Ice Cream Sandwich alpha ROM available for unlocked Xperia? phones
To show our continuous support to the open developer community, and get your valuable feedback, we are today making an alpha ROM of Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0.1) for Xperia? arc S, Xperia? neo V and Xperia? ray available for download. This is something we have not done before, and we are obviously very excited about it.
This ROM is strictly targeting advanced developers, and it will not work for ordinary everyday usage, as it only has a limited set of features working (you can for example not make any phone calls). Several more legal and usage conditions apply ? please see the Important information section below for more details.
As you read this, a few weeks have passed since the source code for Ice Cream Sandwich was released. Since then, the Sony Ericsson engineering teams have been working hard on all the activities needed to roll out the final software upgrade of Ice Cream Sandwich for the 2011 Xperia?, as previously described in our article Ice Cream Sandwich ? from source code to software upgrade.
Creating a full software upgrade is a complex process involving hardware bring up of the lower software layers, software and feature adaptations, certifications and approvals. However, even though we are now in the Bring up phase, we wanted to release a snapshot of where we are today, for advanced developers in the open community who want to try it out.
Important information Since this is far from the final software upgrade roll out, there are a few things to pay close attention to before you download and install the ROM:
Android 4.0 "Ice Cream Sandwich" のソースが公開され、端末メーカー各社(とキャリア各社)はアップデートを提供するかどうか「誠意」が試される今日このごろ、ソニー・エリクソンが見せてくれました。
同社は公式ブログにて、Xperia の2011年モデルすべてに対し、"Ice Cream Sandwich"アップデートを提供する方針を明らかにしました。
Xperia の2011年モデルとは、日本で展開されているモデルで言えば Xperia arc、Xperia PLAY、Xperia ray、Xperia mini(イー・アクセスのSony Ericsson Mini)のこと。
そのほかにも Xperia arc S、Xperia neo、Xperia neo V、Xperia mini pro、Xperia pro、Xperia active、そして Sony Ericsson Live with Walkman が含まれます。日本独自仕様の Xperia acro については言及なし。
冷静に考えてみれば「今年のハードウェアに、今年のアップデートを提供します」と言っただけであって、その程度で喜んでいいのかという気もしますが、Google 自身の Nexus One でさえ越えられない新たな「分断」の溝をソニエリ(の最新モデルたち)がぶじ乗り越えることになったというのは、やはり良いニュースであると言えます。