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HTC ThunderBolt Ice Cream Sandwich Update Coming in July or August

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HTC has released a brand new detailed Android 4.0 schedule and it looks like the HTC ThunderBolt Ice Cream Sandwich update is slated to arrive sometime in either July or August of this year.

The schedule offers no specific dates but it does offer a window for HTC ThunderBolt owners to look forward to. HTC originally promised Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich for the device earlier this year and today is the first time that we have seen any specifics in regards to the update.

So while Q3 of 2012 is a little bit away, it’s nice to see HTC updating HTC ThunderBolt owners with some information in regards to the highly anticipated update.

Read: HTC ThunderBolt Owners Deserve Some Android 4.0 Answers.

Keep in mind, these dates are subject to change, especially because the device is on Verizon. Verizon has had issues getting Android 4.0 out to its devices with many of its current lineup of 4G LTE smartphones still waiting for the update.

The HTC ThunderBolt, once thought to be a competitor for the iPhone, turned out to be an absolute dud and one of the reasons that HTC switched up its smartphone game plan in 2012.

Read: Blame the ThunderBolt for HTC’s Poor 4G LTE Smartphone Sales.

Verizon’s first 4G LTE smartphone first endured a delayed launch and then became plagued by bugs in the months after it launched. It took HTC and Verizon months to finally smooth over the software on board the ThunderBolt.

Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich should offer some improvements over Android 2.3 Gingerbread, the current operating system on the device. It’s also possible that it could wreck havoc on the device but we hope that the extended amount of time that the companies have had to test the software will ensure that that doesn’t happen.

Any news is good news, right ThunderBolt owners?

39 Comments

39 Comments

  1. jdav1

    05/22/2012 at 11:31 am

    At least we get some time frame. Now maybe someone will let a build slip so devs can get ics running before htc.

  2. Michael

    05/24/2012 at 4:20 am

    I’ve heard all this before ,i’ll believe it when i see it happen. Meanwhile 5.0 comes out same time still left behind.

    • Tim

      07/23/2012 at 12:50 pm

      Oh ya and I still love my 1.25 year old TB. It’s been the best device I have owned thus far..

  3. Crystal

    05/24/2012 at 10:35 pm

    You are an idiot. Do you really think that HTC or Verizon would bother with sending out a major ICS update to a “dud” that’s been out for more than a year? Come on… think!

    FYI, I would not own an Apple product if someone left one on my doorstep. My ThunderBolt has been perfect and blazing fast. I dare you to compare the speed to an iPhone! And yes, I’ve seen it with my own eyes!

    It would be really nice to have people that write these articles say something intelligent. Because of you, I will no longer be wasting my time reading Drippler.

    • steve

      06/05/2012 at 1:44 pm

      i agree with you but i must say that there are probably a shit ton of thunderbolts out there with serious issues

      • Jim

        06/20/2012 at 8:51 am

        As a thunderbolt owner, I am thrilled about this news.

        However, the thunderbolt is a dud. Battery life SUCKS. It isn’t “blazing” fast. It honestly gets bogged down as bad as my original droid. The only thing going for it is 4G LTE.

        HTC has botched every aspect of this phone and if I didn’t have to keep it for 2 years, I would have already upgraded to something like the Razr Maxx.

        • FJ

          06/29/2012 at 12:45 pm

          Know your device. If you did your homework before buying a Thunderbolt, the first LTE smartphone on Verizon (which included 32GB of storage and the no longer available Unlimited Data Plan), you would have been aware that the extended battery was a required upgrade for moderate to heavy use. I walked into Verizon as soon as the batteries were available, about two weeks after the initial release, had them put the extended battery into a new phone, held it, put it my pants pocket, and decided the additional size and weight were fine. It takes several long calls in addition to normal calls and a lot of online use and video viewing to use up the extended battery in a day. The phone is one of the most robustly constructed phones made. The screen is excellent. A Retina Display it is not, but I would take it over any AMOLED screen I have seen so far, because it offers good brightness levels and most importantly more accurate color. I actually use my Thunderbolt as a “reference monitor” to test online color accuracy of images I convert for Web use. I have a calibrated $1,500 NEC monitor for image editing, but the ability of the Thunderbolt to display images as accurately as it does gives me a chance to see how the general public will see them and insure I have converted online files to sRGB. It also is a great mini pocket portfolio that I can use to show my work on the go.

          Regarding getting bogged down. If you manage your device properly it will perform just fine. I use very few apps so I have less to manage than many users. Still for a first generation 4G LTE device, that allowed those who purchased it to be the first to take advantage of the exceptional bump over 3G in download and upload speed, I think we got what we paid for, even though Verizon tested customers limits with that extended battery $50 premium.

          The biggest gripes I have about this phone are unfortunately shared across any smartphone, and that is Verizon’s penchant for forced updates that can effect Settings that you have developed over time, and the extent to which applications and phones in general compromise your private information and activities. That to me matters a lot more than checking every now and then to make sure I do not have too many applications and processes left open and running in the background.

      • connor

        07/09/2012 at 4:43 am

        My Thunderbolt’s issues are crippling. I like the phone, don’t get me wrong, but it falls short in all the ways I wanted it to thrive as my first Android smartphone.

    • Tim

      07/23/2012 at 12:47 pm

      I agree I would never own an apple device period even it was free.. Itunes and its the inability to use it a memory device along with Apples business practices to inhibit anyone else from making electronic devices has soured me on them for life. They must have invented electricty, or at least they think they did..

  4. Jtpowell

    05/25/2012 at 4:30 pm

    I just wish HTC/Vzw would hand over the RIL so the developers can finish doing their job for them…[email protected]

  5. Nick

    05/28/2012 at 8:49 am

    This is truly pathetic. How long does it take to port the damn os, it’s already been made just optimize it for the thunderbolt. I bet one programmer spends like 10 minutes a week on it. Fuck you htc

  6. Willie

    06/08/2012 at 5:59 pm

    Dud? Really…lol….I have had it since its march 17 release date….on 5/31/12 I took an upgrade from another line on my plan and got the razr maxx…the maxx hasn’t a thing on the tbolt…I happily exercised my worry free warranty and am comfortably back to my “dud” which is fatally awesome….I too wouldn’t take an iPhone if it were dropped in my lap…

    • Willie

      06/08/2012 at 6:00 pm

      Fatally = totally

  7. Adam

    06/15/2012 at 10:18 am

    I’ve had the thunderbolt since it first came out also & straight up its been a good phone still looking forward to ics

  8. Robert

    06/18/2012 at 9:49 am

    Looking forward to the Thunderbolt ICS update. I have that on my ASUS Transformer TF201 and love the OS. What issues have folks been experiencing with the Thunderbolt? I got it on Day one last year and have had no issues with it.

    Have a great day.

  9. Otto Maddox

    06/20/2012 at 7:54 am

    I too was an early adopter of the Thunderbolt. I loved it from the first time I tried one out in the store. I thought about getting one for maybe two weeks.

    My wife has an iPhone. It’s OK. Not for me though. I will say this. Her phone has had NO problems in the two years she’s had it.

    I cannot say the same for my Thunderbolt. The first few OTA releases seemed to cause more issues than they resolved. But after about 4 months Verizon got it right and the phone has been solid ever since.

    My only complaint, with “smart” phones in general, is battery life. No matter how good they claim battery life to be it is still dismal compared to my good old fashioned cell phone I used to have.

    I don’t know what ICS will bring to my Thunderbolt. I can say I’ve ever really thought about it. I just want a phone that works.

  10. Bubbyv

    06/20/2012 at 2:08 pm

    Who gives a s…?! The Thunderbold was an expensive disaster. Ice Cream Sandwich will come out (maybe) just when the new Iphone is available. My HTC, Thunderbolt and Android experience have cured me of EVER using them again. Apple. Sorry I cheated. I’ll be back real soon.

  11. me

    06/21/2012 at 1:05 pm

    We my Thunderbolt works great. And is just as fast as any other 4g phone. True the battery life sucks but I’ll take that sacrifice. And the Thunderbolt is one of the very few phones that can still surf the web while you are on a call and you don’t need wifi to do it.

    • Bubbyv

      06/21/2012 at 1:28 pm

      Unfortunately, my Thunderbolt experience has been totally negative.

  12. caitlyn

    06/21/2012 at 3:22 pm

    I love my thunderbolt I haven’t had mine long but I haven’t had any more issues then I have had with any other android and it is way better then an iPhone 4 i had one for about 2 months and got rid of it for my thunderbolt I want ics but it is a good phone without it.

  13. Ahmed Rafsenjahnni

    06/23/2012 at 1:05 pm

    Got my first of three Thunderbolts on it’s release date in my area, March 18, 2010. It worked great for the first few months and then the bugs began, not to mention bad battery life, typing words that end in “ing” or “ough” and watching a letter or two disappear…

    Received my second Thunderbolt in August 2010 (I’m sure it was a factory refurb.) and it was worse than the first…The third and final Thunderbolt arrived in a factory sealed box direct from HTC in mid February of 2011 and it has been great!

    Still have the “ing” and “ough” problem and nobody has any idea on how to resolve it because every tech that I’ve spoken with directly at HTC has “never heard of it”…

    My biggest complaint is being misled by the people at Verizon Worthless and the way in which they modify their plan choices to maximize their profits at the cost of their customers.

    Regardless of what phone I get when my contract expires with Verizon Worthless, I have signed my last contract with Verizon Worthless !!

    • Bubbyv

      06/24/2012 at 5:32 am

      Verizon is sending me a “new” phone under my extended warranty. Hope it not a refurbished.

  14. Dylan

    06/25/2012 at 5:11 pm

    My Thunderbolt experience has been completely negative. I have now been through a total of seven Thunderbolts because Verizon could never seem to get it to work, and nobody seemed to be able to figure it out. I would go days without any data connection at all. In the middle of Atlanta. They sent me three Droid Charges, and sent network engineers to my house, and out around Atlanta with my phone, and other Thunderbolts, couldn’t figure it out. Then they sent me a few Droid Charges, which were a little better, but not by much, at all. So they went back to Thunderbolts, same old crap. It still barely works, I’ll loose data, 4G, 3G, 1X everything, In the center of atlanta for 30 minutes to an hour at least once a day. It’s been nothing but a terrible experience. I’m about to just pay full retail price for a phone just cause I can’t wait till next year to get rid of this P.O.S. since I bought it soon after the release.

    • xpkranger

      06/26/2012 at 8:13 am

      Yes battery life can suck, once you got the stupid blockbuster app to stop updating the catalog (that -was- stupid), anyway once that was taken care of, everything has worked great for me (even battery life is reasonable on most days) and I really do enjoy my phone, until this week when it has started to just randomly shut down about 1x or 2x day. Not reboot, just shutdown. This is very annoying, hopefully its just some stupid app. We’ll see…

    • xpkranger

      06/26/2012 at 8:17 am

      Oh, and I’m in Atlanta too, FWIW. Most of the time I’m ITP, but do travel frequently and haven’t had any problems with respect to that. Never really lose 4G until I go in our datacenter, which is expected really.

  15. Dlowen

    06/26/2012 at 8:58 am

    Honestly have not had any problems with my Thunderbolt. Had HTC Incredible prior which had no complaints with. And a Droid v1 prior to that which was slow and crashed constantly. Looking forward to ICS. Purchased the extended battery right away and have always used that. Never had a power issue.

  16. Brett

    06/27/2012 at 10:03 am

    I love my Thunderbolt and haven’t had the issues many have reported other than battery being less than stellar.

    I am still a little peeved that they might finally release ICS 4.0 update after Jellybean 4.1 is in the hopper. Do I always have to expect to be a version behind without jail breaking?

  17. Jake

    06/27/2012 at 3:51 pm

    I got a used thunderbolt around the same time I bought my wife a iphone4 s. only so much money to go around. Apple is nice for her simple to use not too complicated. But I have to say speed and customization for the thunderbolt can’t be touched by the iphone. Not sure what ice cream sandwich would really add to my user experience

  18. Rick

    06/29/2012 at 6:24 am

    I’ve had my thunderbolt since it was released. Had various rebooting issues which were resolved with an OTA update. Kept losing data and after several calls and tech support folks, I was sent a refurbished TB. Had to return it because it sounded horrible on the call side. Returned it for another used one and same issue plus losing data. Got my third used and data seems to hold up, but calls don’t sound as clear as my original, but I wasn’t going to send another one back. Battery life sucks so it is NEVER in 4g. Almost nothing syncs in order to make it throuh my 8 hour day on he road with minimal to moderate use. Just ordered the extended battery and new case in hopes I can use my TB the way I want to rather than the way I HAVE to in order to make it through a day. I have mixed feelings about the TB, but watching my wife struggle with her droid 2, I feel better.

  19. Aaron

    06/29/2012 at 9:52 am

    I’ve had my Thunderbolt since new, never had any issues whatsoever, I love it! The only thing I’d like to see happen is a Thunderbolt 2 with a dual or quad core processor and more memory, 768 is barely enough to run ICS, 2gb would be superior.

  20. Bernie

    06/30/2012 at 8:15 pm

    Icecream sandwich is a dud, buggy, not worth the upgrade to it. Not working properly on the HTC sensation after i installed the icecream sandwich update.

  21. gary

    07/02/2012 at 4:55 am

    I don’t think the Thunderbolt is a did at all. I have one and think it’s great.

  22. neil

    07/04/2012 at 5:37 pm

    You can forget about 4.0 on the TB. They have been saying next month since January. Now they are saying June/July. Well June came and went, here is July. Come the end of July we will see august/September. I’m no longer counting down to when they release ICS. I am counting down to December when I can upgrade my phone. Because I’ve accepted the fact that this will come first.

    • Travis

      07/16/2012 at 2:10 pm

      I don’t know where you’ve been reading but since the begging of the year HTC has said ICS is coming in July/August. They’ve never mentioned any other months. Not saying I really expect them to get it out on time, just that I’m not gonna complain until its September.

  23. jaydubbya

    07/06/2012 at 1:34 am

    The Thunderbolt is a nice phone if you know how to use it. If you listen to all the negative results above they are probably young individuals which in time will understand how to achieve certain results.

  24. neil

    07/06/2012 at 3:15 am

    I’m not saying it isn’t a nice phone, I’m saying we are getting shafted when it comes to the upgrade. Also, I’m not young.

  25. jimmy d

    07/07/2012 at 10:42 pm

    I love the Tbolt.
    On the battery issue. The key tricks are 1)to leave off GPS and all location services when not in use and 2) reboot daily. I have an extended battery that I don’t even use.
    This phone rocks!

  26. skyrunr10k

    07/17/2012 at 5:51 am

    My first Thunderbolt was a lemon and rebooted constantly. I had to kick and scream, but I finally got the Verizon store to swap it out within the first few weeks. This phone is still UNMATCHED by any other phone. All of the newer phones are just too large to fit in any belt clip or pouch (I use a Golla). I get decent battery life with an app killer, gps/bt off, and WIFI on all of the time. 4G really drains the battery and heats up the phone so I don’t use it. However, I have chargers everywhere so that isn’t even a big deal.

    I love my Thunderbolt. It was MUCH better when I rooted it with Cyanogen but, but the GPS radio didn’t work with third party apps. So I un-rooted the phone so that I can get the OTA ICS update. The biggest feature I want in ICS is to uninstall bloatware.

    NOTE: When you un-root a phone you have to get another SIM card (free) as the old one will not activate on Verizon. Unfortunately the next phone purchase isn’t going to be in a Verizon contract due to Verizon changing their unlimited plans. They claim that the new phone shave features that the old plans do not support which is utter BS!

  27. Dave

    08/08/2012 at 4:20 pm

    Isnt the Thunderbolt pretty much the exact same as the Desire HD? Bad news friends, the desire HD is on the list that is NOT getting the update and will stay at current versions.

    https://www.htc.com/www/help/android4faq/?cid=android4blog
    What devices will not get Android 4.0?
    We work hard to ensure each of our products has the optimal user experience and therefore some products will remain at their current version of Android. In general, devices with 512MB ROM or less will not be upgraded to Android 4.0. These devices include the HTC ChaCha, HTC Salsa, HTC Wildfire S, HTC Explorer, HTC Desire HD and others.

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