentioned in the reply. If it is true that Motorola will be able to launch new devices just six weeks after the software is available that would mean the company has already been working on these devices prior to having the software in hand. This of course raises a few more questions with recent devices, and future devices.
Normally the first Android phones to be updated to the latest software are the Nexus devices, so it is expected that the Samsung Nexus S will be the first currently available phone to be updated. If Motorola is able to keep to the six week prediction it might have these new devices out before even the Nexus S sees the update. As of right now the Galaxy Nexus is rumored to be released on November 10, but that does not mean that the software can’t be released prior to that date.
We are also hoping that if Motorola can release new hardware so quickly after a release that they will hopefully update existing devices just as quickly. There are millions of Motorola users on either Gingerbread or Honeycomb that would love to see their device updated in just six weeks, but we think that time frame might be a little too tight. Seeing how most Motorola devices are shipped with a customized version of Android it’s hard to see the company being able to push out an update so quickly.
Hopefully we will start seeing some new Motorola ICS hardware will be announced soon for us to drool over. We would also love to see the newly announced Droid RAZR to be updated to ICS in the near future. Just when we thought it was safe to buy the Galaxy Nexus there is the possibily of new hardware already looming in the future.
Update: Motorola has sent out a tweet that mentioned that the Xoom, RAZR, and the Bionic will all be updated to ICS within six weeks of the software being made public. The tweet said it will confirm other devices, but did not say when.
Second update: We were just contacted by Motorola with a clarification to the information provided. Motorola said it, “will provide more precise guidance on timing within 6 weeks post public push of ICS by Google.” Which means that instead of releasing new products just six weeks after ICS goes public it will be giving more of a timeline for when customers can expect new products, and updates to current products. While this is disapointing, it does seem more reasonable.
