When the launch of Android 4.0 or Ice Cream Sandwich was announced, many people were anticipating this update as positive reviews about this OS circulated among smartphone users.

Google Inc. released the source code for Android ICS last Nov. 14 and many smartphone manufacturers already started to implement this new OS to their devices. Despite these early efforts, the transition to Android ICS seems to be taking a longer time than what was expected. Most smartphone companies have announced that they will be integrating Android ICS in their mobile phone devices by next year. Motorola and Sony talked about the process of integrating Android ICS in their smartphones and also provided an explanation on why there was a delay in the transition period.

In a blog post written by Motorola, it detailed the processes involved when it comes to integrating Android OS in their mobile system. First is to merge and adapt the new release for different device hardware architectures and carrier customizations, second is to stabilize and "bake" the result to drive out bugs, third is to submit these upgrades to carriers for certification and have a customer pre-release while the last step would include releasing the upgrade.

Sony also talked about this process in the company's blog post. According to Sony, the integration of Android OS is divided into two different categories one of which is the "bring up phase" while the other one is the "certification and approval stage". For the bring up phase, it would include integrating source code, hal replacement, component configuration, patch legacy code, feature upgrade, localization, and test/stabilization. As for the certification and approval stage, it includes factors such as health, environmental, sar, emc, regulatory, modem, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Network & IPR, etc.

The explanation given by both Motorola and Sony just shows that integrating Android ICS in their smartphone devices needs to undergo a certain process so as to ensure that it would work properly. Aside from undergoing a process, this integration would actually take time to ensure that users would be able to fully utilize the benefits of Android ICS without compromising the features of their smartphone devices.

In any case, patience is a virtue and users should embody this statement when it comes to waiting for their Android ICS updates.