Facebook provides the forum for LG's latest announcement on the smartphone upgrade to Android OS Ice Cream Sandwich.
Mobile phone manufacturer LG
will be offering the Ice Cream Sandwich operating system upgrade for a range of LG smartphones
that were introduced this year, according to a post on the company's Facebook page. The global upgrade is scheduled to begin in
the second and third quarters of 2012, which will be followed by a global rollout, the Facebook post also said.
LG announced during the
second quarter of 2012 that upgrades will begin for the following smartphone
models, the LG Optimus Long-Term Evolution (LTE), Prada phone by LG 3.0, the LG
Optimus 2X, the LG Optimus Sol, the LG my Touch Q and the LG Eclipse. These
upgrades will be followed by upgrades for the following smartphone models
during the third quarter of 2012: the LG Optimus 3D, the LG Optimus Black, the
LG Optimus Big, the LG Optimus Q2 and the LG Optimus EX.
The company said it would be
taking all possible measures to offer a smooth OS upgrade in a timely manner.
The exact start dates can vary by market, as each country can have different
requirements, depending on the carrier and the smartphone model. Sony also recently used
Facebook to announce platform upgrades in the coming year.
Some analysts say these
reports highlight that the race to upgrade phones to Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS)
is well underway. Major Android upgrades have long been a source of contention
for consumers who feel they wait too long for phone makers and carriers to
support new platform versions. For example, Samsung's first Galaxy line took a
notoriously long time to get the Android 2.2 Froyo bump in 2011. HTC has been
among the quicker OEMs to ensure its Android phones received timely upgrades.
In July, LG Electronics
officials, who earlier this year boasted of an aggressive expansion of their
smartphone portfolio, are now reportedly cutting their smartphone sales
projections by 20 percent after losing business to such competitors as Apple
and Samsung. Park Jong Seok, head of LG's mobile business, told reporters at a
media briefing July 7 that the company now expects to sell 24 million
smartphones, down from the 30 million it had forecast earlier this year,
according to a Bloomberg News report.
The lowered forecast is the
latest hit taken by the mobile phone unit at LG, which is currently the world's
third-largest mobile phone maker. In the first quarter of the year, the unit
lost $94 million, marking the second consecutive losing quarter. Park said the
business is improving, though he was unclear when it would begin turning a
profit again, the news service reported at the time.
Nathan Eddy is Associate Editor, Midmarket, at eWEEK.com. Before joining eWEEK.com, Nate was a writer with ChannelWeb and he served as an editor at FierceMarkets. He is a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.
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