After announcing that the world’s first smartphone to operate on Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich), the Galaxy Nexus, is coming to South Africa, Samsung Electronics has now revealed that it plans to provide the Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) update for some of its Galaxy mobile devices during the first quarter of 2012.

This platform update will be made available for the Galaxy S II and Galaxy Note smartphones first during Q1 of next year, with other Galaxy devices to follow “soon” after. The list of Samsung’s ICS-upgradable mobile devices consists of the Galaxy S II, Galaxy S II LTE, Galaxy Note, Galaxy R, Galaxy Tab 10.1, Galaxy Tab 8.9, Galaxy Tab 7.7, as well as the Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus.

The Korean tech giant did not specify whether it will be making a stock version of Android 4.0 available or one that sports its TouchWiz interface. Samsung said that it will make separate announcements surrounding the OS update schedule for upgradable devices within each market, according to the market situation as well as the various carriers’ requirements. No local release info is available yet.

Ice Cream Sandwich powers both smartphones as well as tablets and brings a fresh new look and feel to Google’s mobile operating system. In terms of new features users can expect resizable widgets, improved multi-tasking, a new font optimised for HD displays, the use of adaptable onscreen buttons in place of hardware buttons and an enhanced web browsing experience thanks to a faster browser that can sync its bookmarks with Google Chrome.

Google also included functionality such as the Face Unlock feature with Android 4.0, which employs facial recognition technology and the front-facing camera to enable users to unlock their smartphone (or tablet) using their face. By making use of NFC technology, Android Beam allows users who possess an NFC-boasting smartphone to quickly share websites, apps or the latest trending YouTube videos with their friends by gently tapping their two phones together, back-to-back.

 

In related news Samsung Electronics also recently announced the local launch of the Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus tablet, which runs on Google’s Android 3.2 (Honeycomb) and like the Galaxy SII smartphone is powered by a 1.2 GHz dual-core application processor.