ICS kernel source code of the Xperia S released by Sony

When Google finally broke the cover of the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system late last year, it was only expected that manufacturers will revisit and rearrange their schedules to accommodate the research needed in the development of Ice Cream Sandwich for the handsets in their respective stables. When manufacturer after manufacturer came out in the open with their supposed ICS plans, we noticed a common denominator – almost all of them are planning to give the high-end handsets in their lineups first dibs on the Android 4.0 refresh. This is already expected given these high-end devices will normally have impressive components under the hood thereby guaranteeing the smooth transition to ICS once the update becomes available.

Sony however took a rather different approach. Of course, the manufacturer also unleashed the update to its high-end devices but the company also managed to get its midrangers such as the Sony Xperia Mini Pro and Sony Xperia Active upgraded to the latest version of the Google mobile operating system. None of the other manufacturers have managed to do this so far and all commendations are given to the company for managing to make ICS work beautifully on the modest hardware of its midrangers.

As mentioned earlier however, the manufacturer also unleashed the update to its high end handsets and the latest from this category to get the Android 4.0 refresh is the Sony Xperia S. The ICS upgrade for the handset was released a couple of weeks ago but was also pulled due to some issues in the update process. It was then re-released by Sony and all have become smooth sailing by then. And now that the Sony Xperia S, the current flagship device of the manufacturer, has finally gotten its tasty treat of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, it is only expected that the manufacturer will also released the Ice Cream Sandwich kernel source for the update as required by the Open GPL.

In compliance with the said specification of the Open GPL, Sony has recently released the ICS kernel source of the Sony Xperia S and this can be had at the official support site of the manufacturer. This is based on the recently-launched V6.1.A.0.452 ICS firmware and is said to weigh in at approximately 132 MB.

Although the ICS kernel source code of the Sony Xperia S wouldn’t mean much to the regular average smartphone user, the hardworking fellows in the developer communities will definitely have a field day with its availability. And if we are to hazard a guess, a lot of the developers who already took advantage of the said ICS kernel source code for the Sony Xperia S are already poring over the code and in just a couple of days from now, we can expect better and faster custom ROMs for the Sony Xperia S to start dropping like manna from heaven.