Samsung Begins Android Ice Cream Sandwich Rollout

Samsung had confirmed that it is starting the process of updating a number of its mobile devices to the latest version of Android, 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.

In a blog post, the manufacturer said that the rollout will start today, beginning with the Galaxy S II in a number of countries. It is believed that the UK will receive the update next week.

Not melting yet

Users in a number of European countries, including Poland, Hungary and Sweden will receive the update today, as will those in Samsung’s native Korea. Other devices, such as the Samsung Galaxy Note, Galaxy S II LTE and the Galaxy Tab 8.9 and 10.1 will be upgraded in the near future.

Samsung also confirmed that it was going to offer Android 2.3 Gingerbread updates for a number of older devices, such as the Galaxy S, Galaxy Tab 7 inch, Galaxy S Plus and Galaxy W from the end of March and claimed that these announcements “solidified its position as the leader of Android devices.”

“We expect that our customers will enjoy an enhanced experience with their Galaxy devices through this upgrade,” commented JK Shin, president of IT and mobile communications division at Samsung.

Ice Cream Sandwich features improved camera controls, multi-tasking, data counters, support for Near Field Communication (NFC), a redesigned interface, brand new contact system and a number of new security features.

Samsung manufactured the first Ice Cream Sandwich device, Google’s flagship Galaxy Nexus smartphone, which was released in November and a number of its products were on a Verizon list of Ice Cream Sandwich candidates published last week.

It promised that it would update many of its most popular Android devices during the first quarter of 2012, but the software is currently only supported by a handful of smartphones and tablets. This has led to speculation that a new version of Android could be imminent, with Asus seemingly confirming the existence of an update known as ‘Jelly Bean’ earlier this month.