Last December, I wrote an article that lists which Android devices would get the Android 4.0 of Ice Cream Sandwhich update.  It was mentioned that Sony UK announced that Sony Tablet S and P would be getting ICS but failed to confirm when it will be available.

To update on that matter, The Verge stated that information was passed onto them indicating that Tablets S and P “are already running ICS, being tested behind the scenes, though Sony wouldn’t be drawn on giving any more specific a release window than the spring.”

But not everything is peachy in Sony’s yard, as they face falling shares in a tough market, gleaning hope from their consolidated plans around their recently acquired Ericsson branch.  And that’s not all–Apple Insider reported that President of Sony Ericsson U.S. and Head of Americas Region Anderson Teixeira is now part of Apple’s team, as evidenced by his LinkedIn page stating that he is now “Head Latin America at Apple.”
Apple Insider also stated that until now, Apple has never had an official Latin America division manager.  Teixeira’s status update could be interpreted as Apple seeing growth in the Latin America market, so they want to focus on it.  Time can only tell if Sony was right in letting Teixeira go.

Verizon’s shaky Q4 sees Android sales fall to Apple

On other mobile news, Verizon Communications reported that during the fourth quarter of 2011, they added 1.2 million post-paid subscribers and activated over 4.3 million iPhones in that period.  You’d think that the iPhone is great for network providers, as it draws more subscribers, but it actually hurts their business.  Network companies like Verizon purchase the iPhone from Apple for about $500, which they would sell for about $199 that ties-up with a two-year plan.

James Ratcliffe, an analyst at Barclays Capital in New York puts it this way: “The average smartphone customer will spend about $2,000 over the two-year contract, if the subsidy is $400, you’re still getting $1,600, and that’s very cash-flow positive.”

That does sound positive for network carriers like Verizon, if all the post-paid subscribers stick to their plans, but unfortunately, not everyone can or does.  Verizon reported a loss of $2.02 billion.

Google, MIT open source App Inventor

On a lighter note, if you’re one of those people who are rarely satisfied by the apps available for Android devices, this just might be the app for you: the MIT App Inventor. As the name implies, the app allows users to make their own apps so they don’t have to rely on app developers to find the perfect app.

The official site announced that for now, limited supporting documentation is available for the code and they are currently not accepting contributions to it but it will be possible as soon as the MIT Center of Mobile Learning opens the App Inventor server to the public.  The code can be found here.

“We hope to nurture a robust and active open-source project eventually, but for now we don’t want to distract the MIT developers from their efforts to complete and deploy the large-scale public server. In the meantime, we’ll update the code periodically to match what’s running at the latest MIT experimental system. We’ve also created a Google Group here for people working with the code to relate their experiences with the code, ask questions, help each other, etc.,” stated the post on the site.