Android (dumb?) question for android

[ShadowSoldier]

So I have an android phone running 2.3.3, and I was just wondering if all android phones are able to update android, or am I stuck with 2.3.3 forever unless I hack?

By that, I mean how iOS5 works on older phones and iTouches...

 

[pokefloote]

It just depends on the maker of the phone and if they decide to throw an update out there. Plenty of 2.2 phones have been updated to 2.3. But, you could always put a custom rom on your phone if there are any for it. ICS is going to be opensourced so custom rom developers are going to be working hard on porting to many phones that otherwise would never get the update officially.

 

[SifJar]

Basically, if your phone currently has custom ROMs, it'll almost certainly get ICS (i.e. Android 4.0). There is also a possibility that your phone's manufacturer will officially release ICS (this would mean that any customization your manufacturer added to Android would also be in the ICS ROM e.g. TouchWiz for Samsung phones; virtually all custom ROMs remove such customizations in favour of either their own customizations or a more "stock" Android experience). There's a list of devices confirmed to be getting updates here: http://blogs.compute...40_upgrade_list

If your phone isn't on that list, you could contact customer support and ask if your phone will be upgraded or not. If not, look into custom ROMs. Chances are, there are ROMs with better feature sets than the manufacturer's ROM anyway (typically custom ROMs are more easily theme-able, are often optimized more for your device, don't have loads of bloatware, potentially have added security features and bug fixes etc. - could also have a custom kernel [custom kernel doesn't always require a custom ROM, but sometimes custom ROMs require custom kernels and/or include them; if they're necessary they'll be included in the ROM for sure], which would maximize the hardware of the phone [e.g. allowing overclocking etc.]). And you'll usually find that custom ROMs will be updated sooner than official ROMs, although they may be less stable.

EDIT: And it's not a dumb question; with the huge variation of Android devices, it's hard to give (and even more so get) definitive answers about certain aspects of Android.

 

[Terminator02]

It just depends on the maker of the phone and if they decide to throw an update out there. Plenty of 2.2 phones have been updated to 2.3. But, you could always put a custom rom on your phone if there are any for it. ICS is going to be opensourced so custom rom developers are going to be working hard on porting to many phones that otherwise would never get the update officially.

Ice Cream Sandwich has already been open-sourced.

 

[pokefloote]

It just depends on the maker of the phone and if they decide to throw an update out there. Plenty of 2.2 phones have been updated to 2.3. But, you could always put a custom rom on your phone if there are any for it. ICS is going to be opensourced so custom rom developers are going to be working hard on porting to many phones that otherwise would never get the update officially.

Ice Cream Sandwich has already been open-sourced.

Oh, really?! Sweet. Hope they make a rom for the Optimus V soon, then. (: