Where in the World is Ice Cream Sandwich?

 Google's roll-out of Android 4.0, dubbed "Ice Cream Sandwich," has stalled, stifling its positive impact on the Android platform.

 

The fourth version of the Mountain View, Calif.- based company's mobile operating system made its debut on the Samsung Galaxy Nexus late last year. Critics praised the reworked platform for its clean user interface and strong features, but manufacturers' failure to release the update for their devices has left ICS as nothing but a rumor for most Android phone owners.

Companies reassured consumers at the Mobile World Congress new handsets running Android 4.0 are on the way, but millions of users with current devices have now been waiting months for the update. The Samsung Galaxy S2, Motorola Droid Razr and HTC Rezound, three of most successful devices this past holiday season, are still operating on Android 2.3 Gingerbread.

Manufacturers are putting updated release plans in motion, with most promising a launch of the OS early in the second quarter of this year. Motorola, for instance, updated its schedule of devices due to receive ICS updates. However, rumors are surfacing about Google's next update to Android, and the botched launch of ICS has left a black eye on the company and its platform.

Part of the reason is due to Google's ever-present issue of fragmentation. Smartphone makers have taken their time getting the ICS update out to their devices, as they engineer their own custom skins and bloatware to work properly with the new platform. Manufacturers customize the newest version of the Android OS to better position themselves against their own competition, but Google's software is spending time on the shelf getting stale.

As phone makers take their time customizing the OS, Android is losing ground to its rivals. Google is in a constant battle with Apple's iOS in the world of smartphone software. ICS introduced some new ideas in the Android platform that inspired jealousy in even the most die-hard Apple fans, but the software's inability to saturate the market with the platform has neutralized any advantage the company could have gained.

As a result, instead of going head-to-head with Apple and iOS 5 with top-of-the-line devices running ICS, Google stands by as the 4S enjoys the best sales in the history of the iPhone, due in part to facing competition running the outdated Gingerbread OS.

Google's decision to make Android a licensed open-source operating system has left it vulnerable to problems like the poor roll-out of ICS. It appears as if Android 4.0 will finally make it to users devices this spring, but it just won't be quite as fresh as it would have been four months ago.