Sony is the latest company confirming its plans to upgrade to the newest version of Android.
Specifically, it said that the Tablet S and the Tablet P will be eligible for Android 4.0, otherwise known as Ice Cream Sandwich. The news came from a post on Sony’s official community forums.
Though no specific timeline was mentioned, these devices are among the first tablets to get pledged update support, cementing Sony as one of the more aggressive ICS manufacturers right now.
The company’s mobile division, which is soon to be divorced from partner Ericsson, was initially tepid in its reception to Android. But as the company began to veer lower and lower in the red, it wildly shifted its strategy to an all-Android business model, and has been on the rise ever since.
Ice Cream Sandwich is one of the biggest updates to Android yet, and includes such features as scanning your face to unlock the phone, a much more robust speech-to-text software program, and an entire platform of data sharing that focuses on Near Field Communication (NFC).
NFC so far has been mostly focused on using your phone as a payment device in retail stores, but with Ice Cream Sandwich’s Android Beam, it can also allow users to easily share contact information, Youtube videos, or website addresses simply by waving two phones next to each other.
Several other manufacturers have pledged support for the new update, and a bunch of phones currently running an older version of Android will be eligible to upgrade to Ice Cream Sandwich beginning next year.
