Android Ice Cream Sandwich, this is not the treat you are looking for

This has been a busy two weeks for big name drops in the mobile world. We had the release of the iPhone 4S to record numbers once again, and tomorrow we are looking at the drop of the newest iteration of Android, “Ice Cream Sandwich” (ICS). The Android community has been anxiously awaiting ICS as it is believed it will unify the user experience between phones and tablets that are powered by Google’s mobile OS. Which, eventually, it will.

The issue facing Google, and the community that surrounds Android, is the fact that the unification process they so desperately need and want will not happen with ICS, but down the road as the market purges older devices.

Let’s start with what we know about ICS, which is mostly gleaned from a leaked video (embedded below):

• A new lock screen is going to be implemented, using bubbles to activate specific actions by dragging.


• Honeycomb tablet users will not notice much difference, mainly in aesthetics and coloring.


• Phone users will notice a drastic difference, as ICS brings honeycomb features to handsets.


• The experience will be generally the same whether you are holding a tablet or a phone powered by ICS.


• At least on the Tuna (internal code name for the ICS phone being announced tomorrow), there will be no hard buttons on the face of the device; it will have soft buttons like current Honeycomb tablets.

There will likely be some additional changes and possibly a Big Reveal at tomorrow night’s announcement of ICS and the Nexus Prime — and our sister site Geek.com has more analysis if you’re interested — but really, there is a more pressing matter at hand.

The simple fact of the matter is: Android has some serious hurdles to overcome to generate enough excitement and hype that the iPhone garners upon its release. If you are familiar with Android, the issues are not new to you, the biggest of course being fragmentation.

With the release of Honeycomb, Google changed its policy of opening the source code for the build to the general public. This was done to begin the process of addressing fragmentation on the platform. Google did not want Honeycomb appearing on handsets, because it was not built for that. Big G knew that as soon as the source dropped, the developer community would be working on a ROM, thus creating more issues instead of solving them. This is where ICS comes in.

For sure, Google is trying to unify its platform. This makes sense in many ways, mainly for third-party moneti ation. Right now, an Android developer has to take a ton of different devices into account, as well as the versions of Android that they run. For small developers, this can be too resource consuming; for larger companies like Disney, it presents a hurdle. Why spend the money on developing and maintaining different versions of their Android apps when they can make one version on iOS that will work across all the supported devices? Mountain View wants to answer that question by saying their handset diversity will be a strength with ICS now, instead of a hindrance.

The issue is, this will not happen overnight. When ICS is officially announced tomorrow we are probably a month away from the source being released via the Android Open Source Project. Even then, the device that is going to be announced probably won’t be on sale until November or December. On top of that, it will take upwards of two years for people to roll out of their contracts and upgrade their devices, retiring older versions of Android.

Unification is coming, and it is a welcome thing, but ICS is not the ultimate solution for Android. It is a step in the process to taming this platform which has exploded onto the mobile scene. With groups like the CyanogenMod team developing ICS custom ROMs, it will help bring older devices into ICS, but really we won’t see major traction for a year or more. Never mind all the tablets that have been released with Honeycomb or below, there is a short list for scheduled updates to ICS. There are just too many devices for everything to come into line in a rapid way.

It will be interesting to see the announcement tomorrow night, it will be analy ed and spun every which direction. If you are patient with Android and know that it is going to take time, you will be delighted with ICS. If you think this will solve all the issues out there with Android, sorry: ICS is not the treat you are looking for.

Android Ice Cream Sandwich, this is not the treat you are looking for