Android 4.0 “Ice Cream Sandwich” source code coming later this year
The Android 3.0 wasn’t just odd in its lack of support for mobile phones, but also because for the first time it was a version of Android that was released without its source code. This painted a grim picture for Android as an open OS; Google at that time however maintained that the source code of Android would be released with a future version.
With Android 4 devices coming soon everyone was looking to Google, hoping that Android could once again be called an open source OS.
Finally a confirmation has come from Google that Android 4 “Ice Cream Sandwich” shall indeed be open source “in a couple of weeks,” once Galaxy Nexus, the first Android 4 phone starts shipping. For manufacturers that choose to enable it, the upgrade path from Android 2.x to 4.0 will be opening as well. With the OS open source once again though, it is only a matter of time before custom hacked third-party ROMS supporting other phones become available as well.