As far as release dates and updates go, Google said any Gingerbread device should be able to run Ice Cream Sandwich as well, but as usual, it will all depend on the device makers and carriers (and ROM builders, of course). There’s no release yet, and thus no source code – there is, however, the SDK.
This has nothing to do with Apple versus Google. This is a problem that Google is facing in 2011 just as Microsoft faced for the past 2 decades. When you develop an OS that relies on OEMs, your software rests in the fate of companies who make very slim margins on hardware and will squeeze everything they can out of each handset sold both in money and in functionality. HTC Sense is a nice skin applied to Android but, if your’e an HTC owner, Android updates take far longer because HTC has to make it snazzy. If you’re on Verizon, your phone will probably come preloaded with special apps that the carrier makes money on (think bloatware on your Dell from AOL and Earthlink) and these apps slow down the OS update as well because they have to be tested on the new OS.
OEMs and carriers won’t give consumers the latest OS quickly or at all until that update is customized to their liking. Only if you are a Nexus owner do you get the update with a look & feel that Google controls.
As a technologist and early adopter, I would be screaming louder each and ever day that OS 4.0 from Google wasn’t on my handset. It’s disappointing how little control Google has. At least with PCs, you could go to Best Buy and buy the latest Windows OS on launch day and install it. With Android, you wait until your carrier and device manufacturer says it’s alright.
“People that love software want to build their own hardware.” – Alan Kay
Apple, Palm, Nokia (back in the day) and Blackberry do this. Google does not and I’m betting the entire Android team hates working on a revolutionary update to their OS for 9 months only to see it held up by committees who want to make even more money from an OS that they get for free (Microsoft Patent Trolling aside).