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Droid Bionic Ice Cream Sandwich Update Makes Motorola Look Silly Yet Again

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Another day, another low-end phone that has defeated the Motorola Droid Bionic to Ice Cream Sandwich. Today, it’s the Samsung Galaxy Exhilarate, a relatively obscure eco-friendly device that runs on AT&T’s 4G LTE network and was released in June of this year.

In an announcement, first discovered by Android Police, Samsung revealed that the software is currently available to owners through the Samsung Kies software.

This means that owners will not be seeing the upgrade roll out over the air and instead, will have to connect their Samsung Galaxy Exhilarate to their computer and manually install the Android 4.0 software.

Read: Droid Bionic Ice Cream Sandwich Update Leaks, Might Be Final Version.

Motorola-Droid-Bionic-camera-575x3801

The Droid Bionic ICS update situation is beyond ridiculous.

Once the update is complete, Galaxy Exhilarate owners will be taken from Android 2.3 Gingerbread to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, a welcomed improvement to be sure.

Today’s roll out means that yet another lower-end phone has beaten the Droid Bionic to Ice Cream Sandwich. What’s even more agonizing is that despite being released in June, the Galaxy Exhilarate doesn’t trump the Droid Bionic, from a hardware standpoint, in any way.

Read: Motorola Droid Bionic Now a Year Old, Still Without Ice Cream Sandwich.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=nYz29v1k4ko

The Galaxy Exhilarate is just the latest device to join the Ice Cream Sandwich family before the Droid Bionic. The Samsung Captivate Glide recently got its upgrade to Ice Cream Sandwich and another device, the Kyocera Rise, a device sporting a single core processor, a small amount of RAM, and a release date just shy of a year from the Droid Bionic’s own release date recently launched with Android 4.0.

It has now been over a year since the Droid Bionic was released and around 10 months since Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich made its debut in the United States.

Motorola promised the Droid Bionic ICS update for early Q3 though it’s now saying that it will be out in Q3 which leaves the rest of September as possible release dates.

The company still hasn’t said when the update might roll out.

In any event, the fact that Samsung beat Motorola to the punch here with a device that probably sold far less than the Droid Bionic is embarrassing and it’s now clear why Motorola took the stage at the Droid RAZ HD event and announced a new policy when it comes to major Android updates.

55 Comments

55 Comments

  1. sam

    09/18/2012 at 1:57 pm

    For god sake just update this bionic already.

  2. Madea

    09/18/2012 at 2:05 pm

    My low end phone just beat a high end phone, what a disgrace lol! Verizon has issues, I was about to buy the Droid bionic but its just too mistreated.

    • Nick

      09/21/2012 at 2:40 pm

      Thats why you have a low end phone so hush, the droids will be better than any other phone so yea. Calm down

  3. kyle

    09/18/2012 at 2:05 pm

    Couldnt care less what they do at this point. Ive had moto phones since the original razor, but after this im buying the iphone 5 and wont ever be buying a phone from moto again.

    • Armando

      09/18/2012 at 2:32 pm

      Yeah! Never again buying a Moto phone again either!

  4. mishck

    09/18/2012 at 2:34 pm

    I too have had moto phones for at least ten years, but I won’t be buying another. I suspect that there are companies out there who support their products as well as their customers.

  5. saucyslingo

    09/18/2012 at 2:40 pm

    After the original Droid (OG) screen going on me a week after warranty expired, I decided to give Motorola another chance with this phone. Big mistake. I should have gone with Samsung like all my friends. I have been nothing but disappointed with this company and the amount of bloatware on this phone (Verizon contributed to this). ICS is the only thing I can do to disable the bloatware but Motorola wont even give me that. Now I cant even root b/c there is a root check to see if my phone was ever rooted which could void my warranty.

  6. doug

    09/18/2012 at 3:26 pm

    Do not like waiting….but if they give us JellyBean……instead of ics update i will be buying razar maxx HD…YEAAAA BABY…that is the onlt way i stay with moto…..so yea……probably last moto for me and going for Samsung Note or equivalent if comes to Big Stinky Red!!!!!!

  7. droid bionic user

    09/18/2012 at 4:12 pm

    no more moto i’m going to go with samsung galaxy note 2

  8. jay b

    09/18/2012 at 4:12 pm

    Not at all happy with my bionic at this point. Motorola is dead to me.

  9. Greg Moore

    09/18/2012 at 4:30 pm

    i want my ice cream sandwhich

    anyone have more info for the bionic getting ICS? I heard it was going to be this month… i only check for system updates everyday… sigh

    • Kyle

      09/18/2012 at 8:39 pm

      You don’t need to root and you can get ICS now. Google “Droid bionic ICS leak .244”. Look for a dl link and you can install it with stock recovery. The only warning is you will not receive any ota updates doing this.

    • Rycee

      09/19/2012 at 2:05 pm

      No one knows when. Everyone thought. 244 would be pushed OTA but .246 just leaked a week ago. Verizon is hung up on flash and will not accept any build that doesn’t not fix the flash issues

  10. Dominic

    09/18/2012 at 4:46 pm

    I seriously couldn’t stand the waiting, so I finally made the risk of rooting my Bionic.
    Seriously the best decision I made. I’m running a FROM called Spearmint Gummy Bear or something, and its seriously the same thing as ICS, just a tad different. Better though. Another thing about it, is the color. That traditional blue color for ICS is now green, hence the “Spearmint”.
    So, I seriously recommend this. I think I got detailed instructions and downloads from droidbionicroot.com or something.
    Good luck guys, I am done searching for an update release every day!

  11. VA Patriot

    09/18/2012 at 4:49 pm

    I doubt very much Motorola is feeling any embarrassment over their obsolete Droid Bionic this late in the season. After all, most phones are antiquated after six-months after their release. Motorola’s only saving grace is to jump Droid Bionic owners to Jelly Bean before the end of this month. Yeah…right. I’ll hold my breath.

  12. adlerrot

    09/18/2012 at 4:58 pm

    I have been running ICS 223 on my Bionic since it was leaked. Does a few weir things but nothing I can complain about. I am very disappointed that the Bionic did not become the super phone that I hoped for

  13. Brandon

    09/18/2012 at 5:01 pm

    I dont get why everyone is bashing moto its not them its verizon they wont approve the update bc of flash

    • VA Patriot

      09/18/2012 at 6:08 pm

      And you know this to be true…how?

      • Bster

        09/18/2012 at 6:51 pm

        Flash is obsolete starting with ice cream sandwich. Yes, verizon has to approve the software but Google ( Which now owns Motorola) has to fix their bugs first. They would only be forgiven if they skip ice cream sandwich and send a straight to jelly bean.

  14. Connor

    09/18/2012 at 5:08 pm

    This is ridiculous. Definately gonna get an iPhone next.

  15. VA Patriot

    09/18/2012 at 5:19 pm

    Adam,

    Motorola has given up on their Droid Bionic so no need to post any more updates on ICS. There once was a time when the Droid Bionic was the pinnicle in their marketing department but was quickly overshadowed by the RAZR months later. The Droid Bionic is now an “8-Track” in Motorola eyes as reflected in their inactions to why no ICS update. The reason both Motorola and Verizon have been hush on this is because they no longer consider the DB a selling item. It’s been pulled off the shelves only to be found on eBay so why bother pushing some update to something so obsolete? Customer service is still measured on how you treat your customer after the sale…thus delineating the difference between between the two. Motorola – who still tries to ride their Six-Sigma wave as long forgotten this.

    • Armando

      09/19/2012 at 6:34 pm

      Cheers to this comment! Well done!

  16. Tiredofwaiting

    09/18/2012 at 5:20 pm

    I think its Verizon fault too they want us bionic owners to get impatient and switch to another phone and lose our unlimited data. I could be wrong but it sure feels that way!

    • VA Patriot

      09/18/2012 at 5:51 pm

      There could be some truth to this as Verizon is now running the show all in the name of profit margin. Interesting that Verizon has the power to pull the puppet strings of Motorloa. Another example of how to customer service is determined not before, but after the sale.

  17. your a twit (@youratwitusa)

    09/18/2012 at 5:32 pm

    and here I jumped to to Moto from Samsung for the very reason that Samsung took so damn long to update The Captivate/Galaxy S. that and “I sent my phone to you for repair. whats wrong with it?” “don’t know. but we’ll fix it for $70.00”

    customer = people for CEO’s to laugh at..

  18. brood

    09/18/2012 at 5:46 pm

    i’m on my 4 bionic from Verizon. The best “suitable replacement” they could give me is a lg revolution! I really hope ics can fix the bionic, but I really believe that the phone is a piece of crap!

    • Moo

      09/19/2012 at 12:21 pm

      The camera is awful and my only real complaint. Especially after they advertised it as being the first smart phone to do full 1080p video at 30FPS. I think my DroidX’s camera was better than the X2 and the Bionic combined.

    • Chadder

      09/20/2012 at 8:43 pm

      I totally agree. Im on my 5th bionic in 7 months

  19. TheMethod

    09/18/2012 at 5:47 pm

    I completely agree with Tiredofwaiting. Verizon is delaying the update to make Bionic owners surender their unlimited data and switch devices. It also looks like thats the reason why the last update never really fixed the 4G connection bugs everyone is still getting. I’m definitely switching to Samsung the next upgrade.

    • VA Patriot

      09/18/2012 at 6:04 pm

      Although I’m sure Verizon has their “puppet strings” pulling on Motorola, I fail to see how an upgrade to ICS would force current customers to change their plan?

      • VA Patriot

        09/18/2012 at 6:17 pm

        …Its like my current ISP trying to charge me more because I upgraded my PC from Vista to Windows 7. ICS is nothing more than an OS upgrade…

        • Bster

          09/18/2012 at 6:56 pm

          Supposedly when you upgrade your Bionic to a newer phone they take you off the grandfather unlimited plan to put you on a pay plan

  20. Bster

    09/18/2012 at 6:44 pm

    If you watch the video that Samsung actually has a 1.2 dual core processor, But yes I have a bionic That I bought for 150 dollars and then a week later it was free. F u Motorola, This will be my first and last 1. Honestly, How was the first first dual core processor phone on 4 G L T E the last to get ice cream sandwich?

  21. Regulator

    09/18/2012 at 7:53 pm

    why not just release the **** thing and then bring out updates along the way???

  22. Tommy

    09/19/2012 at 5:32 am

    So Verizon is holding back the Droid Bionic release of ICS purposefully so that I can change phones and remove my unlimited data plan? Hell with THAT. I’m not falling for Verizon’s tricks. I’m keeping my Bionic until my two years are up, which is January 2014. Besides, why would I want a phone that I can’t change the battery out of?

    • Fero

      09/20/2012 at 4:39 pm

      Well, guess what. I just got my daughter an S3 and I had to change my unlimited data plan. It’s ok tho, because Verizon is going to force EVERYONE to switch this January.

  23. Disgusted

    09/19/2012 at 7:08 am

    Beyond ridiculous is correct. It won’t be long and Samsung will be the only viable option for a decent, yet reasonably priced Android device.

  24. Madea

    09/19/2012 at 7:54 am

    I worked for Verizon as a senior tech, I quit because the corporation is corrupted when dealing with their suppliers. I now work for att with better pay and a great work environment dealing with suppliers.

  25. Ed Arnold

    09/19/2012 at 8:07 am

    I will never buy a moto phone again after being treated like sh#t by them. You buy their high end phone and then they dont even support it just take your money! But not no more

    • Armando

      09/19/2012 at 6:33 pm

      I couldn’t have said it better!

  26. Earl

    09/19/2012 at 8:14 am

    No more Moto is a complete given after this mess. Verizon is also probably gone after my contract is up. Time to go somewhere other than VZ and ATT!

  27. Tom

    09/19/2012 at 9:11 am

    I like my Bionic. I like the HD dock, can you do this with any other phone?

  28. mistreatedpuller

    09/19/2012 at 7:29 pm

    Jelly bean would help smooth things out a little bit but just noticed team mobile just went back yo unlimited plans including their 4g phones. Just something to ponder.

  29. asad

    09/19/2012 at 8:25 pm

    Screw motor and vw they both have disappointed all bionic owners. The only way they can make it up is releasing the Jelly bean for bionic before the end of the month. Might just go with another company When my contract ends

  30. Bosco56

    09/20/2012 at 4:42 am

    Same here…last Moto for me. GD thing keeps slowing down (I’ve removed just about every app that wasn’t pushed from Verizon). Thinking about rooting this thing. If I brick it, what’s the difference? What a POS!

  31. Rob

    09/20/2012 at 5:03 am

    I am pretty much done with motorola , this bionic was a huge disappointment in my eyes. I should have went with Samsung from the start, I really do love their beautiful displays.

  32. Russell

    09/20/2012 at 5:53 am

    Motorola will not get my business anymore. Verizon might not either! Everyone will be getting jelly bean right before we get ICS! Stupid moto.

  33. Kevin

    09/20/2012 at 7:21 pm

    always been a motorola user since the 90’s. Motorola pagers, Star tac, Razr, original Droid to the Bionic. I really must say this is really disappointing. No wonder they almost went bankrupt before the original droid’s launch. I really love the android OS but motorola probably won’t be the next phone to run it.

  34. Tom

    09/21/2012 at 4:24 am

    Just so everyone is aware, this is actually Verizon’s fault, and Moto is pissed at them for not releasing an approved update.. It was supposed to soak today, but Verizon delayed it yet again.

  35. VA Patriot

    09/21/2012 at 4:43 am

    Nine days left until ICS…Maybe. Meanwhile, everyone else will start seeing the Jelly Bean upgrade while Motorola offers Droid Bionic owners the $100 consultation prize to upgrade to a new phone…and Verizons expensive data plan. It’s a good thing my contract expires soon as I plan release myself form Verizons leash. T Mobile is looking better these days…

  36. VA Patriot

    09/21/2012 at 5:53 am

    I just got off the phone with Verizon Wireless (Charlene) and asked the questions about the ICS upgrade. Although these customer service representatives are not always in the know she looked up my phone in her database and according to her, the Droid Bionic is “not scheduled for any updates anytime soon”. She mentioned some of the other phone models scheduled for upgrades in the coming months, but the Droind Bionic was not one of them. I would recommend other DB owners to call Verizon Wireless to see if they get the same answer I got.

  37. Rae Hands

    09/21/2012 at 10:09 am

    I love the phone in general. I am just tired of having the so called black sheep of phones. When they announced this phone in Vegas at CSE in January 2011, I was very excited. Then the phone went through some changes and the launch date got pushed out month after month, but I was patient. I even went so far as to buy a cheap Crackberry since my Eris was dieing in a horrible fashion. Now once again Verizon/Motorola is screwing us over. I think Verizon/Motorola should make things right with Bionic owners. I see lessor phones getting ICS before the Bionic, and it does nothing but piss me off. I can’t see myself ever getting another Motorola phone.

  38. Brian

    09/21/2012 at 12:39 pm

    I just recently spoke to a tech when I was up at Verizon today paying my phone bill and I asked about the ics update for my bionic. He told me that it probably will not get released for the bionic do to the fact they wont allow the unlocked bootloader change, in the new ics update motorola is trying to test in the ics update. I dont know what the tech is talking about but it kinda sounds like Verizon is trying to be like uncle Sam, sorry just saying. Can anyone explain this please, im confused.

  39. Danny

    09/21/2012 at 1:51 pm

    I think they should give all us a rebate after this last moto for me fool me once never get the chance again

  40. FreeTheWireless

    11/30/2012 at 6:31 pm

    What is really sad is that while we all retreat to our message boards, facebook and twitter accounts to whine and complain about evil big red, and the ways in which they continue to rip off their customers, while their executives continue to rake in 8 figure salaries. The fact is that companies this large count on 1 thing to keep their profits growing…consumer ignorance. The truth is that vzw and every one of their competitors could easily be offering the same service at a much lower price, but why would they when you will pay so much more. Ponder this my friends, charging you for voice and text is pointless. The power of the 4g and really even 3g network is more than enough to sustain quality voip calls. For those savvy android users out there, we already know that you can get free voip and free texting services to use on your data connection. So lets look at what most of us are probably paying at a minimum right now. We’ll assume a grandfathered unlimited data account. So $30 for the data, at minimum $40 for the voice, and $10 or $20 for text (which is insanely absurd). Well the last time I checked text is data, and if I can send an email to a cell phone as a text message why the hell would I pay $20/month for texting. Now, google voice provides free text and voip calls, at least for now. So if Big Red would simply allow you to drop the voice and text part of your plan and pay for all you really need, which is the data, we’d all be looking at a nice comfortable, reasonable, and logical $30/month cell phone bill. Of course the CEO’s salary would probably drop from somewhere between 20-30 million to about 12-15 million, but hey I’m sure his family gets hungry! The truth is that cell phone companies have been ripping people off since the beginning and they will continue to as long as we let them. I know people that were still paying $80/month for a crappy old school phone with basic talk/text and no web, simply because they never changed their plan. At some point we have to start holding these people accountable for their lack of ethics. There is and always will be only 1 solution to corporate greed. THE CONSUMER! You want unlimited data, and you want it for a reasonable price, all we have to do is all of us at once on the same day call verizon and cancel our accounts, refuse to pay the early termination and demand unlimited data to keep our business. The fact is that major corporations will only ever provide the most reasonable price when they absolutely have to, so that leaves us with only 1 option to get it. I think they would rather take a pay cut then lose all of their customers at once and close up shop. So remember the choice is yours not theirs.

    Oh and flash is certainly not obsolete, they are simply phasing it out because streaming flash video accounts for about 80-90% of the heaviest data usage.

    “What luck for rulers, that men do not think.”
    – Adolf Hitler

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