First, I know many people make a big deal about the transition to Android 4.0 being too slow, but I just think the issue is that it's a lot harder for manufactu

First, I know many people make a big deal about the transition to Android 4.0 being too slow, but I just think the issue is that it's a lot harder for manufacturers, and even the hacker community (hence no stable ICS ROM yet) to transition from 2.3 to 4.0, than it was to transition from 2.2 to 2.3 or from Honeycomb to ICS/4.0. I do believe/hope that the transition to 5.0 or 4.5 from 4.0 will be much faster. Also remember that Google releases their version as soon as it's ready for them, unlike Microsoft who keeps the OS from being released until at least a few manufacturers have it on their devices and ready to ship. Should Google adopt the same model and in this case keep ICS from being released until summer 2012, when all manufacturers would be ready to release devices with it at once? Perhaps, but keep in mind that this would also mean using obsolete hardware, just like with all WP7 phones, and it also means they would be way behind iPhones and iPads in terms of hardware, when they adopt a model like this. Second, can the solution for standardization be having some kind of a "virtual hardware layer", and by that I mean more than just what the Dalvik VM currently does - more like "universal drivers" that would make Android easy to upgrade and install on any ARM phone? That would be a dream come true for any Android fan. One thing I know for sure is that Google needs to be working on something like this - even if it takes them years to do it, whether it's because it's hard to do technically, or because they need a lot of time to set-up all the right partnerships. This goal is well worth pursuing, until things become too complex (thousands of devices). But I'm hoping they've been working on it already, and we're only 1-2 years away from seeing it.