Opinion: Android is killing itself with updates

I love Android. I love it to bits. It's lighthearted, ludicrously flexible, and boasts the best tech mascot since Tux the Linux penguin first waddled into our hearts. Google's quirky OS makes the tech world a brighter place, and can provide the perfect antidote to the stern rigidity of Apple.

But Android has a serious problem in the way it handles updates, and it's a threat more deadly than any lawsuit.

We all scream for Ice Cream

Android 4.0, aka Ice Cream Sandwich, is coming soon, so close we can almost taste its icy sweetness. But of the heaving masses of Android users out there, many will never get Ice Cream Sandwich on their phones, and almost none have any notion of when exactly they can expect the latest version to arrive on their device of choice.

Let that sink in for a moment. The vast majority of Android users, who have paid hundreds of pounds to be part of the Android ecosystem, have literally no idea when, if at all, they will get the next version of the software.

That is madness. Part of the appeal of an Android phone or tablet is that you get to hop aboard the update train, with the promise that your device of choice will soon be so much more, that it will grow and evolve along with the operating system itself.

But like every train in operation in the UK today, the Android update train is rubbish. It's always late, and you expect to be held at numerous signals, and in every tunnel. No refunds.

Whose fault is this? It's everyone's fault. From Google itself, to the network carriers who delay updates even further, to the manufacturers who actually make these gadgets, everyone is failing miserably at what should be a simple task -- placing a software update on to a mobile phone.

At CNET UK we're constantly overwhelmed with readers asking when they can expect the latest version of Android on their particular mobile. And usually we have no answer except, "When they can be bothered," because the manufacturers who make these phones stay infuriatingly silent on the subject.

Why are we waiting?

HTC, for example, has promised that its Sensation phones, along with the Evo 3D, will be getting an update to Android 4.0 early next year. That's vague, and a pant-wettingly long wait for anyone eager to try the latest version, but worse -- the company hasn't even deigned to mention all the other phones it makes.

When will the HTC Desire, Desire HD or Desire S get Ice Cream Sandwich? HTC says it's "continuing to assess

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