[Motorola Droid 3] redsox985:
So, today I got bored and decided to pick Moto's brains a bit about this topic. (Yes, this is what I did with my free time today.)

I got slightly off topic myself do to his ignorance, but in the end it went well I'd say... You can pretty much skip to the last 5 or so lines.

Rez: Hi, my name is Rez. How may I help you?
Me: I just have a question about the Droid 3 getting Andorid 4.0. I see that older devices (from other companies) with less powerful internals are scheduled to receive an ICS update. Is it likely that the D3 will receive 4.0?

Rez: That's a good question, Redsox985. Let me check that out for you.

Me: Thanks.

Rez: Thank you for waiting, Redsox985.

Rez: I can see that the ICS update for Droid 3 is under evaluation and planning. We will keep you posted thru our website for updates.

Rez: https://forums.motorola.com/pages/00add97d6c

Me: What does "evaluation and planning" mean? Can you say if it'll happen or not based on this?

Rez: We are waiting for information about the update, Redsox985. It is pending. It should pushed thru since we send updates to most of the Motorola
smartphones from time to time.

Me: Also, I know that independent developers have made a handful of ROMs built from source that run smoothly on the D3. Is it a matter of if the phone can run ICS or is its age an issue?

Rez: Are you referring to a different software for Droid 3 or get the phone rooted, is that what you mean?

Me: Yes, by rooting, you can flash independently built ICS rom's from android source. They run on the phone, but some issues exist between the gingerbread kernel (locked boot loader) and ICS features like hardware acceleration, video camera, and flash.

Me: Adobe flash that is.

Rez: The problem later is the phone will not be able to receive updates once the phone is rooted.

Me: It can be unrooted and restored back to stock software with an SBF.

Rez: It can be unrooted but the updates will not work anymore.

Me: I just did it. I was running 5.6.890 rooted with an open source ICS rom. The 5.7.906 update had started to be pushed OTA. I ran RSD Lite and restored the phone to box stock 5.6.890. I then accepted and installed the OTA. Then re-rooted it.

Rez: It may be working for now but we don't the after-effect of it. I have that case earlier that his phone was rooted before. After trying to unroot it, the phone will not boot up. He's trying to update the phone but it cannot be updated anymore since the phone is not on. suggested to send it to our repair center but I set an expectation to him that it will be considered to be out of warranty already.

Me: RSD Lite will flash all partitions of the phone (radio, system, etc.) back to box stock as if it was purchased new.

Rez: That's a good experiment, Redsox985. How do you want me to help you with that?

Me: It's not an experiment. It works. I just used it. It unrooted my phone and flashed all partitions allowing me to accept the latest OTA.

Me: If I'm able to return to the OTA path, then how could receiving an ICS update (if one even comes) be any different?

Rez: ICS has not yet been announced, we don't have the list of enhancements yet what are included on the ICS. We don't have the information also what will not work once the ICS is installed on the phone that was rooted. We will keep you posted thru our website at www.motorola com for updates.

Me: It can be unrooted and restored to stock software to the point where an OTA will not be able to detect anything different. It's possible to flash box stock software to the phone. It rewrites all partitions.

Rez: I see. That's a good idea.

Me: So, can you speak on the likelihood of the D3 receiving official ICS? It can run it, it's been done. Why won't Moto even consider it?

Rez: We are following what's being updated to us. As I mentioned earlier the ICS update for Droid 3 is under evaluation and planning. If you have successfully done it by rooting, it's not from us.

Me: I know it's not official, I'm just wondering why it hasn't been done being that it's possible.

Rez: Because we are working on updates thoroughly. We don't want that we just send out updates with glitches.

Me: So, ICS for the D3 is being worked on?

Rez: Yes. That's part of evaluation.

Me: But it's possible that the update will just be killed internally before it ever is released?

Rez: I cant say that unless it happens. I don't want to give any false hopes. Because we are also waiting for that update.

Me: Can you estimate the D3's chances of receiving ICS?

Rez: 90 per cent it will receive it.

Me: Wow. I'm impressed. Thanks.

Me: Is that a hopeful or conservative estimate?

Rez: Hopeful.