Ice Cream Sandwich Release Date: CyanogenMod Team Begins Developing ICS Port
The Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich source code was released to the public on Nov. 14 and the CyanogenMod team announced that it has begun development of a port for the soon-to-be-released operating system.
CyanogenMod developer Steve Kondik posted on the team's Twitter page, "...and we're off. check back in 2 months :)," in reference to CyanogenMod 9, the name of the Ice Cream Sandwich port.
Other developers have released their progress in creating rough builds of the operating system but the CyanogenMod port, once completed, should be available to the public.
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Technology website Android Central noted that the two-month period CyanogenMod has set does not mean that the port will be ready for distribution in January, but that those interested in the port should check back for news on its progress.
The CyanogenMod team previously stated that an Ice Cream Sandwich port might take a while to develop after the release of the operating system.
"If the transition from Froyo (2.2) to Gingerbread (2.3) is a model, it may take several months from the release of the Ice Cream Sandwich source code before a viable port is available," said the team.
Developers may have expected that Android would withhold the Ice Cream Sandwich source code as it did with the Android 3.0 Honeycomb code; however, having the Ice Cream Sandwich code available may speed up the release of the CyanogenMod 9 build, according to industry insiders.
The CyanogenMod 8’s Honeycomb tablet build is notably less popular than the smartphone ports that have released and have public source codes. Many have favored the smartphone Android 2.2 Froyo and Android 2.3 builds on tablets to the CyanogenMod 8 build.
CyanogenMod 7.1 is the custom build for Gingerbread and is known for being featured on the HP TouchPad Tablet.
Kondik announced in another Tweet that CyanogenMod 7.2 would release soon as the team works on CyanogenMod 9.
