Motorola gives us a timeline of Ice Cream Sandwich updates

Today Motorola updated its “Motorola Android Software Upgrade News” page with new information about which phones and Tablets will get Ice Cream Sandwich.

I’ve saved you the effort of going through the page by separating out the Australian devices.

So from the below table we can see that the RAZR (Optus), Atrix (Telstra) and the Xoom (WiFi & 3G) will make the cut and have a time frame of Q2 this year.
What is disappointing to see is that the recently released Defy+ will not be getting Ice Cream Sandwich and there is no surprise about the rest of the devices.

The Update Table…

How does Motorola update a device?

Motorola also decided to take the opportunity to shed some light on how they progress through an update cycle and have a pretty little process flow below.

The duration of each cycle varies and in some cases is dependent on our carrier partners’ requirements. As our products complete each phase, we get closer to releasing upgrades and therefore we can provide a better estimate as to its availability.

PHASE 1 – EVALUATION & PLANNING: During this phase, we evaluate the benefits, technical issues and user experience of an upgrade. Generally, we are not able to provide release dates in this stage. There are also some cases in which we can state that an upgrade will happen but are not able to provide a release date. Please note that some products that enter the Evaluation and Planning phase may not complete the upgrade cycle.

PHASE 2 – DEVELOPMENT: This phase represents the development of the software upgrade. When a device is in the Development Phase, we will provide an estimated calendar quarter for its availability. This date and the development activities are subject to change.

PHASE 3 – TESTING: Testing is an important phase to ensure that an upgrade works properly and delivers an improved experience. Testing time may vary depending on the device and carrier requirements. Once a potential upgrade enters this phase, Motorola Mobility will provide the approximate month that we expect an over-the-air (OTA) upgrade to become available to consumers. Availability still depends upon completion of testing and certification by carriers or relevant authorities.

PHASE 4 – AVAILABLE: Once the upgrade is approved by the carrier or local regulators, Motorola Mobility will note on this site that the software is available. In most cases, consumers will receive a notification on their device that the OTA upgrade is available. An available upgrade or update may be rolled out over a period of time in order to best manage the deployment volume and experience. At times, a small testing group is provided the upgrade before it’s made available to a larger group. On your Motorola Android Phone or Tablet, you can go to Settings ⇒ About Phone/Tablet ⇒ System Updates to manually check for an OTA upgrade. All estimated release dates are based on available information and are subject to change.

Where the Carrier gets involved…

From my experiences with Motorola, Phase 1 – Evaluation and Planning is where they will talk to the Carrier and find out if the number of units sold and Carrier marketing strategies will accommodate for an update as well as hardware capabilities and effort involved.
Phase 3 – Testing is when the test builds will be sent to the Carrier for network testing and as we know some carriers are far more stringent than others (I of course refer to Telstra).

Its good to see Motorola trying to be more transparent and we can hope that Google’s recent acquisition will transfer some of it’s unofficial business motto of “Don’t be evil”.