Ice Cream Sandwich

[AfroSamurai]

Any idea if the 1.5 GHz models of the 80G9 and 101G9 will be released with 4.0 or at least upgrade-able?

[Charbax]

I think all Archos G9 1Ghz, 1.2Ghz, 1.5Ghz, the Arnova G2 series and even Gen8 are upgradable to Android 4.0 during the next months at some point.

On G9 because OMAP4 is the reference platform for Android 4.0 so it should be easy and awesome. If it comes before January I'll be surprised though. My guess is Google only supports the Galaxy Nexus having it before the end of the year, but with all Gingerbread and Honeycomb devices being able to upgrade to it early next year.

Arnova G2 because I expect Rockchip has it as its highest priority to get real tablet OS support on their tablets so I expect them to work quickly with Archos to get Android 4.0 to work on the Arnova G2 RK2918 based tablets as soon as the source code is released. Expect it for around January.

On Gen8 because I think Gingerbread was relatively minor upgrade, not bringing much for tablets, Archos skipped officially upgrading to that, they couldn't use Honeycomb on OMAP3 hardware of Gen8 but I expect Android 4.0 to work great on the Gen8 hardware. And Archos and resellers even still has a few Gen8 devices in sale. If it's not too much work for Archos to make it work on Gen8, expect it for around February.

Gen7 officially to Android 4.0 is unlikely but there will be some guidelines and maybe some third party hackers will make it work using the special developer edition firmware.

[wewewi]

Oh common, Charb'!

We know you like Archos. We know.
But I really dont think you are serving them right when you come up with stuff like that.

I'd be surprised enough to see ICS on gen9.. But gen8? With those 256mb of ram? Now that's funny.
I mean... we are talking about that only company that got its market access screwed up on google's last silent update, right?

Seriously, I think I'm gonna cry if I see an official ICS firmware before 2012 Q'2; and I TOTALLY will cry I we ever see a gen8 ICS one.

[Harfainx]

Gen8 devices could get ICS. Even the low RAM is not a problem. Will it actually see an official firmware update to ICS...? Probably not.

ICS will definitely not be seen on anything but the Nexus before Christmas, but it will probably start rolling out to others in the beginning of 2012. We'll probably see it on the Gen9 devices around February (this is just my guess). Archos is a good position for an upgrade because they already have some of the devices in the hands of customers. They should have a relatively easy time getting devices out and getting the firmware customized. The thing that is going to take them the longest is probably going to be adding in their proprietary software, such as the video player.

[gte105u]

Buy a device for what it has, not what it might get. Archos G9 comes with Honeycomb, which is a plenty good OS. I doubt anyone will be overly disappointed unless you really want an app that is not working right on it. Archos may upgrade the G9s to ICS, but there is by no means any guarantee it will happen. If you get it assuming it will happen, you are setting yourself up for disappointment like the people with G8s did with Gingerbread. Expect to not get it until something official is announced so you won't be disappointed if that is how it turns out.

[jfmcbrayer]

Google says that ICS should run on any device that Gingerbread will run on, so I don't think the low RAM on Gen8 would prevent it from running ICS. That said, I don't expect an official ICS for Gen8 from Archos; I would not be at all surprised, though, if CM9 were to be ported by the OpenAOS team.

[jimexbox]

Who buys a PC/tablet for its operating system? If it does what I want, I couldn't care less what OS it has. I mean who thinks Vista was an 'upgrade'? If it works leave alone, unless a new OS offers something you need.

[kronosqq]

I thought it was worth a comment to point out that Asus has said they'll upgrade the original Transformer to ICS before the year is out. (see AndroidPolice). In terms of other devices I think most Samsung ones have at least a decent chance of an upgrade this year, although it does depend more on the carrier (for phones) than on the manufacturer. As for OS, I don't think there's going to be much benefit going from Honeycomb to ICS apart from cutting down fragmentation but for G8 tablets Froyo to ICS or even Froyo to Honeycomb would make a huge difference. Personally I don't expect Archos to upgrade any of the G8's and even if they did I'm not convinced the hardware would allow particularly good performance. However since ICS will be opensource unlike Honeycomb I'd bet we'll see a port from XDA or somewhere similar.

[JayFord]

Who buys a PC/tablet for its operating system? If it does what I want, I couldn't care less what OS it has. I mean who thinks Vista was an 'upgrade'? If it works leave alone, unless a new OS offers something you need.

THANK YOU I could noyt have put it better myself. I always have a little chuckle when I read people's posts where they threaten to boycott [insert manufacturer here] if it doesn't have a particular os, ah well different strokes for different folks I guess

[TME]

I thought it was worth a comment to point out that Asus has said they'll upgrade the original Transformer to ICS before the year is out. (see AndroidPolice). In terms of other devices I think most Samsung ones have at least a decent chance of an upgrade this year, although it does depend more on the carrier (for phones) than on the manufacturer. As for OS, I don't think there's going to be much benefit going from Honeycomb to ICS apart from cutting down fragmentation but for G8 tablets Froyo to ICS or even Froyo to Honeycomb would make a huge difference. Personally I don't expect Archos to upgrade any of the G8's and even if they did I'm not convinced the hardware would allow particularly good performance. However since ICS will be opensource unlike Honeycomb I'd bet we'll see a port from XDA or somewhere similar.

Would be wonderful if my G8 can get an update... but not sure if the hardware will stand up to it... especially video... but Archos always manages to screw-up stuff, so I'm not holding my breath.

[gte105u]

I thought it was worth a comment to point out that Asus has said they'll upgrade the original Transformer to ICS before the year is out. (see AndroidPolice). In terms of other devices I think most Samsung ones have at least a decent chance of an upgrade this year, although it does depend more on the carrier (for phones) than on the manufacturer. As for OS, I don't think there's going to be much benefit going from Honeycomb to ICS apart from cutting down fragmentation but for G8 tablets Froyo to ICS or even Froyo to Honeycomb would make a huge difference. Personally I don't expect Archos to upgrade any of the G8's and even if they did I'm not convinced the hardware would allow particularly good performance. However since ICS will be opensource unlike Honeycomb I'd bet we'll see a port from XDA or somewhere similar.

Would be wonderful if my G8 can get an update... but not sure if the hardware will stand up to it... especially video... but Archos always manages to screw-up stuff, so I'm not holding my breath.

From what I am reading the G8 could handle it hardware wise. I think it is virtually impossible that the G8 would get an official one. It is very possible that a developer will allow you to do it via root though.

I was reading on the Acer A500 that a poster with connections over there reported the A500 will be upgraded too. Seems like the current line of tablets, that is the standard. I would imagine that Archos would be wise to follow suit, especially since there is a sector of the line which will be released after it is already out. Archos does not always follow industry standard though, for good and for bad...

[kronosqq]

From what I am reading the G8 could handle it hardware wise. I think it is virtually impossible that the G8 would get an official one. It is very possible that a developer will allow you to do it via root though.

Yeah, I'm sure that it COULD run it but I doubt it would run smoothly. At least Archos would want to integrate a process closer into the running apps pane like Lenovo did on their Honeycomb tablets. You wouldn't want to keep much running at once on the G8's

[kmd1970]

Who buys a PC/tablet for its operating system? If it does what I want, I couldn't care less what OS it has. I mean who thinks Vista was an 'upgrade'? If it works leave alone, unless a new OS offers something you need.

You are confusing "OS" with "OS Version"

Most people would like to have the latest version of android on their new device because android updates are never guaranteed, or may take a long time depending on manufacturer.

ICS is supposed unify android versions across all device platforms and reduce the time it takes for manufacturers to push updates to customers. The Holy Grail of android (We will see).