Google Nexus One Fails to Gatecrash Ice Cream Sandwich Party

Nexus One owners despair. Google's brand new mobile OS upgrade, Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich will not be coming to the Nexus One because it is too old, Google told the press.

The Android 4.0 OS is being launched with the release of the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Nexus smartphone, which is due to come out Nov. 30. Though the Nexus One will not be receiving the OS upgrade, the Nexus S will be getting Ice Cream Sandwich. The Nexus S will probably get the upgrade a few weeks after the Galaxy is launched.

The Nexus One was Google's first flagship phone when the company teamed up with manufacturer HTC to create it in 2010. Since then Google has partnered with Samsung to make the Nexus S, and the upcoming Galaxy Nexus.

Though the Nexus One is just under 2 years old, Android product management director Hugo Barra told The Telegraph it was just too old to run Ice Cream Sandwich. Nexus One users hoped they would be getting Android 4.0, but the One hasn't seen much love from Google for quite some time: Google closed the phone's support forums November 2010.

The operating system is thought through with the needs of the next three years in mind; it's a wholesale revamp of the way people interact with the phone, Barra told The Telegraph. It's something we've designed for the masses; it continues to cater for power users really well but the entry level users will be able to use it really well too and make the phone their own.

The Nexus One has become a favorite among Android software developers, since it was a pure Android device. Most Android powered phones have third-party interfaces. The Nexus One didn't have any of those modifications so it was the perfect testing ground for new apps. Developers will have to move to the new Galaxy Nexus which will also be a pure Android device.

Analysts have complained about fragmentation on the Android platform. About 43 percent of smartphones run the Android OS, or at least some version of it. With so many different versions of the phone running around, it is hard for some users to tell which apps will run on their specific version. And the release of Ice Cream Sandwich won't seem to solve the problem.

So it seems that Nexus One users will be stuck with the 2.3.6 version of Gingerbread.