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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.