According to the official Samsung Israel Facebook page, March 15 will be the release date for the Samsung Galaxy S2 upgrade to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. As the Israeli version of the Samsung Galaxy S2 is based on the international version of the S2, it’s safe to assume that the freshest version of Android will soon roll out globally to all Galaxy S2 smartphones, aside one major exception that I’m sure many of you have already guessed: it’s very likely that US, carrier-branded versions of the Galaxy S2 will get Ice Cream Sandwich with some sort of a delay.
While there is hope that the delay will not be as big as it was the case with the original Galaxy S’s update to Android 2.2 FroYo, I wouldn’t bet on AT&T, Sprint, or T-Mobile rushing to provide the ICS update for the Galaxy S2 (Verizon “passed” on the S2, but they did get a time-limited exclusivity on the first ICS device, the Galaxy Nexus). Depending on the carrier, the FroYo update arrived on US versions of the Galaxy S around 3-4 months later than it did on the international versions, many blaming the carriers themselves for their unwillingness to roll out the update. Official reasons blamed the slight, carrier-dependent hardware variations that required further testing. No matter what the cause of the delay was, that’s one scenario that nobody wants to see repeated.
If you can’t wait for the official Android 4.0 to roll out, you can go ahead and install one of the leaked ICS ROMs. Of course, if you choose to go down that path, you do so at your own risk.
